Blind

Another big summer movie from Korea, and starring another one of my favourite actresses Kim Ha-neul.  Could this one raise the bar from the overwhelming feelings of adequacy and malaise I am getting from the Korean Film Industry this year?  It’s a thriller, which raised hopes a little, but the overall idea is a tad hackneyed.  Yet I always try to embrace a new film with an open mind – will my trust be rewarded, or once again betrayed?

In “Blind” (Or as I think the Korean title actually means “The Blind Witness”), we are introduced to trainee Policewoman Min Soo-ah (Kim Ha-neul), who goes AWOL from training to pull her fellow orphan and as-good-as Brother from taking part in an underground dancing competition.  In a fit of pique, she handcuffs him to the car, moments before they are involved in an accident.  This accident results in the death of her “brother”, and damages Soo-ah’s retina’s leaving her blind.  Skip forward three years, and we find her coping with her physical disability, but still haunted by the death she caused.  One night she is picked up by a strange Taxi driver, who seems to have unhealthy designs on her, but another road accident saves her.  However, she is awfully suspicious and tries to report this to an awfully disinterested Police Department.  The case is assigned to Detective Jo (Jo Hie-bong), and unkempt out-of-town Detective who is struggling to make his name.  Initially dismissive because of Soo-Ah’s blindness, he realises that she has picked up on other clues from her reliance on both her previous Police Training and heightened reliance on other senses.  But just as the case seems to be moving somewhere, another witness turns up, Kwon Ki-sub (Yoo Seung-ho), a young angry punk kid, whose visual account seems at odds with that of our sightless heroine.  Just as the case seems to be going nowhere, the mysterious taxi driver, actually a serial killer/rapist, decides to tie up the loose ends of Soo-ah and Ki-sub, leading to a game of cat-and-mouse.

I have some really mixed feelings about this film.  On the one hand it is a well put together, well produced thriller.  Kim Ha-neul puts in an excellent performance as our vision impaired heroine, mixing up her normal girl-next-door image with someone who is not only strong, but severely emotionally damaged.  Not only that, but it does not play too hard on her heightened senses, ensuring that much is also made of her Police Training.  The initial set-piece is good, and the central scene involving a chase through the subways assisted by iPhones is actually worth the price of admission alone.  The character of Detective Jo is also a huge amount of fun – initially he seems to be a bumbling loner, but it becomes quite clear he is far more from the Columbo School of Detection – his unkempt manner and disarming charm actually hide a mind which is dogged and razor sharp.  He does not need much convincing at all that there is merit in Soo-ah’s testimony.

Then again, it has some major faults.  The final set piece just does not quite have the same amount of tension that it should – it not only feels old and by the numbers, but it also is a bit amateur when introducing a plot element – this is something which is introduced early on in the film, but rather than bring it out again when it would give maximum effect, we are clumsily re-introduced to it some 20 minutes before it becomes important again.  The relationship between Soo-ah and Ki-sub is as subtle as a tin of spam (yes I get it – he is like her “brother”), and in fact the character of Ki-sub is awfully under developed, relying on the Yoo’ Seung-ho’s undeniable charm.

My biggest issue is with our Serial Killer.  To be honest, I never really understood him.  It is not that he is a total cipher – we do get to see him a lot – but I never once understood quite what he was doing and his motivations.  Why would he pick up a girl he ran over in a car accident?  Why would he draw attention to himself by attacking two witnesses that actually were simply cancelling each other out?  For someone who is obviously very meticulous and careful, he makes an awfully large number of huge blunders.  Worse though is the story problems with the character – when the Police work out his identity, it seems to me that he cannot possibly have the job he appears to have, given the fact he spent 4 years in Prison for an illegal activity (and yes, I am being rather obtuse as not to spoil, but if you watch it, you will know exactly what I mean).

Equally frustrating is that is obviously wants to go a little bit further than it is able to.  There are a couple of scenes that nearly get creepy and graphic, but it pulls its punches.  On the other hand, it does do something to one character, that I know just could not happen in a Western (and certainly a British) movie.  I’m pretty certain at least one storyline has been severely edited too – there is an odd moment between a female Police Officer and Soo-ah that is suggesting a connection between the two that is neither hinted at previously, not taken any further.

And then there is one final thing that bugs me.  It is explicitly stated very early on in the film that whilst Soo-ah would dearly love to rejoin the Police Force, and is stymied in her attempts to do so, it is not her blindness which is stopping this happening – it is rather her actions that led to the initial fatal accident.  So whilst numerous characters keep mentioning to her that she should rejoin, she keeps this information to herself – I understand that, and adds to the depth of her character.  Yet, in our One Year Later coda, everything seems to have changed.  That just does not make sense.

I actually rather liked this – it is not horrible, and there was enough in here for me to get lost in despite all it’s faults.  It is no “The Chaser” nor is it “I Saw The Devil”, but as a piece of Korean Popcorn, I think it is pretty good. Recommended, with reservations.

Most Wanted–Movie Marathon

A little change of pace here.  I was recently asked by Most Wanted, the blog of VoucherCodes.co.uk to contribute on a piece they were doing to advertise their new LoveFilm voucher.  The idea is that various film bloggers put together a small movie marathon to be enjoyed while tucked up in bed hiding from the seasonal inclement weather.  The brief was very open – just chose three films.  Obviously I wanted to talk about three Asian films, but the possibilities were endless.  What I decided to do in the end was use this as an opportunity for me to promote a Director who is not very well known in the West, by revisiting three of his films that I have looked at in the past.  For the uninitiated, I am going to look at some fabulous films from Edmond Pang Ho-Cheung, a ridiculously talented Hong Kong film maker.  He also has the advantage of not being restricted by genre – here we get a Drama about a very modern phenomenon, a Love Story with subtle social commentary and a clever take on the Slasher movie.  I find his style of film-making very intimate, he gently prods as social issues without lecturing, and brings out amazing performances from not only Actors you would expect them from, but also those that may be more limited in capabilities.

[And yes, this is pretty much content long term readers will have seen before slightly edited].

I will start with the interesting drama, Beyond Our Ken. It is a small story about the friendship between the titular Ken’s (Daniel Wu) ex-girlfriend, Chan (Gillian Chung), and his present paramour, Shirley (Höng Tao).  Ken does not appear to be a terribly nice chap, and has apparently posted naked pictures of Chan on the internet.  The girls get together to help Chan exact some kind of revenge, and form a strong bond whilst doing so.  If that was all the movie was about it would be great – but there is a final twist in the tale that raises it to fantastic.

Ho-Cheung Pang creates an almost voyeuristic view on proceedings.  For good portions of the movie you feel you are eavesdropping on private conversations.  He also shows huge range, able to display moments of drama, emotion and high comedy.

The real highlight of the movie is the realistic portrayal of the growing friendship between the two girls.  Even when the final act twist occurs, you still feel, despite it all, they are going to remain firm friends.  Both girls are fantastic, and C-Pop star Chung is far from overshadowed by her co-star.  In fact, this is easily the best performance I have seen by her.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the irony of Gillian Chung’s character being exposed in compromising positions online.  I guess sometimes life really DOES imitate art.  But the movie was made well before the scandal, so I guess we have to mark it down as one of life’s little ironies.

Please don’t get the idea that the film is seedy – far from it.  But is is honest, cynical, subtle and wonderful.

After that bit of drama, let us have a look at a delightful Romance.  "Love in a Puff" sets itself firmly in modern day Hong Kong. Modern anti-smoking legislation has driven the smoking workers to designated areas and alleyways, creating small areas where people enjoy a smoke, while exchanging stories and chit chat. Shopgirl Cherie (Miriam Yeung) stumbles upon a group of such people, including recently dumped advertising executive Jimmy (Shawn Yue). The pair hit it off immediately, and the film follows the next 7 days of their lives, as they begin a romantic relationship.

Much has been made of this film's language, which got it the dreaded Cat III rating in Hong Kong, which affected the attendances initially before word of mouth (and the internet) bought people into the cinema. Now sadly, I do not speak Cantonese, and the subtitles that I have are quite possibly not as strong as the words being spoken. However, the wordplay still feels modern and natural to me. The jokes seem genuinely funny, and unlike a lot of Hong Kong comedies, the subject matter seems universal, rather than relying on HK-specific pop-culture.
To be fair, not a lot happens in the film. The two characters meet, walk around a bit, smoke a lot, go to a birthday party, girl leaves her boyfriend, they fall out, etc. etc. However, as all Edmond Pang films that I have seen, the gritty, voyeuristic style leaves me gripped and engrossed. Remember, this is the man who got an amazing performance out of Gillian Cheung! Think of it as a cross between Wong Kar Wai and Woody Allen, and if that appeals, I promise you that you will enjoy this. The use of a pseudo-documentary to look inside the various participants minds is not a distraction (if not entirely original), it just adds layers to various characters, especially those whore are not directly important to the story.

Shawn Yue gets a lot of love on this blog, and rightfully so. Here he plays a man who is obviously in love with his job - his friends and ex-girlfriend all seem to be based at his company. He seems to be hurting from his girlfriends infidelity, and is naturally worried about the sudden intensity of his new relationship with Cherie. This is maybe not his most powerful role, but it is actually rather nicely underplayed, and most importantly realistic. Miriam Yeung is however fantastic. She is funny, flirty, a good friend, obviously stuck in a dead relationship. Her character seems so well fleshed out, and whilst she is not unattractive, she is not an unobtainable beauty, yet she just glows on the screen - a person you would love to hang around with. For me, this is HER movie.

You do have to let a few things go. Everything moves REALLY quickly - within four days of meeting Jimmy, Cherie is leaving her boyfriend of 5 years, and getting Jimmy to pick her up. I'll take this both as a cinematic short-cut, and maybe a meta-commentary on the speed of modern life. It certainly is an interesting variation on the years that love affairs can take to be requited in say a Korean film.

It is also a film that may be cursed by some of it's contemporary elements - txt messaging and Facebook are major devices used to move the plot forward - I do wonder how kindly these elements will be thought of in 10 years time.  The smoking subject matter may well concern a few people. For these people, smoking is a huge part of their social lives, and other than reflecting on the effect it has on Cherie's Asthma, the film never once delves into the health aspects. I found this rather refreshing to be honest - smoking is part of these peoples lives, we maybe do not need a public health announcement in EVERY film. This is a film about modern life in Hong Kong for a certain type of 20-something - it is NOT a lecture in the perils of the cancer stick.  In short - this is a funny, charming and utterly beguiling movie.

It always feels right to end any Movie Marathon with a horror film.  "Dream Home" is the story of telemarketer Cheng Li-sheung (Josie Ho).  She does not have a great life - she is from a poor background, suffered a lot of family pressure, has a dead end telemarketing job and is having an affair with one of Hong Kong's sleaziest married men (Eason Chan).  The only thing that seems to keep her going in life is the desire to own a specific apartment - one far outside of her price range, and frankly even her friends call her obsessed about it.  Even when she has the opportunity to fulfil that dream, it is taken away from her, and she snaps, embarking on a night of escalating murder.

I am not sure if the above synopsis actually clues you in to what this film is.  It is part dark and gritty social satire about the housing situation in Hong Kong, and part Slasher movie.  I don't know of many Hong Kong slasher films, the Asian horror genre seems to have other preoccupations (Ghosts, Long Haired Girls and currently in Japan, wild and crazy splatter with girls in Bikinis).  The implementation of this one is pretty good.

The film eschews the normal conventions of the Slasher film.  Firstly, it places the perpetrator front and centre.  Cheng Li-sheung is the lead character, and this is her story.  The story is structured in a somewhat unusual way for this type of film - instead of starting slow and building up to the night of terror, we alternate between Cheng Li-sheung's past and the gory details of the night of terror.  It's an interesting way of structuring the film, as it means that the horror sections are a constant throughout the film.  It does also mean that the horror is always visceral, we don't get an awful lot of in-scene tension and build up.

And the gore is graphic.  Whilst it is usually done with a tongue in the directors cheek, this is not a film for the faint-hearted - eyeballs get stabbed out, entrails are spilled.  But the director does take pains to coat the graphic scenes with a little humour - I enjoyed one dying man's attempt at a final cigarette.  Cheng Li-sheung is not a superhuman - her victims fight back and she gets hurt in the process.  Killing someone is a messy business.  Another delightful touch was to turn the convention of the killer's sudden late return from the dead to one of the victims.

Josie Ho is utterly superb.  She is focused when she needs to be, but there are scenes where she really gets to show her acting chops - I defy you not to feel her pain at her Mother's funeral, or when she takes the hard decision to aid in her sick father's death.

Style-wise this is classic Edmond Pang Ho-Cheung - the camerawork is accomplished, but still voyeuristic.  I love watching his films for this reason, you are becoming a spy in the lives of others.  There are loads of clever touches - often we see Ho via a series of mirrors, displaying her fracturing psyche.  At other times we see her revulsion to smoke (which we find out later was part of the cause of her Fathers illness).  We even get a disturbingly cute scene where the childhood Ho is encouraged to swear.  You could strip away the gore elements, and still get a moving and accomplished movie.

Even the end makes for something special, where it does not end how you expect, but even those who do get out alive are going to be punished because of the world's economy meltdown.

Now, reading around on the Internet, I see a lot of somewhat mixed reviews.  It is not entirely the case, but I see a lot of drama fans disturbed by the gore aspects, and splatter fans unhappy about the drama aspects.  I can see these criticism, but for me it all worked together to generate a fantastic experience.  All I worry about is if this is going to be a DVD that I will come back to again and again?  It is not flawless, as it is possibly a little too depressing (I can't think of any really likeable characters, and there is a sense that all the victims are the complete innocents here).

The only problem with my film choices is that outside of Asia, they are not all readily available.  Happily, the final film, Dream Home can be found at Lovefilm.  Maybe give that a try, and then explore further afield!

Lust, Caution

One of the oddities of this blog is that there are a few internationally known Asian Directors and Actors I have hardly spoken about.  John Woo is the glaring omission (which I will rectify very soon), and is is Chow Yun-Fat and Bruce Lee.  In some ways, at least internationally, one of the biggest omissions is Ang Lee.  This Taiwanese Director is possibly the most lauded in terms of big Hollywood awards, and he has been able to work within the Western and Asian Markets at will.  I have enjoyed much of his work, although I cannot say that I have ever been blown away by any of it – he is excellent at character work and bringing great performances out of his cast – even “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” that did utterly impress me on first seeing it has lost much of its lustre now I am conversant with the films that inspired it.

Which brings us to to his most controversial film, the Espionage Drama “Lust, Caution”.  On its release it gained a certain notoriety for it's rather explicit sex scenes, and frankly I was just not interested in seeing it.  But now I am aware of the work of the leads, and much more understanding of the subject matter, I put nearly three hours of my life aside today to see if this was a film that transcended this controversy.  

“Lust, Caution” is really a film of two halves.  the first hour or so tells a tale of a group of students in Japanese Occupied China that are inspired to take on real life roles as potential assassins of Mr Yee (Tony Leung), a collaborator with the occupying Chinese forces.  This motley crew assign young actress Wong Chia Chi (Tang Wei) to pretend to be a Hong Kong Businessman’s wife, Mrs Mak, involve herself into the circle of friends of Mr Yee’s wife (Joan Chen), and basically seduce Mr Yee.  Then when she can trap him alone, kill him.  The problem is that not only is Mr Yee a little too careful to fall for their plan, they really are pretty poor assassins and spies.  The plan fails and end horribly, driving Wong Chia Chi back to China.  The second half picks up the story 3 years later, where we finally see the impact of the Japanese occupation – slaughter on the street, rationing, the attempts of the Japanese to replace the Chinese Culture with their own.  Chia Chi is rediscovered by her gang, now more fully fledged members of the resistance, and is asked to restart her role as Mrs Mak.  She agrees, and this time, the now much more important Yee takes her as his mistress, and they embark on an initially violent, but eventually compelling affair.  However, will Chia Chi be able to reconcile her emotions and her role as the lure that will lead her lover to his proposed death?

This is one long film.  Clocking in at well over two and a half hours long, even the most avid film fan is going to struggle with this.  It is performed at a languid pace, with only the briefest moments of action.  It really is a tale of two characters, that really do change and grow as the film progresses.  Tony Leung is always excellent, but here he is frankly exceptional.  He starts the film almost as a silent cipher, and well dressed black devil.  But as we learn more about him, as he slowly opens up, we see a man tortured by the role he has to play, a self-loathing man, unable to express himself fully.  The real star is Tang Wei.  At the time she was an unknown film-wise (although she has plenty of TV Work under her belt), and whilst I take the tales of her being selected from 10,000 actresses with a pinch of hyperbolic salt, the casting is perfect.  She too changes as a person.  She starts as a young actress full of joy and excitement of her first performance, and ends the film confused and lost within the role she knows she has to play, and the emotions that being so deeply undercover have awoken within her.  The tragedy that this role led her to being blacklisted by the Chinese for so long means that only now are we getting to see the performances that this movie promised (although I see she was cut from her latest outing, again for explicitness).

As I have mentioned it, lets talk about the sex.  There are four sex scenes in the film, one is gut wrenching (as she has to lose her virginity to a fellow agent in order to know how to fulfil her role), and is upsetting (as Yee basically rapes her), and two are very graphic indeed.  Whilst I understand them in terms of what the Director is trying to achieve in terms of character and emotion, I do wonder if maybe they went too far.  He must have known the furore that they would create, and would lead to both a loss of potential Cinema business (in the USA) and severe cuts in some Asian regions.  Looking around the net, the cuts are actually more than just the sex scenes, one totally changes the emotional impact of the conclusion!  One wonders that with a little more restraint, a little less pubic hair on display and different shot selection, that the film could have had a wider audience (one this Ang Lee can provide is an international audience for what is a very Chinese film).  Saying that, it sold gangbusters on DVD, so maybe there was method to the madness.

Despite this, that is not my biggest criticism of the film.  My real issue is that had I watched it upon release, I don’t think I would have understood the time period properly.  The Japanese Occupation of China has been rich pickings for recent Chinese Cinema (the Ip Man films, Cow), yet back when this was released, I would have been utterly ignorant of it.  It lacks that little bit of exposition which would have helped the casual observer.  Of course to me now it is all obvious, but 5 years ago?  I’m not so sure.  For a film of this length not to spend just a little bit of time contextualising the film is somewhat puzzling.

Looks-wise the film is utterly gorgeous, the period detail mesmerising.  Lee cut his teeth on period Dramas, so that he pulls off something closer to home comes as no surprise.

I really enjoyed the first half of the film – the hopeless attempts of the initial plan are both charming and to be honest probably painfully accurate.  The second half I struggled a little more with, not because it was bad, but to be honest I have seem a lot of spy films where the undercover agent loses touch with themselves and the role they are playing.  Luckily, the film rescues itself with a quite devastating ending, that not only shocks the brain but tugs on the emotions too.  It is only right that we end with the haunted character of Mr Yee, again caught between his Duty and his Love.

“Lust, Caution” is a tough watch for many reasons.  It is far too long, the sex scenes I think provide a distraction, and most of the other characters are very one-dimensional.  But it does have two fantastic performances at the core of the movie, and despite how I may have phrased things above, it is never boring.  I have spent the day wondering how to rate the film though, because although there is much to laud about it, I am not sure I will ever sit down and watch it again.  For that reason, although I appreciate the craft in Direction and Acting it is Recommended, but no more. 

Starry Starry Night

My favourite kind of film – that unexpected treat, which I discover with no knowledge of what world I am about to enter, and find myself not only charmed, but that it hits some very personal notes for me also.  I have read some rather middling reviews for the film, but for me this was a treat of the highest order, and a personal journey I am glad I took.

“Starry Starry Night” is yet another film based on a picture book by Jimmy Liao (see previous reviews of the sublime “Turn Left, Turn Right” and the less balanced “The Sound of Colours”).  Thirteen year old Mei (Josie Xu)* is going through a bit of a crisis.  Her doting Grandfather is dying, her Parents and on the verge of Divorce, and she feels alienated from her peers.  She hides away somewhat in a world of her own, often populated by imaginary characters based on the toys made by her Grandfather.  When a new boy, Jay (Eric Lin) joins her class, she finds a kindred spirit, and a friendship, maybe even romance blossoms.  When their school project is ruined by some of the other children in school, they decide to take a trip to her now deceased Grandfather’s Mountain Home.  What life lessons will the two learn on this journey?

I’m not usually one for putting too much of myself obviously in my reviews, but in this case I feel it is important.  My parents split up when I was just a little younger than Mei.  It confused me, mostly because I knew no-one else that had been through this.  Although I was not alone as Mei (I have a sibling), so much of this called out to me.  My parent’s divorce happened with me ignoring the signs, arguments behind closed doors, difficult silences at mealtimes, an almost gentle decay of the family unit until that moment of separation.  I too found it hard to communicate with my peers about this, and struggled to deal with it, and like Mei took comfort in an imaginary world, and occasionally obsessive behaviour.  So, you could say this one really spoke to me.

The film is beautifully shot, and sparingly uses fantasy imagery to show Mei’s state of mind – sometimes emotions are betrayed by animated shadows, or a walk through the streets with her Origami Animals, or even a train journey through Van Gogh’s titular painting.  These moments are not only gorgeous and fantastical, but they are also used with restraint, more like punctuation than the story itself.

Josie Xu is equally as beguiling as the lead character – she is often a girl of few words, except when she is with Jay (when you cannot shut her up) – her performance seems honest and true.  She has a chemistry with newcomer Eric Lin, which belies their ages, and makes even a potentially difficult scene in the woods actually seem very touching and poignant.

Rene Liu is also excellent as the Mother, again reminding me of my own mother who took refuge at this time in memories and alcohol.  What is important though is that we only ever really see or hear things from Mei’s point of view – a mumbled argument behind a door, the way things that used to be commonplace (like the family doing a jigsaw together) suddenly disappear from the agenda – so these adults are sketchy at best, but for me that is the point.  At Thirteen we are on the cusp of adulthood physically, but mentally we have a long way to go before we are mature enough to understand the subtleties of emotions and relationships and love.

I will say that the actual night in the woods is not quite as successful as it should have been, it is a little too dark (literally rather than metaphorically) to always understand what is going on, and whilst I loved the way Mei’s eventually fever dream played out, I think I would have liked to have seen just one more scene between her and Jay.  This is because it is a friendship I can believe in.  Not only that, but in Jay’s stoic silence about his own family breakdown, he showed a different way of dealing with it – for him it was in a silent rage, occasionally exploding in a basically impotent rage.  I was in that place too.

There is a little coda to the film, where “years later”, a grown up Mei (LunMei Kwai) finds some closure to the events in the film – I am torn as to whether this is a lovely way to close off the film, or maybe I would have preferred the film to have ended with Mei’s speech about being Thirteen and some things just left up to me to digest.  It is a lovely moment though, so right now I am glad it is there.

To be honest, this is one of the most beautiful and touching films that I have seen this year – although I am certain my feelings for it are amplified because of the emotional connotations it has for me.  Yet, it did not make me sad, it made me nostalgic, and maybe even happy that the feelings I had back then, the small fantasy life I withdrew into, was not not that unusual.  Highly Recommended

* I notice the IMDB entry is a bit confusing, as young Miss Xu gets two entries, one as Jiao Xu – it is however the same person – she did indeed play a little boy in “CJ7”

The Japanese Wife

Up till now I have concentrated pretty much on films from South-east Asia, but I am aware of the cinema of the Sub-Continent also.  Even though I probably know more people of Indian Origin than any other ethnicity, my explorations into the second largest Film Industry in the world has been muted at best.  The odd subtitled movie when stuck in some far-flung Hotel Room, or maybe even twenty minutes when I scroll down to the bottom of my Digital TV Programme Guide.  Frankly most of the output of Bollywood just does not appeal – the films are too long, and pretty much everyone seems to have the urge to spring a Song-&-Dance Number on me at least once.  But, this one attracted my interest for a couple of reasons – firstly, it is in Bengali (as opposed to the normal Bollywood Hindi), and more obviously, the subject matter meant that it might just fit into the more oriental persuasions of my blog.

“The Japanese Wife” tells us the story of Snehamoy (Rahul Bose), a poor Village Schoolteacher from the West Bengal Region of India.  He is a painfully shy man, an orphan who lives with his Aunt.  He starts up an old fashioned penpal relationship with a young Japanese Girl, Miyage (Chigusa Takaku).  They write letters to each other regularly, and a bond forms.  When The Aunt (Moushumi Chatterjee) starts to introduce Snehamoy to a young woman called Sandhya (Raima Sen) with the intention of marriage, this prompts Miyage to ask Snehamoy to become her Husband – even though they have never met, and frankly are unlikely to.  He accepts, and their relationship continues for the next 15 years, and is even accepted by his fellow villagers.  However, difficulties arise when Miyage falls ill, and Sandhya returns to his life as a Widowed mother.  Can the unusual relationship survive all these brickbats? Can true love exist in such an unconventional format?

I have a feeling there are going to be three issues that the casual viewer is going to have with this film: 

1) I will deal with the Elephant in the room first.  The plot is kind of rather ridiculous.  Or as ridiculous as you want it to be.  Because Snehamoy really does live in a terribly remote area – there is no electricity, no computers, no internet.  Even a telephone call will involve a visit to a nearby town and the use of a 3rd party.  Whilst their initial contact is not truly explained (I think it was done via a magazine), I actually can believe that two terribly lonely people could meet in this way, and find that using letters to be a way they can communicate with each other.  In fact I am sure some married couples could probably benefit from this.

2) I mentioned up front that the film is in Bengali.  Actually this is only party true.  Whilst a good 25% of the film is indeed in Bengali, the rest is actually in English – with Snehamoy and Miyage narrating their letters to each other.  As English is neither of their first language, this presents a level of awkwardness as a listener – but also means that the actually words between the two has a refreshing honesty, not hidden behind flowery phrases, never complicated by metaphor.

3) Its not much longer than 100 minutes long, but the pace is languid.  There is no action (other than a Kite Fight), and our main characters never even meet.  Yet I found the film beguiling and beautiful.  I was actually surprised how beautifully shot the film was, with both wonderful glimpses into the Bengali traditional way of life, along with some brilliant dramatic moments reminiscent of 1950’s American Melodramas.

As you can see, I am apologising for it, as I really found myself enjoying this.  Rahul Bose makes for an engaging lead – genuinely nice but painfully shy.  The experienced Moushumi Chatterjee is actually brilliant, and steals every moment she is on screen.  The films real star though is Raima Sen, who starts as a minor character, but grows as the film progresses into a threatening presence as “the other woman”.  Chigusa Takaku does fine as her character, but as she only interacts physically with other cast members so very rarely, she has little more to offer than either look radiant or pained and suffering.

It is a lovely movie all round, as long as you can accept the basic premise.  It asks all sorts of questions about love, and about the concepts of marriage (both love-based and arranged).  It does not hold back, dealing with Snehamoy’s sexual frustration and his impotence in dealing with Miyage’s illness.  It allows itself time to poke a little fun at the various different kinds of medical care available in India, and also uses the format to spread a little education about the Bengali way of life.

This one is Recommended, as long as you look at my three points above, and think you can handle it, I think you will have a great time with this film.  Be warned though – bring a few tissues.

Capsule Comments–Overheard, Au Revoir Taipei and Balzac & The Little Seamstress

It has been a while since I took the capsule approach but been a little busy with work, although I have managed to fit some films in.  Usual rules apply – I may one day come back to these in a fuller manner, but it is unlikely.

Overheard

Bought to you from the makers of “Infernal Affairs”, this is a complex little thriller, following an investigation into a potential Stock Market Scam.  Our investigating team are full of quirks though – leader Johnny (Ching Wan Lau) is having an affair with the estranged wife of his best friend, Gene (Louis Koo) has a sick child and finds out he too is terminally ill and Max (Daniel Wu) is struggling to keep up with the financial expectations of his prospective Father-in-Law.  So when they get wind of an insider trading tip, they decide to take advantage.  However, it all goes wrong, and their attempts to cover up their mistake leads to the criminals exacting revenge on the threesome and their families.

It is pretty darn good, with strong performances all round (even the oft maligned Michael Wong is great as the mastermind), including a nice performance by Jingchu Zhang.  But several things stop it being truly great.  The underlying plot is not too well realised, concentrating (for once) maybe too much on the strong characterisation of not only our three main protagonists, but also a number of secondary characters.  It also has an ending which although is kind of exciting, really does not make an awful lot of logical sense.  Recommended though, and expect a fuller review of the in-name-only sequel soon.

Au Revoir Taipei

Poor Kai (Jack Yao) has seen his girlfriend go to Paris to further her education, leaving him to spend his nights alone in a bookstore learning French.  Pretty Store Assistant Susie (Amber Kuo) seems keen on him, but he is immune to her charms.  He borrows money from local crime boss Brother Bao (Frankie Gao) to go visit his girlfriend after she dumps him on the phone.  In return, he is to take a mysterious package with him.  However, this attracts the attentions of both the Police and Bao’s Nephew Hong (Lawrence Ko) who wants to stop being the legitimate face of his Uncle’s organisation and get him and his boys a “Sweet Score”.  Cue a chase around Taipai one night for Kai, his best friend (Paul Chiang)and the unwitting Susie.

It really is the most beautiful and gentle of comedies, evoking a real sense of love for Taipei.  It is colourful and noisy and just overwhelmingly like candyfloss.  The problem is that there never really is any sense of threat about proceedings, which makes for a pleasant enough journey, but means it just lacks that special extra thing which would elevate this.  Jack Yao isn’t quite strong enough to carry the film, but Lawrence Ko is brilliant and I challenge you not to fall in love with Amber Kuo.  It is a film to make you smile rather than laugh out loud, and I recommend it with just a touch of caution. However, I look forward to seeing what Director Arvin Chen produces next

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

One of those films I have meant to watch for ages.  It is 1971 China where Luo (Chen Kun) and Ma (Liu Ye) are sent to the countryside by the Party for re-education.  The both fall for the beguiling young daughter of the Tailor from the neighbouring village (Zhou Xun).

Sadly I wanted to like this one far more than I did.  Based on the directors semi-autobiographical Novel, the individual vignettes are fine, helped by the stunning landscape.  Yet, I felt there was a cruelty about it – the city boys seemed to be always looking down on the villagers, and even when their desire to educate the Little Seamstress backfires on them, I felt no sense of regret, or even learning.

The lead males are sadly anodyne at best, though Zhou Xun is wonderfully effervescent – a far cry from those cold femme fatales she tends to play in more modern times.  It also has a really odd penultimate scene, set in the present day, which makes no sense when it is followed up by a final scene showing the final fate of our heroine.

It is interesting, and at times lovely, but the whole thing felt like a series of recollections rather than an engaging story arc.  Worse, I got mixed feeling about the re-education programme – an evil thing – where I got the sense that the lead was actually feeling this was the best days of his life, and that as the boys were so abusive and cruel, that Mao may have had a point.  Mildly recommended, mostly for the beautiful vistas and a glowing Zhou Xun.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Back at the beginning of the year, there were a number of films I was really looking forward to, and so far each and every one of them has disappointed.  This was one of them, and to be honest, I already knew it was going to be a let down.  Reviews had been mediocre at best, and frankly, when I can get the DVD from the USA just before it even gets a UK cinema release, then things are not usually positive.  But maybe, just maybe, everyone was wrong, and this adaptation of a novel I rather enjoyed would actually turn out to be ok!

‘Fraid not.

“Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” decides to use two different stories over three different timelines.  At the core of it, is the story written in the novel, about women in early 19th Century rural China, particularly the journey of Lily (Li Bing-bing), a poor girl whose status is elevated by the almost perfect binding of her feet, her elevation by a fortuitous Laotong match with a girl named Snow Flower (Jun Ji-hyun) and a marriage that has produced sons.  Over time she survives poverty, disease, and uprising and the difficulties created by her friend’s less fortunate life.  Its an interesting story, and would make a fascinating and lush historical film.

The problem is, the filmmakers felt for some reason this was not enough.  So this story is told via the story written by a modern Korean girl called Sophia (Also Jun Ji-hyun) who had entered a more modern version of a Laotong relationship with Nina (also Li Bing Bing).  So we get the story of their childhood friendship, along with the present day tale – where Sophia and Nina have become estranged, and an accident to Sophia brings them back together.  Except Sophia is now in a coma, leaving Nina attempting to piece together not only the story that her friend has written, but also what has happened in the time since their friendship broke down.

There are two fundamental problems here.  Firstly, the Novel has enough content for a nigh-on two hour movie.  By adding all the extra story (which I assume is trying to draw parallels between the struggles of modern and ancient Chinese women), it means we get some kind of bullet point version of the novel.  Most of the main story beats are here, but we get nothing of the character development.  The Novel is narrated by Lily, and it is through her we gain understanding of the rules and mores of the era.  Here we have nothing.  In fact, if I had not read the novel, I am not sure I would have even understood half of what was going on in these flashbacks.  Secondly, the modern day story is hardly worth our time, its is underdeveloped and to be honest, utterly dull.  Nothing in it really has the same impact as the ancient events – cheating on an exam hardly counts as the same trauma as a family ravaged by disease.

Fundamentally – you never get any sense of the depth of feeling that is built between the two girls.  You never really understand how Lily has risen and how Snow Flower has fallen.  And the core moment in the novel, of Snow Flowers rejection of Lily (and the reasons why) is really stupidly handled, and is done in a way that lacks and sort of revelation.  The modern day story is even weaker, and does not even bother to give us any sense of reconciliation, despite the final scene.

I could list all the things the film ignores – Lily’s relationship with her Mother, her Mother-in-law, with her children, the way she she’s Snow Flower’s husband in a new light once a tragedy strikes.  Bits of it are there, but it is realised pretty woefully.  Whole concepts described in the Novel are hardly explored, critically the whole idea of the Nüshu language only understood by women and indeed the importance of the Secret Fan itself.

Li Bing Bing is actually very good in all her various roles, and Jun Ji-hyun does OK, but she seems glaringly underwritten in her guise as the titular Snow Flower and as she spends one timeline in a coma, she has little to offer.  A strange cameo by Hugh Jackman is fine, but seems a little out of place, and no other character is really given any time to shine whatsoever (other than Vivian Wu’s Aunt – who thinking about it as I write this has had her character moved from the Ancient China setting to the present day, and only seems to be an exposition device).

Is it an awful film?  No of course not – it has at least one strong performance, the soundtrack is lovely and the ancient China scenes are beautiful.  Its failing is that it did not have the courage to stick to the source material, probably scared that a film in Chinese, starring relative unknowns (in the West) just was not going to pull in the crowds.  To be fair, they were probably correct, but by golly – why even bother?  At the end of the day, it is pretty, but also pretty boring.  Not Recommended.  Go read the novel.

Mr Vampire

This year for my Saturday Night Halloween choice I was at a bit of a quandary about what to watch.  I have actually seen a fair few horror movies recently, and frankly they have not cut the mustard.  Then, I came across something that enabled my past and my present to come fortuitously together.  I have recently been reading Kim Newman’s rather fabulous Novel “Anno Dracula”.  It’s a highly recommended read, placing itself in an Alternate Universe where Dracula survived the end of Bram Stokers Novel, and was able to effectively become the ruler of Victorian England.  Mixing it in with the other great Villain of the day, “Jack the Ripper”, the novel cleverly mixes in all sorts of characters, both real and those from fiction (so we have a shadowy underworld ruled by Moriarty and Fu Manchu, as well as various characters from all sorts of Vampiric fiction, from Varney the Vampire to Blacula).  In a couple of Chapters one of our protagonists is set upon my a Chinese Vampire, which was an obvious play on the “Mr Vampire” films from the 1980’s.  This struck a chord with me, as I remember watching a couple of them in my teens, late night on a minor TV Channel on my Black and White ‘Portable’ television set I was allowed in my bedroom.  I remembered little more than the “Hopping Vampires” (Jiang Shi), so it felt like a good time to rediscover this little classic.

The story of “Mr Vampire” goes something like this.  Master Gau (Lam Ching-ying) runs a Mortuary, assisted by his less than able employees, Chou (Chin Siu-hou) and Man Choi (Ricky Hui), along with his rather fetching unibrow..  After some initial fun with some animated corpses, the gang are asked to rebury the Father of a wealthy businessman, whose very attractive daughter Ting Ting (Moon Lee) is taken a fancy to by Man Choi.  However, our corpse is actually one of the Living Dead, and he starts a rampage, taking the life of the Businessman (who is reanimated) and infecting Man Choi.  Can the gang save the day with their Kung Fu, anti_vampire tricks and frankly wacky hi-jinks?  And can Chou survive his seduction by a rather sexy Ghost (Pauline Wong)?

They just do not make films like this anymore.  And for once I mean this literally – in this world of the Mainland ruling Hong Kong, Ghosts and Vampires are just total no-nos.  And this film shows what a complete shame that is.  Sure it has a spooky undercurrent, but it is just full of joy and fun.  It is totally silly, at times makes no sense, But it has those elements which make Hong Kong films of this era so special – a sense of kinship and no little (albeit doomed) romance.

In fact, that is what surprised me the most.  Two Thirds of the way through the film, a brand new story is introduced, of a seductive ghost who basically is going to drain the bewitched Chou’s life-force away by constant ‘bedroom fun’.  Now in many films this can really disrupt the flow, and seem a little erroneous, but here is not only worked as a change of pace, but care was taken to tie it back into the main story, plus it led to a rather run special effects sequence (come on – who isn’t entertained by a ghost who can use her detached head as a projectile weapon?). 

It isn’t the most polished of productions – the wobbly sets are hilariously visible, and there are wires in some of the Kung Fu sequences that have not even attempted to be hidden and visible wires, but for me this is all part of the charm.  As a horror film, is is not exactly scary, but there are some moments of peril, along with some decent makeup and some fairly impressive kung fu.

It is very funny, and it plays well to a Western Audience.  The physical gags are pretty universal, and even those dependant on wordplay were easy to understand (such as Ting Ting being mistaken for a Lady of the Night, or a crooked Rice Seller being caught out by his own sons ineptitude).  A little bit of Wikipedia helped me understand the various ways to ward off the walking dead (and whilst inky string may sound a little bizarre, is it really that much odder than our Western concept of Garlic warding off a Transylvanian Bloodsucker?).  As I understand it, the film took a few of the ideas, added some twists of its own, and basically set the film standard for the ‘rules’ in these kinds of movie.

Now I really enjoyed this, and was pleasantly surprised on how well it stood up to my modern eye.  It did let itself down in the end, and it just ended mid action, with no resolution to one huge plotline, but that really is par for the course in these kinds of films.  I see there are 4 direct sequels, plus some spin offs, and a re-imagining.  I am not sure I am going to try them all (well I know one I definitely will), but for this Halloween – Highly Recommended.