1/31/11
Let The Bullets Fly (让子弹飞) Review
Jiang Wen is an acknowledged genius of Chinese cinema, if not for all of cinema. Anyone who has seen Devils at the Doorstep should attest to that. There had been no other film like it, and there very well may not be another film like it either. The greatness of that film has solidified Jiang Wen’s stature, even if he has not been very prolific since then (partly due to government restrictions, no doubt) His latest blockbuster, Let The Bullets Fly, has broken all sorts of Chinese box office records. But despite its success, I feel with certain regret that the idiosyncrasies of a genius ended up proving to be hindrances in the construction of this film. I simply left the theater, feeling that it was a fun movie with many mis-directed attempts at genius.
Jiang Wens brilliance is exuberant, and he may have become a filmmaker very much aware of his brilliance, and he makes a conscious effort to emulate and duplicate that brilliance. In this sense, he has become a Tarantino instead of Jiang Wen. And the very film he decides to do that in, is a mix-genre film. Mix-genre blockbuster is a new territory for Chinese cinema. The film encapsulates American western, Chinese martial art, slapstick, and contemporary action. However, I don't believe Chinese cinema has acquired the right filmic language or culture, to imitate a multifaceted Western production successfully in a Chinese manner. Even for American filmmakers this is a difficult task, and only a few directors can successfully manage the creation of such a film.
Jiang Wen’s obsession with Tarantino is apparent in many aspects of Let The Bullets Fly. Story has it that Jiang has a picture of him and Tarantino in his office, no doubt serving as cinematic inspiration for what can be achieved as top entertainment in today’s film world. This obsession has produced some good results. Case it point, the film’s perfect casting: every supporting character brings a unique set of looks, physical ability, and cunning to his role. All together the set of characters brim with a whimsical perfection that rivals Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds. In a way, this is the Chinese Inglorious Basterds. There is masculine ruggedness, there is cinematic self-reference, urban wit, and there is Tarantino-like vibrancy and exaggeration, abruptness, and all the while, top-notch intensity in every act.
A high production value, glossy, ostensibly Western art direction is sure to please Chinese audiences spoiled likewise by Hollywood imports. When it comes to looks, you can trust that Jiang Wen assembles the best in the Chinese film industry (although the CGI work is a bit shoddy). However, much of the wit is superficial, and his normally biting, satirical gags here come of only half as successful as those from Devils. With the material at hand, the film feels to be lacking simply, a soul. A style similar to Devil at the Doorstep, more down and dirty instead of the too-pretty-to-get-dirty, could have created a deeper resonance with both thinking and non-thinking audiences. China is not a bright sunny place like the American West. Jiang Wen is naturally a more sensitive and political figure than Tarantino, but I feel that in the creation of this film, he watched too much Kill Bill, but too little of his previous work.
The convoluted politics is handled by too much exposition, the more charismatic characters are killed too fast, choreography of gun fights seem abrupt and inadequate. Fast paced, but shoddy editing doesn't negate the problem completely, and finally, Jiang Wen seems to have become a director who believes that repetition of his favorite shots is a gift to the audience. Tarantino knows when he has pushed a scene to the edge of intolerance, while Jiang Wen marches on. One get the feeling that he is in too much of a rush to say too much, but couldn't find an eloquent way to tell all the stories and ends up sputtering. There’s plenty of spits and grunts, but not a lot of articulate words. A clumsy but energetic lover is this film.
Jiang Wens brilliance is exuberant, and he may have become a filmmaker very much aware of his brilliance, and he makes a conscious effort to emulate and duplicate that brilliance. In this sense, he has become a Tarantino instead of Jiang Wen. And the very film he decides to do that in, is a mix-genre film. Mix-genre blockbuster is a new territory for Chinese cinema. The film encapsulates American western, Chinese martial art, slapstick, and contemporary action. However, I don't believe Chinese cinema has acquired the right filmic language or culture, to imitate a multifaceted Western production successfully in a Chinese manner. Even for American filmmakers this is a difficult task, and only a few directors can successfully manage the creation of such a film.
Jiang Wen’s obsession with Tarantino is apparent in many aspects of Let The Bullets Fly. Story has it that Jiang has a picture of him and Tarantino in his office, no doubt serving as cinematic inspiration for what can be achieved as top entertainment in today’s film world. This obsession has produced some good results. Case it point, the film’s perfect casting: every supporting character brings a unique set of looks, physical ability, and cunning to his role. All together the set of characters brim with a whimsical perfection that rivals Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds. In a way, this is the Chinese Inglorious Basterds. There is masculine ruggedness, there is cinematic self-reference, urban wit, and there is Tarantino-like vibrancy and exaggeration, abruptness, and all the while, top-notch intensity in every act.
A high production value, glossy, ostensibly Western art direction is sure to please Chinese audiences spoiled likewise by Hollywood imports. When it comes to looks, you can trust that Jiang Wen assembles the best in the Chinese film industry (although the CGI work is a bit shoddy). However, much of the wit is superficial, and his normally biting, satirical gags here come of only half as successful as those from Devils. With the material at hand, the film feels to be lacking simply, a soul. A style similar to Devil at the Doorstep, more down and dirty instead of the too-pretty-to-get-dirty, could have created a deeper resonance with both thinking and non-thinking audiences. China is not a bright sunny place like the American West. Jiang Wen is naturally a more sensitive and political figure than Tarantino, but I feel that in the creation of this film, he watched too much Kill Bill, but too little of his previous work.
The convoluted politics is handled by too much exposition, the more charismatic characters are killed too fast, choreography of gun fights seem abrupt and inadequate. Fast paced, but shoddy editing doesn't negate the problem completely, and finally, Jiang Wen seems to have become a director who believes that repetition of his favorite shots is a gift to the audience. Tarantino knows when he has pushed a scene to the edge of intolerance, while Jiang Wen marches on. One get the feeling that he is in too much of a rush to say too much, but couldn't find an eloquent way to tell all the stories and ends up sputtering. There’s plenty of spits and grunts, but not a lot of articulate words. A clumsy but energetic lover is this film.
1/26/11
First Solo photo exhibit at Inter Gallery inside 798 in Beijing
By now, some of you may know that I had my first solo show, titled "Accidental Square" at Inter Gallery in Beijing. The opening was held on Saturday the 22nd and it was quite a fun time. A number of people came, even if they were mostly friends of the family and my parents. Surprisingly, even the Gao Brothers dropped by as well (apparently they are friends with the gallery owner and he told them). I emailed Jia Zhangke, but of course, he did not show up or insofar as respond.
Also heard some interesting feedback from people, the most helpful one being that the collection of photos at hand was a bit disorganized and could have benefited from further editing, as some of the more 'mainstream' photos took away from the emotional impact of the ones that represented more purely "Ian Wang's" vision. Very helpful indeed, even if I still can't quite articulate what my vision is, except what my eyes tell my mind to tell my finger to click the shutter.
The Gao Brothers were kind enough to drop by and hear me blabber a bit about "shadow and light."
To see the photos on display at the exhibit, you can view them in this Flickr gallery I set up.
1/11/11
Some thoughts on Coppola's Tetro
Tetro is a film that no one would have made. And I am glad someone made it. Coppola did. Maybe only he can get away with material that young or even mature filmmakers wouldn't touch, or find plausible to even imagine.
Tetro is a movie about art, the making of art, and the struggle of those who pursue art. Every character in the film is an artist, either with words, music, lights, or love. Unfortunately the end product doesn't quite reach the level of art itself. It is artsy and even gutsy with its ambition to create art, and there are very successful moments, and there are some moments in which the melodrama could not hide itself more playfully. However, the moving force of the film comes from the visible effort with which the film is put together. Its experiments (black and white photography, its static placement of the camera, and the leisurely editing that allow an actor to perform and perform) are put together with pain and visible deliberation, and from this, I can see a director letting a film breathe and find its own life through the process of making it.
Other reviewers have called this film unashamedly theatrical. Maybe this is a technical comment, as surely most of the scenes are staged in small dimensioned spaces. Rooms are often spottily lit, shadows fall on the actors faces as if there are spotlights from above, cluttered interiors, and transitions are not accompanied by the usual cinematic devices nor exposition, but simply, by straight forward, chronological shifts that heed no telegraphing or foreshadowing. And from a story perspective...well I am not going to say much about the story, except that I find Tetro a film that beautifies choices but is not concerned with consequences. Similar to the filmmaker's sentiment, I assume. Things will happen inevitably. Maybe it is this inevitability of resolution that makes the film theatrical?
By now we all know about the films black and white photography, and in my eyes, the monochrome palette adds gives the film a novelistic, lore like effect. It dilutes the harshness of reality and everyday burden, and places the viewer in a part of the brain that only concerns itself with making art of memories. Quite fitting for a movie about making art.
Finally, I'm happy to see that the film has a very positive user response on IMDB.
Tetro is a movie about art, the making of art, and the struggle of those who pursue art. Every character in the film is an artist, either with words, music, lights, or love. Unfortunately the end product doesn't quite reach the level of art itself. It is artsy and even gutsy with its ambition to create art, and there are very successful moments, and there are some moments in which the melodrama could not hide itself more playfully. However, the moving force of the film comes from the visible effort with which the film is put together. Its experiments (black and white photography, its static placement of the camera, and the leisurely editing that allow an actor to perform and perform) are put together with pain and visible deliberation, and from this, I can see a director letting a film breathe and find its own life through the process of making it.
Other reviewers have called this film unashamedly theatrical. Maybe this is a technical comment, as surely most of the scenes are staged in small dimensioned spaces. Rooms are often spottily lit, shadows fall on the actors faces as if there are spotlights from above, cluttered interiors, and transitions are not accompanied by the usual cinematic devices nor exposition, but simply, by straight forward, chronological shifts that heed no telegraphing or foreshadowing. And from a story perspective...well I am not going to say much about the story, except that I find Tetro a film that beautifies choices but is not concerned with consequences. Similar to the filmmaker's sentiment, I assume. Things will happen inevitably. Maybe it is this inevitability of resolution that makes the film theatrical?
By now we all know about the films black and white photography, and in my eyes, the monochrome palette adds gives the film a novelistic, lore like effect. It dilutes the harshness of reality and everyday burden, and places the viewer in a part of the brain that only concerns itself with making art of memories. Quite fitting for a movie about making art.
Finally, I'm happy to see that the film has a very positive user response on IMDB.
12/30/10
If You Are The One 2 (非誠勿擾2) Review
In Feng Xiaogang's new film, the wealthy in urban China are modern, emotional, sentimental, desirous of goods which lots money can buy, and are fully in grasp of the irony and paradoxes of contemporary China and its effects on personal relationships on a society that merely 15 years ago, still seemed to exist in a naive and restrained age.
This is why the main supporting character has a daughter with an ex-wife from a previous, seemingly more innocent age, while his latest one, after he has made his money, ends in halfhearted discontent and self deprecating dismissal.
The Chinese are changing, and most importantly the mature, pre-
The Chinese are changing, and most importantly the mature, pre-
midlife crisis generation urbanites who are seeing reflections of a lost time in the money they are making. It is as if the stack of RMBs they pull out of their pockets with indifference have become mirrors, mirrors that only reflect hard truth. And they want out, either free from it all, or find protection in the form of stable marriages that makes money a secondary concern in the belief that love gives money a comforting purpose. To serve love, that's money purpose.
Much of the humor and laughs of this film come from understanding the subtext in the conversations, which are both smart and playful, often filled with traditional idioms and misdirection. No surprise that this is very Beijingnese sounding film is written by Wang Shuo and Feng himself, and you can't find better people at using Chinese to its wittiest.
Much of the humor and laughs of this film come from understanding the subtext in the conversations, which are both smart and playful, often filled with traditional idioms and misdirection. No surprise that this is very Beijingnese sounding film is written by Wang Shuo and Feng himself, and you can't find better people at using Chinese to its wittiest.
One can sense than Feng Xiaogang has a great relationship with his actors because the film's strongest scenes usually involve the actors at their most naturalistic, speaking as if they are truly at home. No doubt the fact that this is a sequel-Ge You and Shu Qi already have great chemistry helps, but their feisty and combative exchanges go up a few decibels compared to the first one. Stakes are higher, and there's even genuine anger in these characters, because getting to know another person always raises unexpected challenges, and it is usually at home where one drops the carefully constructed grace that one carries out on a date or a trip (the idea of grace is not standard but exists in all). Feng allows his actors to play out this dynamic exchange perfectly, and the tension in the movie is always centered around how the two lovers over come each others imperfections as they are discovered one by one.
We all know about Ge You, but Shu Qi is now quickly rising to be someone who I think can challenge Gong Li as the queen of Chinese cinema. She has the face of a beautiful womanconstantly in distress. Confident of her beauty but always needy of further flattering, a perfect woman for a man of longing ready to offer his life and love. She has certainly matured more in this film, and stand up to Ge Yous charming non-chalance with strength and fragility at all the right moments. Best of all, she is perfectly self-conscious and not at all pretentious, like Gong Li in most of her recent outings...
Finally, I wouldn't call Feng Xiaogang a man of subtlety but he
is a man of unexpected observations and usually carries out his sharpest observations in the actions of minor characters--pilots, military, cashiers, TV hosts. They are the one showing the
change in Chinese people as their country grows toward a consumer, service based economy.
On a technical level, Feng has proved himself to be a master of
genres of the highest level, and in a year in which he has two major film releases (the other one being Aftershock), I would proclaim him now a major force in world cinema with a perfect sense of the ironic construction of melodramatic moments that's been rarely seen since Douglas Sirk. For the mainstream audience, they are brought to tears, for the critic in me, I'm stunned at his carefully orchestrated mise-en-scene that's full of depth and sophistication.
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