Chinese Films of the Decade

Following the call for suggestions in the Chinese Cinema Digest, I first have to say that I was a little bit depressed about the state of Chinese cinema in this decade. Still some gems among those that I watched, but is there a trend towards more ambitious and professional story-telling? I really cannot see it… but then again, as you can tell from the movie selection, I am more on the Chinese mainstream side and am not aware of too many young film-makers that may change this perception.

In more or less ranked order (I hope the HK and Macao films qualify):

1) Still Life (Jia ZhangKe)

2) Blind Shaft (Li Yang)

3) In the Mood for Love (Wong KarWai)

4) Isabella (Pang Ho-Cheung)

5) The world (Jia Zhang-Ke)

6) Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (Zhang Yimou)

7) Lust, Caution (Ang Lee)

8) 2046 (Wong Kar-Wai)

9) Infernal Affairs (Andrew Lau, Alan Mak)

10) Summer Palace (Lou Ye)

Oldboy (Park Chan-wook 2003)

Oh Dae-Su is a really annoying guy, but when he suddenly gets kidnapped and held in a private prison, he is still clueless as to who did this or why. He realises he is in for trouble, because they just will not release him. Only after 15 years, rather suddenly, captivity ends. On his quest for the kidnappers he gets acquainted with a strange group of professional kidnappers, with characters from his past and with a young woman who may or may not be able to help him.
This may the most characteristic film to show why Korean cinema is very interesting and very very strange: extreme violence and emotion, comic fighting. “And there is a scene during which an octopus is definitely harmed during the making of the movie.” Villainous villains and innocent girls, it’s all there to the extreme. And an abundance of guilt! Much more mature than the previous “Mr Vengeance” film, it shows how the director / auteur grows from a rogue creative kid into a mature narrator about the abyss of the human mind. Not always an enjoyable watch, and most certain to have the nails of your next-seat girl dug deep into your arm, but if you are Korean, you will probably enjoy this sweet torture. The turns and twists of the story are not necessarily logical to an outside observer, especially towards the end I needed to repeat to myself that the Asian perception about guilt and punishment is very different from mine. In no definition, however, does the film have a happy ending, and this alone makes it worth seeing. Looking forward to the final part of the “Vengeance” trilogy now…

Sympathy For Mr Vengeance / Boksuneun naui geot (Park Chan-Wook 2002)

Deaf and dumb twen Ryu lives with his sister, and he wants to find her a new kidney for a transplant. He gets involved with an organ dealer mafia, and ends up minus one of his own kidneys and short of some million won to pay for his sister’s donation organ. In order to get the cash he plots the kidnapping of an industry manager’s daughter.
To be honest, I had a hard time following the plot, partly because from the beginning, I was rather captured by the beauty of images and sounds (especially the stunning sound design inside the factory where Ryu works) and forgot to pay attention who is plotting what to what effect. It does not matter much in the end, because it gets quite clear that they are all heading for disaster, including Ryu, his sister, his friend with whom he is planning the kidnapping and who pays a high price when the stunt goes wrong and the father’s wrath turns against her. And the father himself, who has to realise that he has lost his family and life long ago, but loses everything again.
I would not say that the film has the breath-taking strangeness of “Oldboy”, which I saw some years ago, but it may be even more powerful in being more human, focussing more on the caracters as truly desperate beings. But – like “Audition” that I just write about a moment ago – a good representative of what was interesting about East Asian cinema in the last decade.

Audition / Ôdishon (Takashi Miike 1999)

Looking for a new girlfriend / wife sounded like a fun idea. Shigeharu Aoyama sets up an audition for a film, only to use it as a cover for inviting girls and seeing which one could be a match. He finds Asami, and it seems they are good for each other, despite the strange behaviour on both parts, probably attributable to the awkward situation of mature mating. As it turns out, the first night they spend together is the start of a very different relationship from the one Shigeharu had in mind.
It is a very typical Japanese thriller, in many ways. It is not ashamed to be very cruel about human flaws and behaviours, it goes for the gore when the thrill has been done, and it does not stop to leave anything to your nightmares. The nightmare images are being delivered to your doorstep, and what I mean with typical Japanese is that this horror always seems to be coming with the face of a pretty girl, presumably innocent and fragile. Is that what the Japanese, Korean and sometimes also Chinese filmmakers are scared of: pretty girls, because they will mutilate them if you get too close to them? Is worth analysing back to the gender roles and perceptions of East Asia. In any case, it always makes for very interesting horror flicks for the not cringy.
http://www.best-horror-movies.com/audition.html Looking for a new girlfriend / wife sounded like a fun idea. Shigeharu Aoyama sets up an audition for a film, only to use it as a cover for inviting girls and seeing which one could be a match. He finds Asami, and it seems they are good for each other, despite the strange behaviour on both parts, probably attributable to the awkward situation of mature mating. As it turns out, the first night they spend together is the start of a very different relationship from the one Shigeharu had in mind.
It is a very typical Japanese thriller, in many ways. It is not ashamed to be very cruel about human flaws and behaviours, it goes for the gore when the thrill has been done, and it does not stop to leave anything to your nightmares. The nightmare images are being delivered to your doorstep, and what I mean with typical Japanese is that this horror always seems to be coming with the face of a pretty girl, presumably innocent and fragile. Is that what the Japanese, Korean and sometimes also Chinese filmmakers are scared of: pretty girls, because they will mutilate them if you get too close to them? Is worth analysing back to the gender roles and perceptions of East Asia. In any case, it always makes for very interesting horror flicks for the not cringy.
Nice website for hoor fans, by the way: http://www.best-horror-movies.com/audition.html

Here there be culture!

Wittertainment at its most wittertaining, this time from Imagethief on the ever-fascinating topic of governmentally conceived culture:
As the Beijing Municipal People's Political Consultative Conference announced that they had conceived a big-scale blockbuster flick about the Birth of a Nation (something like that, in any case), the approporiate comment comes in:
"… nothing says, Aaargh! My eyes! like "Conceived by the Beijing Municipal People's Political Consultative Conference." This, in a nutshell, is every single thing that's wrong with Chinese popular culture --especially the film industry-- distilled down to it's purest essence in nine bone chilling words. The BMPPCC should conceive statues. It should conceive statutes. It should conceive worthy initiatives to get healthy meals to schoolchildren and it should conceive improved traffic laws. But it should conceive motion pictures like I should conceive a two-headed goat child."
Imagethief goes on to suggest that the picture should be helmed by Michael Bay instead of Huang Jianxin and replace a politics whore with a money whore. Bay being the anti-christ, this will not happen, of course, as it would cause religious turmoil. I think the idea of showing 'em how it's done is pretty good, though, and suggest to ask Trey Parker and Matt Stone to go for the big screen again.

Gwoemul / The Host (Bong Joon-ho 2006)

Following some ruthless neglect in an American lab, a river monster evolves in Seoul, eating its way through the population. Some are only being carried away to experience some regurgutation in a sewr system. One of them, little whatever her name was, has an older brother, and his mission is to fight the monster and get the baby-sister back.

Another case of strange realism in a not very realistic overall setting. The moster is well done, and is trotting through the scenery like a big dog off the leash. Very unspectacular in its way, and very convincingly done, including the way the city and the people react to it, like an alligator on the loose, just bigger. Much bigger, actually. The family setting is affectionately done, with them running a little kiosk on the riverside, the son a loser, the other one - … as well. They all love the baby girl, but then again she gets eaten a lover of his sister, the father (was it the father? I watched it some time ago…) a strange character guiding them through life. It is all more of an upscale rubber monster movie without rubber monster, and it is somehow fun to see how much of the Godzilla charme comes trhough the bad effects. With good effects, those films change their charme completely! Very strange… but good entertainment once you get over the out-of-place realism.

Batoru Rowaiaru (Battle Royale, Kinji Fukasaku 2000)

A group of Japanese students in some post-apocalyptic setting is being carried off to an island where each gets "weapons" of different quality and it is explained to them they now have to engage in a battle against each other until only one is left alive.

The setting is stadard model one against all - or rather all against all, with the expected grouping of friends, falling apart of groups, surprising enemies and unexpected allies, and a pretty interesting character supervising them and steering the whole battle for the military. Trouble is that none of the combattants has a character developed making him / her interesting enough to allow for empathy. Instead, a releatively blunt and cold plot evolves, people die, the clock is ticking, but "drama" does not really happen. In that repsect the film is actually quite creative, as it does not create artificial drama, but decides to rather show the mixture of dirt and boredom and hard work that is required in that kind of setting. This almost neo-realistic touch is the interesting bit about the film, the rest is less interesting than even Schwarzenegger's variety on the Running man topic.

Kung Fu Panda (Osborn/Stevenson 2008)

Po, the son of a great noodle chef (which must have been a true amour fou - but we are not told what the mother looks like) daydreams about his future career as sword-fighting, iron-willed Kung Fu warrior, fighting his fiercest enemies with the speed of light and without so much as a flinch in the face of danger. More than surprising, when real life danger comes about and the Kung Fu Grandmaster needs to activate the hero of heroes, the Dragon Warrior, his choice on who that master should be falls on fat and slow Po. Who stands up to the challenges and beats the evil snowcat, of course.
A magnificient melange of role models: in the opening fight dream sequence, it becomes very much undestinguishable whether the Japanese Samurai traditon, the modern Takeshi Kitano interpretations, Ang Lee's Americanisms or the Tarantino rip-off stand model - all is one, and well done it is, quoting everybody and doing it with ferocious vigour.
Interesting, by the way, that this opening sequence also has a different director and is much closer linked to the Asian martial arts tradition as the rest of the film.
That main part is definitely cute despite the fact that a Panda is not a particularly interesting animal. But all the others are, from LaoShi, the (surprise!) teacher, over the Magnificent 5?, Ferocious 5? Marvellous 5? Furious 5! those fighting beasts anyway, to the ancient turtle grandmaster. As always most care has been given to the design of the bad guy, the snow leopard whose name I forgot. That evil one is being sketched very evil and dark, indeed, and I kept wondering how the Mordor-like prison where he is being rather inhumanely kept prisoner, immobilised for life, actually, will go down with the kids watching this. But definitely my favourite sequence.
On a lighter note, the expected training and practice squences are well done, with some stunning movements being triggered by the one motivation Po knows about: food! I could not help, however, but think of the much more brilliant "Montage" sequences in both the South Park skiing episode and the "Team America: World Police" feature. How can you do a training montage these days without singing "If you want show the progress but only have a little time, you need a MONTAGE!"??
If a film is made for IMAX, see it in IMAX! Brilliant picture, sound, everything. Definitely worth the extra money and an experience to which you cannot even get near when watching it on youku.com or any of those other sites.
One downside I mentioned: the Panda… but there is another, which is the voice cast. I would only recommend to all those animation producers to abandon the nonsense habit of casting famous actors. Get good voice actors, forget about the Jacky Chans or Lucy Liu's who cannot act for the life of them, not to speak when limited to their voices. Jack Black is also an odd choice, and can only be explained because the casting agent looked at the body volume of the actor and the panda and realised increasing similarity? The unknown Tai Lung voice (now I remember the name: that's the evil cat - and check out the record of Ian MacShane at IMDB - that guy even played in Dallas!) is by far the best, only Dustin Hoffman can stand up to that a little bit.
Still very enjoyable, with furious fighting sequences (may be a bit violent for the little ones, but I am not that little…) and I seem to remember even an impressive soundtrack.

Mang Jing - Blind Shaft (Li Yang 2001)

Two coal miners float from one occupation to the next, trying to find a victim who pretends to be a relative in order also to get a job. The they kill him in an "accident" and cash in the compensation from the mine. The scheme works fine for them until they meet a young boy who they start liking just a bit too much.
While the film has the neorealistic touch to it that is typical of 6th generation, critical social filmmaking in China, I found it stunningly well composed and directed. It does not show the technical flaws of, say, the early Jia Zhang-Ke pictures, but a very mature approach to introducing the characters, revealing their dimensions slowly and controlledly, and of rolling out the drama and building suspense, mixed with comic relief. You could actually say this is played by the book of narrative, but is feels very natural and relaxed. Great actors an all accounts, brilliant settings that show the desolate reality of large parts of rural China, and the equally desolate lifes a large workforce has to lead. Very good film!
A stunning number of external reviews at IMDB worth checking out.

Se, Jie / Lust, Caution (Ang Lee 2007)

The life of Wang Chia Chi, who shifts her life in Shanghai from being an normal student to cecoming an assassinating actress, trying to help the resistance movement to eliminate the collaborator Yee.
Ang Lee films are always a bit strange for me: the little Americal bourgeois drama of Ice Storm qualities, the melancholy of Brokeback Mountain, the standard Hollywood ware of the Hulk … there are not too many drawers into which he could fit, maybe the only drawer is the one where "sadness" is written on. I always find his films to be filled with sad nostalgia, memories of a better world or life. And of the difficult decisions that had to be made, the characters reflecting on the what if's of their decisions. In this case by both the assassin and the emperor, so to say. The seduction game leads to the possibility to kill, but for both sides, and maybe the way to this point where every decision is possible has somehow reversed the ability of the persons to act: she cannot kill him anymore, but now he can. Maybe they now are better suited to face their lives, because pretending to be a killer (she) or pretending not to be one (he) was too strenuous? In the words of the ever-brilliant Roger Ebert: "There is not a frame of the film that is not beautiful, but there may be too many frames."
Salon.com Review, Variety Review

Interview Jia ZhangKe

Still maybe my favourite contemporary Chinese filmmaker (auteur? If you please!), Jia ZhangKe's films are, in his own words, but also quite visibly, about ordinary people in typical Chinese settings. This means the people are usually neither rich nor do they live in the prosperous Eastern cities. If they do (as in Shi Jie - The World), then they are caught in a desolate wasteland from where they can only observe the new wealth puring into the country.
Some interesting bits about this interview with Good magazine: I never knew what it means to be "banned from making film" on a practical level, but Jia mentions it, telling about his experience after being subjected to such a ban in 1999:
"So, when I made Pickpocket, I gave no thought to the censors. We just wanted to make the film the way we wanted. In 1998 it showed at the Berlin film festival, and then in 1999 I was banned from making films. This ban had no expiration date, and it meant that I was on a blacklist at all the postproduction companies in Beijing and Shanghai, saying that I couldn’t borrow equipment or develop film."

And on the notion of piracy:
"In the context of China, I also think DVD piracy is useful. I went through a long period during which my knowledge of film came from reading scripts, or listening to other people’s descriptions. I knew about Godard, Truffaut, and films like Kramer vs. Kramer and On Golden Pond, but I hadn’t seen any of them. China had these films, but they were locked away in an archive, to be seen by film insiders and people with special privileges."
The end of the article has a list of his films, useful as a checklist, because I just realise I still have not yet seen "Dong" and "Useless", his latest documentaries. There is also another list of recommended non-Jia movies, most of which are pretty decent.

Wong Kar-wai in Slate Magazine

Even though the guys at "Slate" have a more sober attitude towards Wong's latest films in particular than I have (Mood for Love, 2046 being repetitive efforts - yes, we knew that, but that was somehow the point, was it not?), they still have the fair point that currently it looks as if this without doubt visionary and visually inspiring director is somehow stalled. Even though I have not seen it yet, My Blueberry Nights does not appear to be the re-invention of Sturm und Drang narration and cinematography, either. However, following his contemplating characters dream around for a while is still among the better movie experiences in any case. Just imagine to would have to spend the same time sitting through a Cheng KaiGe epic…

Chinese Films at Rotterdam Filmfest

This is a good chance to catch up with the films missed over the last years. Rotterdam (January 23 to February 3) will screen some outstanding examples from China's Fourth Generation film makers:
See here for the details and here for more on the respective films:

The films are:

Troubled Laughter / Kunao ren de xiao, Yang Yanjin, Deng Yimin, 1979

Little Flower / Xiao Hua, Huang Jianzhong, Zhang Zheng, 1979

Evening Rain / Bashan yeyu, Wu Yigong, Wu Yonggang, 1980

The Alley / Xiaojie, Yang Yanjin, 1981

River Without Buoys / Meiyou hangbiao de heliu, Wu Tian Ming, 1983

My Memories of Old Beijing / Chengnan jiushi, Wu Yigong, 1983

At the Beach / Haitan, Teng Wenji, 1984

Narrow Lane Celebrity / Xiaoxiang mingliu, Cong Lianwen, 1985

In the Wild Mountains / Yeshan, Yan Xueshu, 1985

Sacrificed Youth / Qingchunji, Zhang Nuanxin, 1985

Woman Demon Human / Ren gui qing, Huang Shuqin, 1987

Black Snow / Benming nian, Xie Fei, 1989

This is a lineup that would be great for a Beijing filmfest, actually. I am sure most of those movies have never really seen the light of China's day.

Chinese Film Landscape - Generation What?

That's beijing (or The Beijinger? I am currently a bit lost on what they're called) has quite an interesting article / posting on the whereabouts and whatabouts of the current generation of Chinese big screen directors (even though big screen means for some of those guys being screened at Cherrylane or in the "black box café". Big Big Screens are mostly taken by other stuff). The interesting part is the ralisation that after a clearly identifiable Fifth generation of film-makers (most of who have already sold out, most would agree), number 6 is scattered and less tangible. However: with Jia Zhang-Ke and Li Yu among others, there are now some people around who not only do love and pictures, but also intellect and politics. That is a good sign for the Chinese arthouse cinema, even though it comes at the price of becoming harder for those artists to perform their jobs in mainland China. Let's hail them at least in the festival circus and in the European arthouse theatres!

Why China's films are currently a lost cause

See an excellent contribution by Imagethief about a Chinese "film official"'s successful effort to make a fool out of himself. Unfortunately the attitude by the official is one very much representative for many parts of China's "culture industry".
It does not happen too often that one reads a lengthy article and shouts "YEAH" at every full stop. I did with this one. Only have to add that the Michael Bay example is a brilliant one, because it shows how super-patriotism frequently coincides with lack of talent by people who get drowned in cash. Bay should become Chinese, he could make exactly the films he likes, and about 5 billion US dollars every year could be spent on less lobotomic output. (In the words of Matt Groning: Bay would realise that his films are mere comedies, but he doesn't, because he is a turd.)
The one feature of the Chinese government-approved culture industry I find the most telling is the complete lack of self-confidence, which then again must lead to crapping your pants when anybody makes fun of you or critizices you. Those cultures are able to create powerful cultural produce that are able and willing to play with their own strengths and weaknesses at equal measure. I think the culture officials of any country should start watching some movies for a change - and learn to judge what it means that one cultural domain is able to produce the range of "Taxi Driver", "Apocalypse Now", "Thank you for Smoking" and, yes, also "Transformers" - and why another is unable to rise beyond "WuJi".

Xiao Wu / The Pickpocket

Catching up on Jia Zhang-Ke - as the shops still don't widely provide the latest "Dong" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0855784/), I needed to revert to the film that probably made him famous (is he famous? Let's assume he is, at least since "Still Life", http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0859765/). I have to say, while the trivia that and how the film caused Jia's first professional ban (see http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20070612_1.htm for the story and the speculations) is quite interesting, the film itself is a pill more tricky to swallow. There is clearly a lacking of professional equipment and skills (slap the lightning crew, or the camera operaotr, or whoever was in charge of controlling the lightning continuity), and this is all not very important, because the film was clearly done on no budget and with difficult circumstances. What is sad, however, is that the film feels much longer than it is, and there is a weak script to blame. You can engange in showing a certain arbitrariness of life and fate in China's areas that have not yet been reached by Kind Midas' touch, and without doubt the story told is closer to reality than most of the films we can see every day. It's not particularly interesting, however, to watch a small-scale crook just being. There is no real development, there is no real drama, there is a certain way of dullness, only temporarily moved when Xiao Wu meets a girls he really fancies and for whose attention he goes at great length. These are the strongest passages, watching this relationship develop is moving, but it's over soon, and the film comes back to a number of issues and events that are not very stringelntly put together. I can only be so critical because Jia Zhang-Ke is very good today, and you could already see this in "Xiao Wu", and this early is beyong doubt a strong piece of Asian naturalistic film-making. But, with a better editing and story development and the courage to cut it down to 90 minutes, I believe it could have been much stronger already.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144020/

The World / Sijie

Tacky as can get: in Beijing's South there is an amusement park which featrures Eiffel Tower and pyramids, New York's skyline and Taj Mahal. All a bit smaller, all mostly populated by Chinese staff, but at your convenience, and without the arduous travel that is usually involved when you want to see the originals. Jia Zhangke's film is not about the "attraction", but I guess he very successfully tricked the management into believing that it actually is, and tht this film would be like a free advertisement for their park. Hardly so: the film shows how ridiculous and fake this kind of amusement is, how sober and poor the lives of the singers and dancers and security guards that run the show, how dull this whole setting is and how culturally degenerated one must be to come up with that kind of rubbish as a prime capital attraction. In front of this tapestry of wicked taste, true live evolves, however, and the relationships between the people working and living in "the world" are as manyfold as they are all over the world, the real one out there, I mean: Love and jealousy, amibition  and despair, theft and death. After watching my second Jia Zhangke film in two days I am inclined to believe that the motif of his work could be "Just Life, take it or leave it". His films are very honest at that: they are real-life dramas in the best sense of the word, with dullness seeping into lifes and adding to the pain at times, and little joys being generously granted by fate at others. I could not tell what "happens" in the film, but - with all its weaknesses - it is very rewarding to watch and makes me look for more of Jia's films.

Still Life / Sanxia Haoren (Jia Zhangke 2006)

Jia ZhangKe may be the most interesting film-maker mainland China has today. Within just a couple of days, I watched "Still Life / Sanxia Haoren" and "The World / Sijie", and I guess it's fair to judge from these very recent films that Jia unites the ability to tell a touching story of human desire with the necessary technical skills to present them in a cinematic fashion. This combination is very rare in China, from my experience: you either have very intensive stories, with big and true drama, focussing on how the forces of fate play with human beings. These films are usually ambitious first features, produced at no budget and little professional experience and skill. And then there are the big budget equivalents to a Bruckheimer flick, with more costume than brain and more cuts than dialogue words. Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige have made their new homes there, and not much hope is that they ever get out of that corner again.

Sanxian Haoren has not much to offer in terms of story or story development. It sets out to show the despair leading to people traveling long ways in search of their lost marriages, even though they know that there is nothing much to be found. And actually the quest is only just about those partners, it is more precisely aimed at the common daughter (who has gone) and at the divorce documents (which are about to be signed). So there is not really a hope for the missions to yield some positive change, some reinstation of a previous state of happiness. There was no state of happiness, not for the man who bought his wife for 3000 RMB some years ago and now wonders whether she ran away from him, and not for the woman who has not seen her husband for two years and knows that other women have always meant more to him. These stories do not really meet, but they are located in the same surreal area of the three gorges dam, where every day takes the people farther away from the lives they want to lead: by flooding their previous homes, by demolishing their current ones, and by making plans for migration to other places of hope, where more money can be made in the mines of the North, or in the factories in the South. It is all a bit depressing, that's true, but there is also a very human touch to it: people do care about their lives, their partners and their future, and they are still able to suffer when they are lonely. I could imagine that one reason for making the film was just to show that, because you cannot take it for granted in today's China.

Update: Review in Villagevoice from 2008 (that's how long films hover around until anybody sees them...)

Life's a bitch

it's not really that I am complaining about life as such, but how shitty can a cinema programme get? Very shitty, indeed! This may well be the worst choice any cinema has ever had on offer. Will probably check out Chinese porn actors' problems instead at this place.

Ringu

There was a lot of talk about the film, especially after the American remake made it widely known in the Western world. It is one of these psychological horror films where the actual presence of a physical danger (like a woman crawling out of a tv set, to name but an arbitrary example) is only the tip of an iceberg. It is the atmosphere, the general mood of peril that makes the film work, the feeling that something is decidedly wrong in this world, is not playing to the rules we know. And for a non-Japanese audience, the sometimes odd detachment and distance between characters that shows frequently in Japanese pictures adds to the atmosphere of helplessness. That said, there is not much more to be added. The plot is spectacularly thin and not too original, the actors play well, but have not too much to do. A very static feeling is present, a notion of paralysis, which only breaks up a little bit when - during the final scenes  - some standard horror film resolution for the trouble is being found. That means a bit of digging in the mudd, and a bit of crawling out of tv sets, and while all this is done with a good hand for atmosphere, at the end of the day there is not much to be remembered. Apart, of course, from a set of hands without nails coming closer, and closer, and closer… My DVD box includes two more of the franchise, so stay tuned for more unhealthy videos.

Beijing Bicycle

I expected to see a light comedy along the lines of the da Sica original, which was that bittersweet kind of film typical of the period. The Chinese version now has discarded much of the light moments and the funny elements of the original: The story of the guy from the countryside who comes to Beijing, wears a sceptical face even at the beginning and gets confirmation by his environment that the scepticism is justified. He is rejected as a peasant, his job as a bike courier hangs on very thin threads, and the lack of morale around him even threatens his existence when his working instrument (his bike) gets stolen - an experience every Beijingren is quite familiar with.

The film is cruel, it shows a world where stealing and stealing back is the modus operandi, and the author is clearly eager to show that today's China, even though it brings about wealth for quite a few, throroughly lacks the humanity that is of such vital importance especially in this kind of overpopulated place.

In contrast to many ambitious films coming out of the Chinese studios, this one is prefoessionally produced and well shot, well-paced and an easy-to-swallow piece of arthouse cinema.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0276501/

No "Departed" for China

Reuters writes that Martin Scorsese's "The Departed"
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407887/) will not be shown in (mainland)
Chinese theaters. The reason apparently is the plot line in which Chinese
government agents attempt to purchase advanced weapons technology.
According to Reuters' source, censors believed the Chinese portion of the
story was "unnecessary." What they meant by this, it seems, is that it was
unnecessary for the weapons purchasers to be Chinese. Said the source: "
The regulators just cannot understand why the movie wanted to involve China.
They can talk about Iran or Iraq or whatever, but there's no reason to get
China in."
Source:
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2007/01/china_blocks_entry_to_scorseses_departe
d_reuters.php

Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles / Qian li zou dan qi (Jan 2007)

Zhang Yimou may be the Chinese director with the greatest gap between proven ability and practicing performance ("unrealised potential", I think they call it), but "Riding Alone..." shows that when he breaks out of his supposed mainstream history money-spinning 5-year-plan production rubbish, he comes down to being a great narrator (sorry, but but my way of remembering Chinese directors' names and their films goes like "there's the one who is doing the good films, and one who's doing the multi-coloured films" - and Zhang is in charge of the colour department). He developes his story around Tanaka-San, who is travelling from strange Japan to even stranger China in order to do one (last?) favour to his dying son. He gets into the expected trouble and has a hard time completing this mission, but in the process he gets many things back that he did not expect to get: the realisation that he still is a warm-hearted human being at times, the experience of Chinese local-community decision-making bodies, the love of a new son (of sorts), and a video capture of a Yunnan mask opera "aria". I am not sure whether the film manages the balance of being deeply moving and hilariously funny also for somebody who has never experienced the sometimes awkward logic of the Chinese adminisitration. Maybe it's even more funny if you don't know it could all happen exactly this way: the approval to your request is only half as valuable if you are not allowed to introduce it with half an hour of speech about all the calamities involved in the decision-making...

Ken Takakura apparently is a big star at home in Japan - I have only seen him in Black Rain before, I think (in which I have seen all Japanese actors I remember, maybe with the exception of those who played in "Ai no corrida" and "Seven Samurai", but those groups may overlap), and he has exactly the sadness and quietude about himself that is necessary to stress his strangeness to most of the things he's doing and to most of the environments he is exposing himself to.

Lovelt story with a warm-hearted core and the side effect of Yunnan now being definitely on my holiday agenda, beautiful scenery!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437447/
http://movies2.nytimes.com/2006/09/01/movies/01mile.html

The Curse of the Golden Flower

The worst about the film is the song over the end credits: I tend to refer to it as "Chu Hua Cha" (Chrysanthemum Tea), but I think the real title is slightly different. That Jay Chou is the God of Chinese pop at the moment and that this song is the peak of his achivements tells so much about the state of music in China and the attitude of the Chinese youth... Anyway: the film is, like the previous Zhang Yimou movies (apart from "Riding alone...", which I have not seen yet, but which claims to be different), a masterpiece in production design and costumes, and has little to offer on dramatic development and characters. Or rather (as the Variety reviewer pointed out, see link below), it has too much of all this: too many twists and intrigues, too many cgi soldiers clashing in fancy gold and black, too many sweat drops of suffering empress Gong Li, and too much shivering in her fight against the poison but her heroic power forbidding her to give in. With superhuman power she fights the disease and comes back with a vengeance, only to ... and so on. No doubt she is nice to look at, as the whole film, but a bit less of the surele Weta-powered mass battles and a bit more a silence and contemplation would have been beneficial. I honestly could not care anymore when as a nice next-to-final twist the incest was revealed, when the odds on the battlegrounds turned again, but just concentrated on the nice hairdo of Chow and the amazingly uninteresting face of Jay Chou. I guess this is as good as Chinese mainstream cinema gets at the moment. At least it was way beyond the last Chen Kai-Ge's embarrasment .

IMDB entry: http://imdb.com/title/tt0473444/
NYT Review: http://movies2.nytimes.com/2006/12/21/movies/21flow.html
Variety: http://www.variety.com/awardcentral_review/VE1117932095.html?nav=reviews07&categoryid=2352&cs=1&p=0

Castle in the Sky / Tenku no shiro Rapyuta

"Tenkû no shiro Rapyuta" by The Master Miazaky was not, as I thought when I saw the DVD box, the latest groundbreaking piece, but a very ealry, even more groundbreaking piece. Being rather ignorant about the history of animated pictures, I did not realise immediately that this (from 1986) must have been really an amazing for the time. But when you watch it, you realise immediately that there is something special about it. There is a very elegant seriousness about the whole story, and I think this film shows particularly well what it is that distinguishes the Asian (or maybe it's just Miazaky's) art from the Holywood version: the most fantastic (in the "fantasy" meaning of the word, among others) occurrences hit the characters, who face their fate and fight their way with the greatest sobriety, neglecting the urge to despait in the confrontation with all these witches and wizards, ghosts and ghouls. To introduce this form of fantastic element in an otherwise completely straightforward and regular world makes the charm.

All in all: the story and its fantastic characters are not as over the top as in his later films, but this is made up by the charming characters and the big morale, of course. As rewarding an experience as ever. And if you want to know what Mark Hamill was doing recently...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092067/

Summer Palace Director Lou Ye's 5-year ban

The Guardian takes up on the story of director Lou Ye, who brought his "Summer Palace" movie to Cannes festival without the official approval of the Chinese authorities, namely SARFT. Considering that he experienced a filming ban before, Guardian writer Jonathan  Watts wonders about his reasons.

http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,1868415,00.html

China: Digital movies in the countryside

Digital movies in the countryside
From CRI :

China will try digital movies in rural areas, with 1,200 digital movie system (DMS) machines being delivered to eight provinces in October.

"Due to the low cost of DMS developed by the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT), rural audiences can enjoy high-quality digital movies for only a few yuan," said Mao Yu, vice director of the SARFT digital program management center.

According to the SARFT, the test will cover 16 cities in eight provinces. Each village will be allocated one DMS set.
"To carry out the plan nationwide we would need 100,000 to 200,000 DMS sets," a SARFT source said
http://en.chinabroadcast.cn//2946/2006/08/31/189@133299.htm

Co-production on Nanking WW-II massacer

It is apparently one of the great contemporary stories around, definitely one of the great tales of China  - one of atrocity and heroism, of cruelty and the human touch. I reckon every Chinese knows one version or the other about how the Japanese "raped Nanking" in 1937, killing thousands (or hundreds of thousands, rather) of citizens. This will surely be among the most visible Chinese film projects of all times: it has international co-producers (Gerald Green, anybody knows whether this is the same who wrote the "Holocaust" mini?), supposedly an internationally reputed cast (the inevitable Zhang Ziyi and Michelle Yeoh, rumor has it), and it has that sideline of the hero who stands up against his own history and his country, namely John Rabe, the "Schindler of Nanking", who saved many by providing shelter in his Siemens factory. No news so far on director, schedule, etc., but apparently the script will be based on Iris Chang's "The Rape of Nanking" book, and there is a good chance that it will be out in time for the massacre's 70th anniversary.

News stories on this:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article1219244.ece
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0815/p06s02-woap.html
And this is the site of Ms Chang, with information on the book: http://www.irischang.net/
 

Isabella (Cherrylane, Aug 12, 2006)

Isabellas are abound, the one I saw was this one, made in Honkgkong by Ho-Cheung Pang: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499141/.

Admittedly, given the rather crappy and uncomfortable "cinematic" environment, I found it rather hard to start into the film with the relevant concentration, so I was more irritated rather than amazed by the montage and the use of Kar-Wai'isms. And equally admittedly, I did not expect to see a film of such dramatic and aesthetic professionalism, as most Chinese films you get to see these days are poor if not pathetic in both respects. Next time I first read the description - the film is from Hong Kong, after all, which in cinematic terms is some two centuries ahead of the mainland. Never heard of the director, never realised that the film actually won him some prices (at Berlin, for instance, so no petty stuff, if "only" for the music). This may actually be the best form of savouring a movie: not knowing anything about it, allowing it to unfold it in front of your eyes, ears and mind(s). You usually don't get this, because I actually do believe there are very few "auteurs" who (1) are completely unknown and (2) can create a great film. Happens occasionally, but it is very much the exemtion. Which means that you usually know quite a bit about the good films you will see, because the papers will have taken it up and will have pointed you to see the remarkabilities, and will have given you a preconception and expectations, like it or not.

All the more interesting it was to see this one develop, see the slightly pathetic use of "Madredeus"-like music fall together with the (to me) completely odd setting of pre-handover Macao. A very intimate atmosphere is dominating, mainly through the density of the place and the fusion of cultures that have little to do with each other, but are still squeezed together like too many family members in a Chinese apartment. They hate the Portuguese as all colonies hate their imperial parents, but - again, as always - the cultural clash is a very stable and very cozy situation, where everybody has his or her role to play. The film's story tries to link the loss of cozyness for the protagonists to the imminent handover to China, but that link is weak for me. It allows for some text inserts, but the change cannot be felt in the story. Those people's (the police offer and his "daughter") fate has little do with other developments, and the script doctors would have been well advised to leave it at that: a little love story in a setting that apparently is not only hard to comprehend for a lao wai…

Comment on Chinese film import policy

On the decision of the Chinese authorities not to let the (first) sequel to "Pirates of the Carribean" play in mainland China, there is a commentary at Bloomberg News:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=aufhA7AxUHfU&refer=columnist_pesek. It’s old, I know, but I just stumbled across it. It's also a bit odd, because I am not sure whether the transfer between one branch of the administration (which is in charge of film imports approval) and another (which is trying to ensure that China will become a sustainable economic success story) ist valid - but it's worth reading it and finding your own opinion. The comment is also linking to the recent (6 minutes of) cuts made to MI-3 and the withdrawal of the "da Vinci Code". The other thing about pirates is, of course: they don't give a damn. The street pirates offer all these films in full integrity in front of the cinemas that don't show them. The shame about it is that China manages to keep cinemas from being great places to have a great time out. Initentionally or not, this seems very odd. Chinese cinemas are ridiculously over-priced, and they are not allowed to show interesting movies.

China vows to crack down on unauthorized distribution of audiovisual works

From Chinese Media Project:
"July 13 �C Attempting to put an end to the mainland distribution of
unauthorized domestic and foreign documentaries and other audiovisual works
about China, China's General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP)
issued orders yesterday that all audiovisual works (DVDs, CDs, etc) dealing
with the Cultural Revolution and other "major topics" (�ش�ѡ��) must be
registered before distribution on the mainland. A GAPP official in charge of
audiovisual and web publishing said that in order to boost sales a number of
audiovisual publishers had produced or imported works without first
obtaining permission."
Full story:
http://cmp.hku.hk/look/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=1&NrIssue=1&Nr
Section=100&NrArticle=685

Judge Scrubs Movie Sanitizers

There is hope, even in the US: news item from E!Online, July 10th 06:

"Call it a clean-cut victory.
Siding with 16 of Tinseltown's biggest directors, including Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Steven Soderbergh, a federal judge in Denver has ordered several companies to cease and desist from editing out movie content they find offensive.

In a 16-page opinion, U.S. District Court Judge Richard P. Matsch said the actions taken by Utah-based CleanFlicks and retailers such as Clean Cut, Family Flix and Play It Clean Video to cut out profanity and graphic scenes of nudity and violence from DVDs and then redistributing the sanitized versions over the Internet and to video stores across the country violated U.S. copyrights laws."

Full Story:  http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,19458,00.html

Keiner darf den Drachen besiegen

Rather long article in the German daily "Die Welt" about the Chinese film market … ehm… situation (in German):
http://www.welt.de/data/2006/07/05/945213.html

Underwear puts MI3 at risk

The Telegraph, a Calcutta-based newspaper, notes on the forthoming (non-?)release of Mission Impossible III in mainland China:

"Beijing, May 15 (Reuters): Chinese media have speculated that flashes of underwear and other “inappropriate” images in the China scenes of Mission Impossible 3 (MI3) might jeopardise the mainland release of Tom Cruise’s latest Hollywood blockbuster.

Despite hitting American screens over a week ago, China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television , is yet to approve its mainland distribution.

Underwear hanging out to dry and other images “harmful to China” might be responsible, local papers said."
Full story at
http://telegraphindia.com/1060516/asp/atleisure/story_6228763.asp

Howl's Moving Castle

Weirder stories have been told by the Japanese wizard company. But: without doubt an average Myiazaki production shows so much more serenity and ability in story-telling that it is basically without its like anywhere in the American pixel industry. Even though the stories are set in the most mysterious and magical surrounding, I like to think that these characters are the most real of all: humble little-old Sophie, for instance, who happens to be in the way of a ghastly witch and learns that not doing anything wrong is sometimes not enough. Or pride Howl, who almost falls apart after his carefully dyed hair acquires a bit of a red touch. Or the named witch, who needs all her magic powers just to remain stable on her feet and to keep every layer of double chain - with interesting effects after she is rid of these powers. They are all very human, even the little fire demon whose name I forgot, but who is a so much more subtle sidekick compared to Disney's tea kettles and the like. (Which gives a chance to mention the dubbing: I don't know about the Japanese original, but Lauren Bacall as the Witch of the Waste and Billy Crystal as the fire demon are definitely worth switching from Japanese to English at least now and again). Judging from the unanimous enthusiasm at amazon.de, I should now buy the book...

Chen Kaige Interview

Whatever the reason may be: Chen Kaige has a considerably big interview in
the famous Hawaiian paper Star Bulletin. The comments match the fortune
cookies quality of his latest movie (Wu Ji, whose US start, now that I read
the article in full, is the reason for the interview), e.g.:
"But I say that destiny is changeable. If you look at our history, I don't
understand why people think that way. Even though there have been so many
bad things, revolutions and chaos, there still was change. It's so very
clear. I'm convinced of the message that, yes, we can allow and gain power
to challenge destiny on the way to a better life."
The intersting thing to be learnt is that Zhang Yimou was actually the
director of photography at Chen Kaige's "Yell Earth" international debut.
AND some nice insight into Chen's political past, too.
http://starbulletin.com/2006/05/02/features/story01.html

CHINA SIGNS ANTI-PIRACY PACT WITH MPAA

Found at
http://www.showbizdata.com/contacts/picknews.cfm/39091/CHINA_SIGNS_ANTI-PIRA
CY_PACT_WITH_MPAA
Monday, July 18 2005
_____

Chinese authorities have signed what is being described as a historic
anti-piracy agreement with the Motion Picture Association of America under
which Hollywood studios will provide China with a schedule of its releases
every three months. If any of the films on the list is offered on the
Chinese marketplace before its release, China has agreed to confiscate the
copies and prosecute the sellers.

DVD GOES ON SALE IN CHINA FOR $1.50

Found at
http://www.showbizdata.com/contacts/picknews.cfm/41229/DVD_GOES_ON_SALE_IN_C
HINA_FOR_$1.50
Monday, April 24 2006
_____

In its latest strategy to combat piracy in China, Warner Home Video has
released the DVD version of The Aviator priced at the equivalent of $1.50,
the London Financial Times reported today (Monday). "This is a first step to
see if the consumer can accept this product at this price," a company
spokeswoman told the publication. It noted that some pirate DVDs sell for
half the $1.50 figure. It also observed that the tactic could backfire and
could "anger consumers in developed markets such as Europe and the U.S., who
typically pay $20-$30 for a recently released film on DVD."

China emerging as new movie powerhouse - IANS

2006-02-18 07:24:14
From HindustanTimes.com:
The Berlin International Film Festival is providing a snapshot of the
changes in Asian cinema, as China seeks to emerge as a new movie
powerhouse while Hong Kong struggles to keep up with its reputation.
Once known as the Hollywood of the East, Hong Kong's previously prolific
film industry has watched its market in Southeast Asia shrink following
a run of badly received films and due to competition notably from the
real Hollywood but also ...

China verbietet Animationsfilme mit menschlichen Schauspielern

Peking - Die staatliche chinesische Fernsehaufsichtsbehörde hat
Animationsfilme, in denen menschliche Schauspieler mit animierten
Charakteren interagieren, verboten. Als Begründung verkündete die
Behörde, dass "Zuschauer durch die Filme fehlgeleitet" werden könnten.
Bereits vor wenigen Wochen war der Film Ein Schweinchen namens Babe mit
der Begründung, dass "Tiere nicht reden könnten" in China verboten
worden. Die Behörden befürchteten, dass Kinogänger durch den Film
"verwirrt" werden könnten

Chen Kaige's new feature: The Promise

Very funny to read this after having seen this disaster of a movie...

ChinaDaily has a nice interview online with Chen Kaige, whose "The
Promise" opened recently in Chinese theaters and has already pushd Harry
Potter off the big screens:
"A contender for Oscar glory in 1994 with "Farewell My Concubine," Chen
Kaige again is representing mainland China's hopes in the best foreign
film race with "The Promise," a $35 million film that ranks as the
biggest ever made in China. Chen recently spoke about his film and the
future of Chinese cinema."

'Geisha' Filmmakers Defend Casting

From Yahoo News: By MIN LEE and BEN NUCKOLS, Associated Press Writers
Wed Dec 7, 6:11 PM ET
HONG KONG - The makers of "Memoirs of a Geisha" expected to be lauded
for creating the first big-budget Hollywood movie with Asian actors in
every leading role. Instead, they find themselves defending casting
decisions that have inflamed historical tensions between Japan and
China.

Asia Times on Chinese Cinema Market

On Nov 23, 2005, the Asia Times Online has published an article under the headline "Slouching dragon, hidden camcorder" (by Anastasia Liu). It carries a rather pessimistic view on the future of the market, with theater infarstructrure underdeveloped and production industry rather clueless.

The Pride of Chinese People - the banned pride, that is.

"Oscar for Best Banned Picture"
"AFTER Ang Lee accepted his Oscar as best director for "Brokeback Mountain," he was hailed by fellow Chinese in Hong Kong and his native Taiwan. Here in mainland China, the government-controlled English-language daily newspaper went so far as to call him the "pride of Chinese people all over the world" and the "glory of Chinese cinematic talent."

New York Times through:
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2006/03/the_oscar_for_best_banned_picture_david_barboza.php

Wuji / The Promise (Febr 12, 2006, cherrylane)

Let's quote the reviewer of arte-tv, who happened to see the film almost at the same time as I did: "Chen Kaige, der sich für die schulmäßige Produktion 'Lebe wohl, meine Konkubine' (1993) noch im Ruhm der Goldenen Palme sonnen konnte, scheint mit diesem fürchterlich hässlichen und armseligen Monumentalepos seinen absoluten Tiefpunkt erreicht zu haben." http://www.arte-tv.com/de/film/berlinale/1117246.html. Meaning: it's disgusting rubbish, a waste of money, fortunately not of talent, as there is none to be found... my own interpretation. But the picture gets clearer when you realise that the most expensive picture mainland China has over put out is still only around 35 Mil. Dollars, meaning that all of the technical stuff, the cgi and mattes and whatever is around needed to be bought at cheap suppliers in God knows where - or produced in-house, in China. As with most more sophisticated technological ventures, the result becomes apparent: It claims to be basically the same as the "real' stuff (the Lord of the Rings or Matrix stuff), but you see immediately that all of it is nothing but the plastic variety of
the original. Special effects is nothing you can just copy, you have to know it - and the places where people know are far away from Beijing and very expensive, too.
Even more expensive are good scripts, because you cannot just go out and buy them, even if you had unlimited amounts of money. Shame is that when you try to run for Oscar material "in the style of...." (Tiger Dragon, in particular), you are stuck to a certain kind of narrative, even if
you don't know what story to tell. So WuJi is the result of a gigantic effort to shove offical Chinese cinema on a global plattform (including forcing the film on all Chinese screens for a while), with the result of Ang Lee running for Oscars with his little love story (banned in mainland China) and Chen KaiGe defintitely not running for anything, maybe away from the critiques. Sounds fair enogh.