As China is set to take over North America to become the single largest film market within the next years, more attention will/should be paid to its formidable and ever-expanding supply of home-grown talents. With the world premiere of his debut feature The Enigma of Arrival in Busan, the spotlight is on writer/director Song Wen, best known for founding the Xining First International Film Festival which, for its celebration of non-mainstream films and emerging filmmakers, is sometimes referred to as the Chinese Sundance.
This background is telling, for Song’s approach to this multiplex-friendly, nostalgia-laced dramatic thriller is not without arthouse aspirations. And while it ultimately doesn’t meet some of its loftier goals, it’s a surprise nonetheless to find such dreamy, strikingly sensitive tone in an essentially commercial picture.
The film opens with an intriguing sort-of prologue. The thoughtful, weary voice of narrator San Pi (Liu...
This background is telling, for Song’s approach to this multiplex-friendly, nostalgia-laced dramatic thriller is not without arthouse aspirations. And while it ultimately doesn’t meet some of its loftier goals, it’s a surprise nonetheless to find such dreamy, strikingly sensitive tone in an essentially commercial picture.
The film opens with an intriguing sort-of prologue. The thoughtful, weary voice of narrator San Pi (Liu...
- 10/7/2018
- by Zhuo-Ning Su
- The Film Stage
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