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Reviews
Da wan (2001)
surprisingly good and completely hilarious
I didn't believe the guy in the DVD shop down the street when he recommended this "black comedy", I'm generally not a big fan of Chinese humor. But he assured me that this was the first film of its kind in China, and so I bought it in spite of my reservations. After watching Big Shot's Funeral I'm really glad that I gave it a chance.
This movie was so much funnier than i thought it would be! First of all, it stars one of the best comic actors out there, You Ge (YoYo). He's got the deadpan delivery down pat. Second, the whole scenario of Sutherland's character as a director staging a new version of The Last Emperor was hilarious, from the eroticized woman ostensibly giving birth, to the child actor drinking his cola - subversively funny commentary on Orientalism and commercialism. Then we get to watch as YoYo completely immerses himself in planning a ridiculously extravagant funeral for a guy who a) he barely knows, and b) isn't dead yet! Seriously, that's a great comic premise in any language.
My main complaint about this film is Rosamund Kwan's character (Lucy). She just didn't seem to fit, and about halfway through the film I started to get really annoyed with her as her actions didn't seem to make any sense at all.
Not that this movie is really supposed to make sense, it's just that in the farcical scheme of things Lucy seemed to kill all the fun. The other thing is that the last 10 or 15 minutes of the film didn't really work at all; it's almost like the director couldn't figure out how to wrap things up so he just threw together a bizarre collection of scenes without bothering to relate them to the rest of the film. But these kinds of problems aren't a big deal in a movie that's not to be taken seriously in the first place. I would especially recommend it to foreign viewers who are only used to stuff by Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige; Big Shot's Funeral is a nice contrast to all those Very Serious movies set in the Very Distant past.
Ken Park (2002)
real horrorshow
Harmony Korine wrote the screenplay for this, and the one thing I can say for him is that he knows how to make people feel like crap.
I'll admit that Ken Park had me glued to the screen. It's like watching a horror movie, you're disgusted but you can't turn it off because you have to know what awful things will happen next. And, much like a horror movie, it's pretty predictable (Oh no! Dad's home, put your clothes on!!). As in Korine's other post-Kids works, the characters come across as either pathetic or revolting, and sometimes both. They're generally unlikable, and while it's easy to feel sorry for them its hard to really care what happens because you never get over the feeling that the director is trying really hard to shock you. Hence the graphic sex, violence, statutory rape, child abuse, cruelty to animals, and drug/alcohol abuse. Seriously, this film depends so much on shock tactics that they should have just edited out all of the character development and just released a 90 minute film of teenagers having sex and engaging in various violent and criminal acts. Oh wait, that would be Kids, wouldn't it . . . in fact, just skip Ken Park and go watch Kids again.
Xiao Wu (1997)
great story, great cast, great film
Unlike a lot of other contemporary Chinese films, Xiao Wu succeeds in gaining viewers empathy for the title character. We never really find out how the so-called "artisan pickpocket" got himself into the state he's in; it's almost as if he woke up one morning to find that he was alone and jobless at an age when he should be settling down like all of his friends. However, not knowing how he arrived at this point makes his growing desperation more tangible as we see him reaching out to everyone he can, only to be rejected.
Wang Hongwei is amazing as the title character, he makes it easy to relate to the character's loneliness and longing. Considering the actors in Xiao Wu are all amateurs, Wang's performance is even more amazing. Granted, he was given a great character to work with: in spite of his occupation, Xiao Wu is a nice guy. (His beautifully awkward relationship with the karaoke hostess is a fine example of this).
All in all, I think this is one of the best Chinese films from the past decade. The characters are better developed than in other contemporary films, and the story is neither contrived nor simplistic. Xiao Wu would seem to be a lot more accessible than other Chinese art films because it lacks the slow bits characteristic of that genre. I would highly recommend Xiao Wu to anyone interested in Chinese cinema.
Dogville (2003)
good, bad, and ugly - all at once
There seem to be a lot of negative reactions to this film, but I think the fact that it provokes a strong reaction at all is a good thing. I didn't sleep well after i watched this movie; it hit me like a blow to the stomach.
Sure, it's long, boring, and depicts humanity in an excessively dark light.
But frankly, I think it's a good counterbalance to all the crap films full of one-dimensional characters who are either good, bad, or fashionably flawed. The fact is each of us is equally capable of both kindness and cruelty, and the line between the two rapidly disintegrates when self-interest is involved.
The ultra-minimal setting made this film a serious chore to watch, but it put the focus on the characters; I'm not sure it would have worked so well with a more "realistic" backdrop. All in all, this film is well worth the effort. It's not the kind of thing you can watch twice, but both the story and the approach are unique enough to earn my recommendation.