Solidtaire Studio

the world

it's a brilliant film, outstanding even among the usually outstanding crowd of chinese indies.

it's one of the films that probably will remain small for years to come, but will continuously be discovered by film buffs and aspiring directors, a film that will serve as a frame of reference, a standard - like tokyo story, band of outsiders.

it's a story about alienation, of some characters who are vital, beautiful, strong, but also disoriented, small, and brittle. the world they live in is completely exotic to everyone - to the chinese, to the foreigners, to the old, and to the young. on the surface, they cope it with amazing wit, grace, courage, and honesty - it's impossible not to smile at the many delightful details, i.e. tao doing backbents on the lap of her boyfriend to relieve her backache, among many other innocent yet incredibly seductive scenes - but it all begs the question "what for." the scene of the young man setting himself aflame in the troupe's dressing room should be shamelessly plagiarized over and over again - all the beauty around you, it's just fuel for hell, it's just a trap.

jia is a masterful, inventive filmmaker who just can't be over-rated. the audio and visual kinetics of the film was amazing, with layers of sounds lending poignancy and contradiction to the story, and one classic frame after another. certain scenes feel like contemporary chinese art in action, i.e. the one of tourists posing in front of the leaning tower with nightmarish grins, or the bride pouring a bottle of liquor backwards into the groom's mouth. and where else can you hear a line like "let's drink a toast to all the chinese beauties in history, and marilyn monroe, and madonna?"

it's a slow film but every minute adds depth and texture. approach it on a calm night when you have some attention span. i've heard people complaining "but there isn't a plot." there is, you just need to pay attention, the cues are planted all over. this isn't one of these shitty films that beat you up with a plot and characterization. acting is superb, too. basically you'll forget that they are actually acting. they just are. the treat though is that this is a story about dancers, so their bodies and faces always speak volumes.

this isn't a film done for the western audience, or the chinese audience. jia isn't there to entertain you, you need to approach him. i wondered about the state of chinese indie films after watching it. these young filmmakers really have to get out of the way to make films, with politics and financing and all that. you must be really dying to say something if you're making films in china. you can't be thinking about money or fame (that's if you're not these dried-up old masters cashing on their fame doing absolute trash). that's what makes chinese indies so absolutely knock-outs. this phase won't last forever, and we just have to be thankful that these insanely fresh, inventive, vital, important films are being made.

devils on the doorstep

had high hope for this one and it delivered several times over.  always thought of jiang wen as exceptionally talented, but in this one, he really proved that he's a formidable and mature filmmaker.  the cinematography is magnificent, creating a stark yet beautiful, mythical landscape, lending a dark, docile, and volatile background to what is in the end a brutal story.  the funny thing is that there's nothing chinese about these frames - they're abstract, surreal, and assertive, actually reminding me of fellini.  the content though is so richly chinese, with splendid, splendid details delivered through both art direction and acting that multiply the force behind the story.  the effect is one of pained and constrained intimacy - the cinematography creates a distance, without which the audience, especially the viewers who are familiar with that period of history, would explode from the paralyzing brutality.  there are also nods to other theatrical traditions - for example, the scene of the botched execution is hinting both at mime and at classic chinese operas from the  north - that are sheerly delightful.  the story itself is a harsh, big, and heavy one.  i understand why it's banned in china.  on the surface it's a reflection of the  war between china and  japan.   at its heart it is a reflection of (or rather, pent-up rage at) the happy-go-lucky chinese character.  i'm not sure about the ending.  i wonder it's weighted down by jiang wen's own political convictions, his conflicting beliefs.  i  wonder whether it pushed a splendidly intelligent film towards the territory of sentimentality.  but gorgeous, gorgeous work overall.

a note on the soundtrack - it's not in mandarin.  it's in a northern dialect that i can barely keep up with.  jiang wen has one of the most magnetic, sexiest voices in the  world when he speaks mandarin.  in this  one, it's actually rather  hilarious to  hear him mumble his way through the film.

broken day - 10:30 pm summer

jules dassin was just another victim of a strange episode of america's history.  he was id'ed as a communist by a fellow hollywood director and promptly purged.  he went to europe and made some interesting  films there. 

out of his films that i've seen, 10:30 pm summer made such  a strangely lasting impression.  it's of course about  an alcholic wife who's husband is having an affair with a younger woman.  but it's a story deeply tied to a place, a time, and the people around them.   the film was based on a novel by margruerite duras, whose  work i adore.  it was supposed to be a spanish and american collaboration, but that's probably but a technicality.  it's done by a multi-national crew - american, french, greek, australian, austrian, spanish, hungarian, etc etc..  you will not know that.  the way they interacted with the locale, you'd think that they own that place.  sometimes, i think only  displaced people know how to love a place with such passion, such knowingness.