China Film Journal

This film is about the Chinese that left China in the 19th c. to build railroads in Canada and the US, and of course, has a bit of intrigue and romance as well.
The story follows Little Tiger (Sun Li), a plucky girl living the hard scrabble life on the streets of Hong Kong. Without family or friends, Little Tiger has to pretend that she’s a boy (a la Mulan) and work odd jobs to keep herself afloat. Her dream is to learn English and then go to the “Gold Mountain”, where she thinks she can make some real money and perhaps find her long-lost father, who went there and was never heard from again.

Fate has it that she runs into James Nichol (Luke McFarlane), the dashing young lad that is sent by his railroad tycoon father to get 2000 coolies to Canada right quick, lest they not able to finish their railroad and thus forfeit everything to their debtors. From there on in you can expect plenty of fortune cookie type moments thrown in, and you can guess who falls in love with who, and you can almost guess if there is a happy ending or not.

The two performances that I enjoyed the most were not by either of the main actors, but by Tony Leung Ka Fai as the bookman with the mysterious scar on his face as well as the venerable Peter O’Toole, who gets to play a drunken, aging old China hand responsible for finding workers for the Nichols. Peter O’Toole’s performance is of note, and not because it’s bad–I think it’d be hard for an actor of his caliber to be awful, but there are some ropey lines in there, especially when O’Toole is speaking Chinese and says some cheesy things like “forgive him, he is but a foreign devil” or just “oh shit”…it’s the kind of role that are easy paychecks for O’Toole John Hurt and the like–a sagging face, a slurred voice, drunken roues, world-weary philosophers, a still posh English accent–its still a joy to watch but there is, truth be told, nothing of real value in a role or performance of that sort. It adds nothing new. It is, literally, just a role.

The story itself, when it moves to Canada, has the normal ups and downs. There are a couple of secrets, a couple of conspirators, an couple of racist baddies, etc. There is also supposed to be this streak of melancholy because of all the Chinese workers that lost their lives in this process–they said 3 for every mile of railroad–and they hit this point home fairly often enough in the movie, when random Chinese workers get tragically killed. There are some bits about the emotional lives of the workers–but for the most part, the story is focused on Little Tiger, the she that is a he, as well as James Nichols, who learns a little something about Chinamen, building railroads, and himself in the process.

On the whole, not too bad, but nothing that you really want to waste your time watching if you have something more pressing to do, or something of real quality to watch.

We all know how these biopics go. You have the kick-ass kungfu master: he’s not morally perfect, but he’s a good guy.
He has integrity when it counts. Family and nation above all. He doesn’t want to become famous, he doesn’t want to be an icon. But those dirty Japs just keep going around shooting, raping, and pillaging. So he has to show them we Chinese may be down, but not out. We will no collaborate to save our own skins. And those who do, well, their comeuppance will come in due time.

Like Wong Fei-hung, Fok Yuen-Gep (both played by Jet Li), Ip Man’s general storyline is fairly standard. What makes the film slightly better is that it lacks the wire-fu and melodrama. The whole movie is fairly down-to-earth and generally un-annoying, a virtue in itself. The real star of the film is Wing-Chun style of kung-fu—which is visually quite distinctive, the movements are compact and yet powerful. Instead of heavy left-hooks, you have all four limbs moving together; it’s both fluid and poetic. In fact, it seems that part of the reason why Wing-Chun always beats other types of kung-fu (including karate, and Thai boxing, in some videos seen on the net), is because it lets the opponent make these huge, flailing moves: the roundhouse kicks, etc.— and then takes advantage of the temporary chinks in the armor that these moves expose.

Anyhow, Donnie Yen is a bit more fun to watch than Jet Li, if only because we are too Jet Li-saturated. Yen plays Ip just right. No melodrama, no over-acting. Just the normal amount of emotion you’d expect from someone in his sometimes unenviable position.

Last note: his wife, played by Lynn Hung (Xiong Dailin)—her acting is nothing to write home about. But she is ineffably lovely as the typically virtuous Chinese wife.

Squat – The Moss via kwout

Unfortunately, we haven’t had enough time to devote to this website. I wrote a review that appeared on Batgwa/Squat, which you can read by clicking on the link above.

moss, shawn yu, violence, hong kong, society, police, cops, China, drama, action

剛看了一個豆瓣上對《圍城》的影評。。。其實筆者談的不是電影而是自己的跟電影情節相似·的經歷。看來
這部電影能引起的共鳴不限于香港人而是所有目睹過青少年對彼此的殘酷。

I surfed across this randomly when looking for stuff relating to the film Besieged City. I thought this person would write about film, but it was more like the film inspired him to write some of his thoughts relating to violence among students (the movie is about gangs of kids in a Hong Kong New Territories housing project).
看了电影，我只想说，他哥太软弱了。
我也是做哥哥的人，自己的兄弟被欺负冷眼旁观简直不可容忍。
本来生在那样的家庭里，还有个那样的父亲。两兄弟就已经很可怜了，然而却不知道相濡以沫，更是可悲。
纵观全剧，只要前期有一个人能站出来帮助弟弟，可能就没有这部电影了。
(more…)

If you’re a fan of the “gutter-trawling” alienated youths genre of film, you should find this one enjoyable: and I did not intend to be ironic there, because I actually think this was a good film. The story centers around two brothers: the younger one gets relentlessly and heartlessly picked on at school–beaten up, all the time, by boys and girls (the latter, despite their nice skirts and uniforms, are basically triads-in-training–like many mobsters, they like stuffing heads in urinals and toilets). The older brother sees this and does nothing. It gets worse: the younger one is physically abused by his father at home, and again, the older one does nothing. With no one to protect and stand up for him, the younger brother disappears.

He’s not heard from again until the police tell the elder brother that his brother is in the hospital after attempted suicide, and is also the main suspect in the homicide of a girl affiliated with a young triad boss/mobster. The older brother soon finds himself entangled with these triad members, who say his younger brother made off with a huge stash of drugs. He then tries to piece together what exactly his younger brother had been up to during the last few years.

What he finds out is that his brother has become part of the seamy underbelly of New Territories housing development. These are outsiders and misfits, the kids that slip through the cracks of the system. And of course, to make ends meet they resort to stealing and selling drugs.

I always feel conflicted about movies like this: the inherent seriousness of the subject seems somehow at odds with the often stylized camera work and pacing. The highly saturated, bold, and contrasty cinematography reminds me of Infernal Affairs （無間道）where you see a lot of these cyan-green tinted shots. Of course, it’s more than just eye-candy: what you’re getting is not the objective fly-in-the-wall take on what happens, but some reflection of the subjective reality of the characters. I don’t want to suggest that the style is amateurish or bad, just not necessarily what one might expect of a film that touches on some very serious issues. My proclivity for neo-realism, documentary style movies a la the Dardennes Brothers is what I am getting at, but I suppose it’s not a big deal. I’ve just found this type of style has become idiomatic in Hong Kong and reminds one of those Hollywood films that also deal with people on the wrong side of the tracks or the bad side of town: to a certain extent, you have to deal in cliches. You don’t explore the complexity of parental abuse, or why kids beat up other kids.

I suppose that much of it has to do with the fact that so much of what happens in this film is alien to me. Hong Kong–you’re thinking banks and dim sum, wine bars and electronics shops. The harbor, the peak. You don’t think about father-daughter incest, much less expect to see (dimly), a father humping a daughter and getting her pregnant. Here the heart and mind begin to part ways: your mind is telling you that yes, all these things do exist, but this film is like a potluck roast of all the bad shit that happens in life and cramming all of it together makes the suspension of disbelief a wee bit harder. On the other hand, your heart is trying to feel sympathy for the characters and revulsion for all the cruelty that you see. That’s why realistic, naturalistic performances and style tend to work better for me: they start off by looking more “real” (or verite), and tend to shy away from overdramatizing.

The film has a few plot twists and turns, which I think makes the film much better than it might be were it to rely purely on the “moods” and portrayals of everyday life for teenage dropouts. With regards to the latter: the naturalistic performances by the actors really did make those moments shine–all the times they stole things, and made fun of each other, got high, fought and then made up. These dropouts are a motley bunch and for the most part, they all looked it–none of the made-up pretty-boys and Canto-pop queens that dominate most Hong Kong films. I am guessing that they used many non-actors, and perhaps some of them are even from that area of Hong Kong.

All in all: one of the more interesting films and directors (劉國昌) out of Hong Kong these days. I’ve heard that the director’s other films are quite interesting as well and am keen on filling what seems like an inexcusable gap in my Hong Kong film repertoire.

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彭韬凭《血蝉》获亚洲数码录像银奖 王小帅颁奖_影音娱乐_新浪网 via kwout

《血蝉》（Xue Chan/Little Moth) is a film about a girl that gets sold into slavery, joining one of those large beggars’ rings that anyone that’s spent any time living in and reading about urban China knows about. I had never heard of its director, Peng Tao (彭韬）until today, because while in Paris I went to an exhibition on China’s cities, and one of his films was showing there. The film was called “Wait” and was executive produced by Jia Zhangke and starred his leading lady, Zhao Tao. The film was about a woman with a young baby trying to make ends meet in Chongqing. Her husband is living in Pakistan and is absent throughout the film, echoing a theme found in Jia’s film Still Life. Her only form of communication comes in waiting at the post office for letters/mail that he might send, but of course, she never receives anything and then the post office ends up getting demolished (sorry for the spoiler, but the film is only 24 minutes long and being contemplative and arty doesn’t really have much of a plot to begin with). Her noodle stall gets demolished and so she’s forced to scrounge with work with a former patron who gives her some somewhat sketchy singing/karaoke type job, and that’s more or less where the movie concludes.

This was a short film, and it seems that Little Moth is the only feature length film that Peng Tao has made. As you can tell from the above picture though, it seems that he won an award (and was given that award from Wang Xiaoshuai, who is on the left). Googling in Englsih I found that he did indeed win the ,a href=”http://www.hkiff.org.hk/eng/programme/award01.php”>”Silver Digital Award” at the last Hong Kong International Film Festival.

I don’t know if any of his films are out on DVD in China, but would love to get a copy of Little Moth—I think I know what to expect, basically a bit of Jia Zhangke with a dash of Zhang Yang. Excuse me if I’m starting to sound a little cynical at this point, but hey, we all know what the Chinese arthouse is about. That doesn’t vitiate its value, by any means. Technorati Tags: china, peng tao, hong kong, HKIFF, little moth, slavery, beggars, china, chinese, society, awards, silver, zhao tao

Wong Kar-wai is celebrating the opening of his shit movie My Blueberry Nights in the US this Friday by selling some merchandise – most notably, $95 t-shirts, $50 posters, and $25 postcards. And if you want to thank him for ripping you off in person, you’ll get your chance in New York at a fashion boutique store called Opening Ceremony, where Wong is going to be on Wednesday afternoon. We hope that someone tells him that the US is facing a recessions and that the real incomes are not increasing for the average American. $25 for a postcard? You can get four lattes in Manhattan for that price! Sheesh!We’ve read a couple of blogs that have mentioned the Hong Kong International Film Festival, but here is yet another one from a blog dedicated to Asian Cinema. There are several movies mentioned in this post that we’re really looking forward to seeing, especially Old Fish, which was mentioned in several other blogs of HKIFF participants as well.From Screen Daily we learned that Summer Palace director Lou Ye’s new film, Bitch, was one of the films selected for the fourth Cannes Atelier. This year’s Atelier features 15 projects from 14 countries and aims to help directors get financing so that they can bring their projects to completion.

Last but not least, some cinematic dessert from YouTube: the top 10 Jackie Chan stunts. Not to be missed.

Cross-posted at Shanghaiist

The buzz is growing, especially after some posters were unveiled in Hong Kong at the FilMART and film festival happening right now. Lots of people talking about it, and the film is being hyped as a new style (or even breakthrough) in the Asian fantasy genre. To say that the film is a remake of the 80s film by King Hu might not be totally accurate — for one, a lot of time has passed since the 1980s, and what you can do on film is much different. One report says that a major difference is replacing the gentle Jiangnan scenery (hills, lakes, villages, Eastern China) with more rugged Western vistas (they filmed part of the movie in the Hengdian studios in Zhejiang, where all the huge sets are, but also filmed some of it in Ningxia province in the northwest of China, where there is PLENTY of mountain and desert). What’s for sure is that they really did get the creme de la creme for this new one, with Zhao Wei, Donnie Yen, Zhou Xun (as the female ghost), and Chen Kun among others in the cast. The director is Gordon Chan (replacing Wilson Yip … and we don’t know why).

The cast and crew have been uber-secretive about the film, and we gather that whatever posters or other things are being shown at FilMART are just the tip of the iceberg. The film’s not even done, apparently — they’re still in post, but from the reports we’ve read it seems that the film ought to be ready for the next Cannes Film Festival, where it will go head to head against another Chinese film — John Woo’s Red Cliff.

In the process of finding information for this post we came across some links that you might interesting, especially if Zhou Xun gives you that warm tingly feeling in your special region, like it does to my friend. Here’s some English blog dedicated to Zhou Xun, and this another English blog posting from February, where they are talking about the cold, rainy weather in Hengdian, where they shot most of the interior scenes and wrapped principal shooting.

We came across some interesting tidbits in the news today. First off, Yu Lik-wai (余力為) the Hong Kong director/cinematographer that lensed most of Jia Zhangke’s movies, will be starting principal shooting on his new film Plastic City 《塑料城市》. This film is a 2006 Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum alumni, and will begin shooting in Sao Paolo, Brazil — a location which intrigues us very , very much. We didn’t find out what the movie was about, but it’s been said that it will involve actors Anthong Wong (黄秋生) and Huang Yi (黄奕), and Japanese actor Joe Odagiri (小田切讓) — reports say that the film is a Chinese/Japanese co-production.

The other piece of news that we found interesting was that another HAF alum, the Taiwanese actor/director Lee Kangsheng (李康生), is screening his movie at the film festival in Hong Kong. The movie is called Help Me Eros (幫幫我愛神), was directed by and stars Lee Kangsheng, and was produced and art directed by his long-time collaborator and mentor, Tsai Mingliang (蔡明亮). They say the film features a lot of brooding, melancholy, alienation, and graphic sex — which is not surprising, given the two guys behind it. Should be a good one. We’ll be looking out for it on the DVD shelves in Shanghai soon.

Well, Black Daddy probably won’t end up being the final English title, as it was based on the Chinese (黑爸爸), of which it is a literal translation. However, they’ve changed the Chinese title to (一个好爸爸), which means “a good father.” The movie is about a mobster/triad young man who has an affair with a young lawyer (Rene Liu/刘若英), the product of which is, as in most cases, a young human being. Koo’s character then attempts to hide his past and present dealings from his daughter, while attempting to go straight. However — there’s always a however — shit happens and he has to confront his triad past, etc., etc. The humanized and reformed triad man has become a popular character type in Hong Kong cinema of late. You can click on the image link below to find some pictures from the movie. The film was executive produced by Jackie Chan and will be released (in Hong Kong first?) on April 10.

We learned about this movie from the Crunchy Roll Blog, which we recommend as a place to find stuff on Asian cinema and entertainment, anime, stuff like that.

:: 一个好爸爸 :: via kwout