I just saw A World Without Thieves at a film festival, and I loved it. I had expected a more straight-forward Hong Kong production, but this was more of a mainland China movie. We follow a male-female couple of thieves, Bo and Li (both surnamed Wang, but apparently not married), the woman of whom is trying to abandon her criminal lifestyle for the sake of her unborn child's karma. So she decides to protect a naive country bumpkin who's transporting his life's savings by train, surrounded by people who want to rob him. As you can imagine, a plot with this kind of stark, sacrificial emotion involved must be difficult to turn into a successful piece of film-making. But this director pulls it off.
The movie is grand and beautiful. The emotional intensity and depth conveyed by the actors repeatedly brought a tear to my eye. The characters themselves cry several times, and their pain is convincing. The really impressive thing is that the movie really blends several genres. It has a plot and characters which are usually played for laughs in light-hearted action comedies, yet here they are treated seriously. The action scenes are low-key in order not to detract from the more important emotional matter. And adding in the magnificent cinematography, the end product becomes an art movie.
For the cinematography of this movie is simply breathtaking. Landscapes and people are filmed with inspired visual flair. There are a few kung fu scenes in the movie (the most impressive of which is the peeling of a *raw* egg, without breaking the membrane), but they are done very untraditionally. The skirmishes are never really shown, except in brief, half-blurred flashes, mimicking pick-pocketing skills, where you practically can't see the moves. However, these scenes are accompanied by special music, and most certainly have an aesthetic all their own, contributing to making this movie unique. The director is trying to do something new and different with the kung fu scenes, and I think he succeeds. The focus of the movie is not on the fight scenes, but on the characters' emotions and the dazzling cinematography.
The end of the movie is also stunning. In order to honor his lover's wish, the male thief, who has no desire to reform, ends up getting himself killed in order to return the country bumpkin's money to him from a rival master thief. Now, you can focus on the return of the money, and find the moral of the movie naively romantic. Or you can focus on the heart-rending death of Bo, and be moved to tears by his sacrifice, which was for love of his partner, and not for the naive country bumpkin. I did the latter, and I believe the director was going for this reaction. This was not a naive movie about protecting an innocent soul from the unavoidable evils of the world; it was a character study focusing on two thieves who ended up disappearing from the world, one through reform, and one through self-sacrifice. It touched me deeply.
All told, a masterpiece that I can heartily recommend, and which I will certainly acquire for myself when I get the chance.
Ratingswise, I initially wondered if I should give it an 8 or a 9. But upon reflection of how perfectly put together this movie was, and what a great artistic accomplishment it is, and how the consideration of its themes and their resolutions continue to move me when I think back on the climactic scenes, I have to give it top marks. 10 out of 10.
The movie is grand and beautiful. The emotional intensity and depth conveyed by the actors repeatedly brought a tear to my eye. The characters themselves cry several times, and their pain is convincing. The really impressive thing is that the movie really blends several genres. It has a plot and characters which are usually played for laughs in light-hearted action comedies, yet here they are treated seriously. The action scenes are low-key in order not to detract from the more important emotional matter. And adding in the magnificent cinematography, the end product becomes an art movie.
For the cinematography of this movie is simply breathtaking. Landscapes and people are filmed with inspired visual flair. There are a few kung fu scenes in the movie (the most impressive of which is the peeling of a *raw* egg, without breaking the membrane), but they are done very untraditionally. The skirmishes are never really shown, except in brief, half-blurred flashes, mimicking pick-pocketing skills, where you practically can't see the moves. However, these scenes are accompanied by special music, and most certainly have an aesthetic all their own, contributing to making this movie unique. The director is trying to do something new and different with the kung fu scenes, and I think he succeeds. The focus of the movie is not on the fight scenes, but on the characters' emotions and the dazzling cinematography.
The end of the movie is also stunning. In order to honor his lover's wish, the male thief, who has no desire to reform, ends up getting himself killed in order to return the country bumpkin's money to him from a rival master thief. Now, you can focus on the return of the money, and find the moral of the movie naively romantic. Or you can focus on the heart-rending death of Bo, and be moved to tears by his sacrifice, which was for love of his partner, and not for the naive country bumpkin. I did the latter, and I believe the director was going for this reaction. This was not a naive movie about protecting an innocent soul from the unavoidable evils of the world; it was a character study focusing on two thieves who ended up disappearing from the world, one through reform, and one through self-sacrifice. It touched me deeply.
All told, a masterpiece that I can heartily recommend, and which I will certainly acquire for myself when I get the chance.
Ratingswise, I initially wondered if I should give it an 8 or a 9. But upon reflection of how perfectly put together this movie was, and what a great artistic accomplishment it is, and how the consideration of its themes and their resolutions continue to move me when I think back on the climactic scenes, I have to give it top marks. 10 out of 10.