Change Your Image
twob_ornot
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Lists
An error has ocurred. Please try againReviews
Jia fang yi fang (1997)
pretty good
Too bad the critics who seem to act as gatekeepers for Chinese movies haven't approved this. Maybe because it's a comedy. The story is somewhat similar to Mi Jiashan's Wan zhu (1988), and even shares a star (Ge You) with that movie, but it's also much better done.
Nannan nünü (1999)
feh
It starts out OK, showing what life's like in the big city, but turns into a politically correct movie suggesting that everyone's dying to be gay. Maybe that's why it's classified as a comedy, but no offense to gays, I didn't find it particularly comic.
Xing fu shi guang (2000)
Bittersweet
This one's up to Zhang Yimou's usual standard, and like his other movies, revolves around an unfortunate female, in this case a young blind woman. Set in modern urban China, this movie often has a lighter touch than most of his others. Although the movie credits cite a story by Mo Yan, "Shifu, You'll do Anything for a Laugh" as the basis of the movie, the connection is highly tenuous, borrowing little more than the main character from that short story; namely, a middle-aged, laid-off factory worker, played by Zhao Benshan (best known to Chinese audiences as a comedic actor). The economic changes in modern China form the background to his relationship with the blind girl he finds himself thrown together with as he tries to court her step-mother.
I'd like to see someone pick this one up for distribution and given a better English title.
Zamri, umri, voskresni! (1990)
An unexpected treasure
Don't come to this expecting much in the way of a plot; it's a bunch of interconnected anecdotes about a boy living in a stark Siberian mining town. Apparently it's semi-autobiographical & filmed on a minuscule budget. Some online reviews claim the boy's mother is a prostitute (I thought her reference to that was metaphorical). The filmmaker certainly doesn't give much context away, but even without understanding much about Stalinist Siberia or knowing exactly what is meant by living in "the zone", for me the film conveys at once the frustration of living in exile with a child's failure to understand. Similarly, in his interaction with his caring older (girl) friend, the young protagonist conveys the often-heartless behavior of younger children. The actors are supposedly non-professionals; they do an excellent job. And the b&w photography is beautifully evocative. My only quibble is the "it's only a movie" ending.
La double vie de Véronique (1991)
It's not the plot
I found the movie exquisite. While the acting, the music, and the mysterious--even inconclusive--story contributed to the experience for me, it was the mood that the film was able to convey that most touched me. We lost a great one with Kieslowski.
Babettes gæstebud (1987)
For people who think faith is more important than eating (spoiler?)
The movie was acted & filmed well, and the story enjoyable up to a point, but I found it marred by an ending totally lacking in verisimilitude. There's a certain degree of unrealistic circumstances that I'm prepared to accept: that the only place a talented French chef can find to seek refuge is a corner of Denmark where the food is even worse than it is the US. (Babette's reaction when she first tastes the food the sisters expect her to prepare is wonderfully subtle.) The set-up behind her having a lottery ticket bought for her and actually winning is OK movie logic, as is her preparing a feast for her benefactors instead of leaving. And the presence of a certain guest is dictated by earlier an appearance and is central to the denouement. But it's the ending, with its excessive spirituality that I found unacceptable and in conflict with the tone of the rest of the movie.
Here's the spoiler: Babette stays in the end, to sacrifice her life just as the sisters have theirs. I understand the returned military/lover's explanation as something like: Even if your life seems a total waste (like his), God loves you and so none of that matters. The implication is, it doesn't matter if you throw away a (God-given) talent. Which makes no sense to me. I must be crazy.