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Reviews
Beijing zazhong (1993)
Not a common Chinese movie
I don't think it's a very awful movie. Zhang Yuan is one of the best director of the six generation, he got reputation by this movie and "dong gong xi gong"(the first movie about homosexuality in China). The group of guys are obsessive or they call themselves "social outsiders". They have their respective pain and love and lifestyle, but all of those are not symmetric with the social moral standard. Actually, I heard lots of vulgarities, but I don't it's indelicate. People talking like this everyday. It's real life, but I have to say that's a little bit rebellious at that age. It is not a very famous movie in China, maybe it was forbidden, I'm not sure. All in all, it was a radical and an experiment in Chinese movies field.
The Last Emperor (1987)
A masterpiece
This is one of the best epic all the time. A brilliant costume and cinematographic technique. It's about last emperor of China Pu Yi who is always live in a horrifying spiritual durance.
I heard of this motion picture many years ago. About ten years or more ago, Joan Chen was a widely known star in China for this picture. Almost every Chinese know it. However, I never saw it before last afternoon. The reason is I'm afraid of I'm too young to get the point of the thick history. So I saw it when I'm sure I have been up to understand history enough.
BTW, "10,000 years" never means "he was the king of 10,000 years", that's a wish. All people wish their emperor could live forever, even 10,000 years(the brothers of the emperor called 1,000 years). Everyone must say it when he or she meet the emperor. That's the rule of each dynastic royalty never change till QING dynasty vanished away. I seem to pity Pu Yi throughout I experience the picture. He was an emperor without any power and enough space. The most unfortunate is he never escape from an invisible cage. At first, he was imprisoned by warlord in Forbidden City and then by Japan military till been a criminal of betrayed motherland. He wants to be a true emperor, he never been released by his soul and ambition, eventually makes him as betrayer and totally puppet. What a tragic character! It looks as if it not easy to be the last emperor.
Overall, it deserves nine Academy Awards. Incidental music is impressive, also are all performances.
Irréversible (2002)
maniac
My friend told me this movie is a disgusting one and he threw it out of window after he watching before I see it. So I'm curious about it more or less. It's truly a rarely style of camera action. It whirling for twenty minutes at least at very beginning. My eyes are dizzy a lot until I saw the fire extinguisher appearing. Wow, I still feel unbelievable when the extinguisher hitting the face. How mad his rage is! At the end of the movie, I see something like "2001 SPACE ODYSSEY" and lots of traces from "CLOCKWORK ORANGE" in whole film. I didn't get the point of the flashing in the end, does it just imitate 2001 or has any other meanings? I have no idea.
Love Letter (1995)
Implicit and touching and beautiful
No doubt, it's my permanent favorite love story. Hiroko Watanabe's fiancé died in a climb accident, she misses him so much, one day after her fiancé's(Itsuki Fujii) funeral, she had an idea to send a letter to his hometown and the address is already inexistent. She calls the letter to heaven. Unexpectedly, she get reply. Of course, she feels so weird and decides to visit the town. Finally, she finds the girl who sent the letter. She shocked when she see the girl since they have definitely same look and the love story is portrayed from here. Her fiancé has the same name of the girl, Itsuki Fujii. He loved the girl so deep, but he never reveal his mind, he hided his love in mind. He would be Hiroko Watanabe's fiancé just because they have same look. In the end, female Itsuki Fujii understand his love, she receives a book-borrow card and see her drawing painted by male Itsuki Fujii. But everything's gone. I heard of a number of girls ask their boyfriends do you really love me or just love somebody else looks like me when they leave cinema. It's surely a joke. The movie tells a very tragic story, but still beautiful. I saw the aesthetic sensibility just belongs to oriental. The story moves not very fast, but I can taste an implicit feeling, no sexuality no action scene no drugs even no kiss. Do you believe a Hollywoodized love story could be without all these elements, my answer is absolutely impossible. Love could be simple but not means kinda boring if only it's genuine. It brought tears first time when I watching a film. Thanks for the director Shunji Iwai, he brought an unique oriental style to the world. I also wanna look his APRIL STORY, I assure that's another excellent movie. 10 out of 10.
Boys Don't Cry (1999)
Find your value of life
It's my first time to see such a fag movie. Before that I had known that Hilary Swank won Oscar best actress. I am shocked by her performance now, that's so brilliant and incredible, I even consider it's the best performance of Oscar best actress winners in ten years. The story of Teena Brandon, she is a lesbian and wanna be a true boy, do what boys could do. It's her dream and she was addicted to disguising herself as a boy. She failed again and again after she was debunked till she got away. She fell in love with a girl in a strange town. That moment, I thought she achieved first step of her dream, but she was debunked once more and consequently rape and murder occurred on her. Dream broke eventually. Despite it happened I still believe it's valuable and worthwhile for what she did. Society embodies various love relationship, today people contain queer relationship. Fags are never stared at as a sort of abnormality. When we look back, I found they lived very hard and unfair that time. Everyone has a dream. Teena tried her best to doing that, her ending never means her failure, she knew who she is and detected her value in her life from the romance. She's fortunate because not everybody knew that, even if they had lived for seventy or eighty years or more. Teena got it when she's only twenty-one. Sexual identity crisis or queer phenomenon is still a sensitive topic somewhere such as my hometown. Maybe our culture is truly conservative. But I learned everyone's every type of love should be respectable if only it's true. I esteem every choice that from heart and I love the character of Hilary Swank. Obviously it's a serious theme and not suitable for children. But we need this kind of story, that instructs us how to understand others lives, just be yourself whatever people comment on you. 8 out of 10
Ba wang bie ji (1993)
History tells us...
What can we learn from history? When I watched "Farewell" I asked myself. The story about two Peking opera brothers, their life behind stage with love betrayal and anguish.
I didn't experience the period from 20s to 70s. But as a born Chinese I know the fifty years history very clear. China changed a lot in this period. From feudalization went to an independent democratic country.
I have to mention Chinese traditional education about opera player's training. I guess many people felt miserable and pitiful when the teacher was beating opera apprenticed kids, I just want to say it was very common in opera school at that time and every actor must take it if he desires to fame. Even now a few of parents still hit their children especially in countryside families, because they believe no kids grow well without severe chastisement. It's a part of Chinese traditional culture obviously. Certainly, I don't think it's right.
The second issue I wanna point out is Culture Revolution(66-76), the disastrous fault in China modern history. Duan solo(Zhang Fengyi) betrayed his loyal wife(Gong Li) and disclosed his brother's(Leslie Cheung) past when they were animadverted in film. Why he did that, I think the revolution twisted his soul. If anti-Japan war and the civil war destroyed the material of living, I ought to say the revolution destroyed all the generation of my parents. They didn't accept entire education and become a tool of politics. Young men didn't know what the revolution is and why it exists at that time at all.
A great movie all in all, pathetic ending, but be doomed to that. If a person finds he had lost the meaning of life and not hold pain brought from fate any longer. Nothing left but suicide to him. Worthy of spending three hours to watching if you are interested in Chinese culture and what happened in the past.
Kekexili (2004)
Best movie of the year and the flaw in my thought
Above all, I wanna say it's powerful and one of the best mandarin movies in the year. It's about extincting Tibet antelopes and a couple of people who want to protect these animals. The director leaded his filmmaker team into Tibet high land that without human being, they worked for a couple of months and finished it.
When I watched the film first time, I thought I felt the smell of death. Especially the snowing scene, everything's white and snow could not stop falling. White represents death sometimes, I really saw a dying world. I was touched a lot.
I heard about the American investor designed the film as a Chinese West film, just like American west movies. People fighting and shooting each other, Heros win and the poachers are killed. Certainly, the director refuse the bad idea. He's clear that he need a documentary movies not for pastime. It must be serious and heuristic . However, I still should point out the script problems. When the mountain patrol team captain found the poachers, he asked the armed poachers put down their weapon and confess to crimes. I'm confused for the captain hadn't been armed at all. I mean he should choose a better measure, he was facing a group of gangsters not normal citizens. So I think it'll be better if the screenplay was modified in a appropriate way. On my humble opinion, director Lu didn't exposure humanity deep enough for the script reason. But it's still terrific and two thumbs up.