Reviews

We may think this movie is about India's notorious caste system, a particular problem that unfortunately only India has, but this is not just about India. Discrimination, inequality, injustice, repression, deprivation, violence and crime against people due to their ethnicity, skin color, gender, age, appearance, education level, language, culture, religion, social status are happening everywhere in our human society. So, wherever and whenever a victory shines through adversity, it feels like a beacon of light for human salvation.

Salute to Indian film industry for producing movies like Article 15 that shows us the depth of darkness but also the strength of light that will eventually break through any dreadful darkness.

This is a vivid story of a young woman who grappled with her damaged self-identity and regained her strength and dignity after hiking 1000s miles alone in the harsh wild nature. Our society brags too much about young women' sex appeal and superficial freedom, but shows little interest to exam their pain and loss during their youthful time. WILD has made a difference, a very good one.

To be honest I was not ready to surrender to someone else's self-discovery story when I stepped into the cinema. Since every one would have an individual version, how could Cheryl's be more impressive? However, after viewing this movie, I must say that this is a very soft and touching movie. If I would ask myself: 'is there anything else in the world more delicate than our soul?' I could hardly think of something. That's why it touches me when watching a lost and vulnerable young soul yearning for guidance and strength before it perishes. Perhaps we have all been there, feeling helpless and despaired. So it also pleases me to see Cheryl winning her true self back.

The flashbacks in the movie were well constructed, which showed us illustrations of Cheryl's alcoholic and violent father, her nurturing but a little helpless mother, her seductive and wrongly-expressed sexuality,her addiction to drugs and abandons, and her crippled ability to sustain marriage and other aspects of life... With an agreeable appearance but a devastating emptiness in heart, Cheryl was prone to fall and fall hard, and that's how she had done to herself. Amazingly, during the long marching in PTC, Cheryl started to pay attention to herself, which she rarely did. She dissected her chaos little by little, by grieving on her stupid approach to letting abusive sex to distract her pain, her youthful arrogance to question her mother's unfulfilled life, and her feelings of inadequacy for her mother, her husband and herself... Also, she celebrated herself, for her courage to conquer fears, her incredible persistence and willpower, and her achievement of unveiling a new and intact self-image... In the movie, the overbearing baggage she was carrying on the back and in the mind had been gradually transmuted, and finally gifted to her as essential supplies that would nurture her.

The soundtrack was also excellently embedded into the movie. Actually it was those musicals that had brought up most of my tears. 'El Condor Pasa' was a perfect choice to express deep longing for emotional freedom. 'Let 'em in' created a cheerful air to welcome positive influxes. The rhythm of 'Walk unafraid' was commensurate with the energy of the movie. 'I can never go home again' fitted the plot very well. 'Turn away' gently announced the determination and victory Cheryl earned at the end.

This movie well depicted the long marching of a soul, being bruised and wounded at the beginning of the march and being healed at the end of the march. It reminds us that in the mire of darkness, the only way out is through, doesn't it? This movie inspired and touched me so much, I am not even keen to see some artificial make-ups to reveal the wounds or sunburns on Reese's face, not at all.

This movie tells a love story between two Chinese men from the late 1980s to the late 90s. A teenager named Lan Yu just enrolled in a University in Beijing. He forced himself to accept a one-night stand offer in order to save himself from poor financial situation. Handong was a business man who lived a luxury and self-indulging life at that time. One of his indulgences was to bed with men and women. The pair spent their first night in Hangdong's private hotel room, which was Lan Yu's first time. Since then, fate had kept bringing them back to each other until Lan Yu's sudden death.

This movie is based on an anonymous online novel named "Beijing Story" in which the author cherished the memory of Lan Yu as his lover. Compared to the original novel, the movie slightly altered Lan Yu's personality from an absolute introvert to someone who showed tendency to voice out emotions from time to time. But the essences of Lan Yu's shining personalities have been well preserved in the movie, which are his purity, simplicity, nobility and loyalty.

Lan Yu's young heart had widely opened for Handong since their first night. For Lan yu, Handong's strong male presence in his fragile and humble life was a potent force that had been instilled in his young soul from the very beginning. Because of his admiration and affection for Handong, he ardently looked for part-time jobs and saved all the money Handong gave to him, in a hope to change the nature of their relationship. However for Handong, he would rather regard his associations with Lan Yu as straightforward business deals, logically. His genuine liking and growing concern for Lan Yu brought him not only satisfaction but also resistance and fear. After spending a short and happy time together in their suburban house that Handong gave Lan Yu as a gift, Handong decided to marry a woman in order to fulfill his male obligations, and accepted Lan Yu's refusal to stay in that house for him. A few years later, the pair met again accidentally, right after Handong's divorce. Without words, they revealed their suppressed longings for each other at Lan Yu' place through a sincere hug. Shortly after that, Handong was sent to prison due to his illegal business conduct. Lan Yu did everything he could to help Handong gain freedom. He put in all his personal savings and sold all his valuables including that suburban house Handong gave him. After being released from jail, Handoing said to Lan Yu that during his time in jail, he had clearly figured out that Lan Yu was his destiny. When Lan Yu eventually had chance to enjoy Handong's committed, unguarded and passionate love, he died in a tragic accident. For Handong, the most soothing way to ease his grief was driving along the streets of Beijing, day after day and year after year, in a hopeless and endless search of his lost angel, Lan Yu.

As Da Vinci once said: "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication". Stanley Kwan's movie 'Lan Yu' has set a perfect example to show us the great contrast that how a truly deep love story can be told in a plainly calm way. Kwan did not force us to see, to listen or to believe anything just for the sake of the movie itself. Not a single word in the movie was purposefully written to manipulate the audiences' emotional reaction. The verbal exchanges between two characters were as simple as "It has been four months.", "Are you cold?", "Happy new year!","What should I wear?", "Are you still using the same shampoo?"… But it was those very words that took us from one season to another, from one year to another to witness their love attachment growing stronger and stronger. Not a single scene in this movie was intentionally plotted to amuse or sadden the audiences. Every moment was innocently unfolded to depict the unstoppable blossoming of their love while wrestling with resistance and hurts. They looked at each other, they quarreled with each other, they walked alongside by each other and they sang together with each other… Every moment was to reflect their evolving love in a natural flow until the moment they accepted each other as their divine destinies.

In mainland China, intimate behaviors between two men would still be considered as a criminal offense before a reformed Criminal Law was issued in 1997. But this movie did not pay any attention to the homosexual controversy during that period. By focusing less on the convolution and adversity of its social context, this movie actually made a resoundingly stronger statement that love is merely about two people and the interaction of their souls, and nothing else should be taken into account in the matter of love.

Besides its simplicity, 'Lan Yu' displayed Stanley Kwan's exquisite style and effortless taste in every aspect of filming. The movie is so beautifully made and I find it incredibly powerful pertaining to emotion awakening and spiritual nourishing.(In Chinese language, 'Lan' means the color of blue, and "Yu" has multiple meanings including cosmic space or grace. The name of 'Lan Yu' is perfect by itself.)

Mr Nuri Bilge Ceylan had made adventurous efforts in his movie "Winter Sleep". Rewardingly, Palme d'Or Awards was passed onto his hands in 2014. A stunning feature of this movie was the eloquence of major characters. Because of this distinct feature, the audiences need feel comfortable to catch up with a large amount of intellectual debates and accusative questionings between the characters, in order to tap into the characters' inner worlds.

During three hours and sixteen minutes, a rich and deep portrait of various emotional sufferings are gradually unfolded. The audiences are exposed to intense conflicts between the rich and the poor, a complacent brother and his critical divorcée sister, an egoistic husband and an unhappy young wife and also a naive philanthropist and a resentful villager. Also, there are explosions and accumulations of negative emotional outbursts such as distrust, prejudice, loneliness, fear, suffocation, delusion, cynicism, hopelessness and hatred.

While viewing these interpersonal tensions and emotional despairs, it seems to me that our characters were all wearing shackles which had stopped them from finding their true inner strength. For Aydin, the shackle was his distrust and emotional rigidity. For Necla, it was her disapproving attitude and reluctance to change. For Nihal, it was her pessimistic view of her future. For Hamdi, it was his deeply-rooted shame and hatred towards the rich. For Hamid's little son Ilysa, it was his inability to fight against social unfairness. For Hamdi's bother Ismail, it was his involuntary submissiveness and unresisting. And perhaps due to these emotional scars, they all felt deprived of freedom and thus pushed each other into corners in order to feel justified.

Mr Nuri Bilge Ceylan opened an abundance of philosophical discussions in this movie. Seemingly he was unwilling to provide effective solution to ease any of these social and interpersonal tensions depicted in the movie. Nevertheless, Mr Ceylan did examine Aydin's self-revelation after he clashed with his sister Necla and his wife Nihal. When Aydin's false ego was badly stricken, the loneliness and pain in Aydin's heart must have been unbearably agonizing. From that moment, the movie started to openly unveil Aydin's vulnerabilities. He contemplated at his parents' graveyard. His messy hair was flying nowhere in the snow, looking terribly sad. When he showed genuine care to the young motorcyclist, that warmth didn't returned back to him. The releasing of a wild horse back to Anatolia steppe could indicate his longing to loosen his own rigidity and forceful mind. While waiting for his run-away train to Istanbul, he frankly demanded the company of his assistance Hidayet. He paid attention to a dead fox lying beside the rails in the snow and even checked birds of prey on the nearby tree. He watched the dying rabbit pitifully during hunting. At the end of the movie, Aydin admitted to himself that he was unable to live through life without Nihal. At this point, when Aydin acknowledged his emotional vulnerabilities, it appeared that he regained his peace and order, and even kicked off his long-term writing project on "the History of Turkish Theatre". Aydin perhaps realized that he no longer needed to be the superior one who was emotionally distant to people and himself, who felt like a king by being a columnist in his imaged kingdom, who loved his own civilized manner to contrast others'clumsiness, who was relying on rigidity to feel strong…

Overall, this is a thought-provoking movie, managed by a master director and performed by impeccable cast. I would love to watch this movie again after a few years, as I wish to comprehend more of its richness and depth when life rewards me with more personal experiences.

The first thing I want to comment on is about the color. This film used a lot of cool colors, despite of a few break-ins when warm-hearted Mari showed up in the movie with her red dresses and beautiful smiles. Nevertheless, this elegant movie was filled with warm passions which were initially suppressed but beautifully expressed by its characters at the later part of the film, which made this film unbelievably touching.

All the major characters in the film seemed frustrated in their individual search of love. Jun was lost in a foreign country and searching for his uncle who could give him new hope of living. Roberto was burdened by a very sad memory that his beloved father died from a unbearable shock that his only son was on the battlefield of a war. Mari was making every effort to open Roberto's heart but could hardly make any progress... These characters didn't talk much in the whole film, but showed us so many deep emotions. They came together seemingly by accident, but with sincere hearts, they fixed each other's problem in a blessing way. This film made me cry, because it is simply made but successfully conveyed profound human emotions.

Thank for everyone who was involved in making this beautiful film.