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Reviews
Zhe ge sha shou bu tai leng jing (2022)
Solid remake of Mitani's "Magic Hour"
This is a remake of the Japanese film "The Magic Hour" by Koki Mitani (2008). An unsuccessful actor is hired by a director to play a deadly hitman to deal with the mob. He is led to believe that he is playing the lead in a movie with the cameras hidden, but in fact there are no cameras and the mob is real. This leads to both funny and precarious situations.
The remake takes it even a bit further than the original, including a scene where the actor practically kills someone and a situation where lead actress apparently got raped (but that is not shown). The acting is generally excellent: The clownishly acting lead, the fidgety director, the cool mob figures. I still prefer Mitani's original for its human warmth, a trademark of his films in general.
Jenseits des Krieges (1996)
Austrian soldiers telling their own experience
For this documentary, Ruth Beckermann entered an exhibition about war crimes in Vienna 1995 with her camera team. She recorded the opinions of the visitors, mostly former soldiers, some of them admitting that they had seen similar scenes themselves, and condemning them, others denying any connection, and still others even justifying the war. In this way an authentic picture emerges about how the former soldiers viewed their own involvement, and beyond that, how Austrian society at large viewed the Second World War in the late 1990s. The Austrian situation is interesting in that Austria, unlike Germany, was able to present themselves mainly as victims, and did not take responsibility or undergo the same kind of re-education as Germany. Now, in the early 2020s, mostly everyone interviewed in the film will already be dead. This makes one realize even more how precious the voices of real people experiencing that time, and how precious documentaries like this one are.
Return to Vienna (1983)
Witness of a dark time and place
This is an interview movie with Franz Weintraub, a Jew who grew up in inter-war Vienna just before the Nazi time started and was able to get out early enough to save his life. His account of the years 1924 to 1934 is first hand and interspersed with otherwise rarely seen film material of the period. Weintraub was a social democrat, who under the pressure from the right moved increasingly towards communism. This kind of increasing polarization is especially scary in the light what is happening in the U. S. and some countries of Europe today. Of course, even more scary is what happened to the Jews in Middle and Eastern Europe thereafter. Towards the end of the movie, Weintraub gives a gripping account of it.
Rückkehr nach Montauk (2017)
Not for return viewing
Movie director Volker Schlöndorff has a number of good films to his name. This is definitely not one of them. Inspired by a novel of the Swiss author Max Frisch, Schlöndorff has said in interviews that the contents is basically autobiographic. The main protagonist (Stellan Skarsgård) is a middle-aged, successful, and womanizing novelist from Northern Europe. He returns to New York and links up with one of his former lovers, the one he considers the true love of his life, a German immigrant who is now an extremely successful attorney in NY (the German star actress Nina Hoss). The two travel to Cape Montauk, where they the novelist tries to revive their former relationship.
Throughout the film feels like a mediocre TV production, and never really takes off. Other reviewers have already given their opinion why. Here is mine. First and foremost, it's difficult to empathize with the protagonists. Who would care about the small problems of this super-successful and super-self-possessed middle-aged couple? What's the point for the audience if the novelist chooses his gorgeous former flame over his gorgeous current wife? Second, the dialogue is stiff and unnatural, especially the parts spoken by Nina Hoss. She doesn't sound fluent and natural like a successful attorney would, but rather like someone who has come fresh from Germany and has memorized her lines. That being said, the quality of the acting is generally quite good, as is the photography. So, the failure really comes down to the script.
Tian jiang xiong shi (2015)
Chinese propaganda vehicle?
Having in mind Jackie Chan's criticism of the HK democracy protesters last year, I cannot help to see this film as Chinese propaganda. Chan represents the great Chinese empire that brings together many different nationalities like the Uyghurs and the Mongolians peacefully, who are backward, unable to rule themselves and would otherwise get at each others' throat. That's how they are actually depicted. In come the Romans, who stand for the West. The good ones who help the Chinese to build there country and bring new technology (Lucius' troop) are welcomed, while the bad ones with imperialistic ambitions (Tiberius's troop) are repelled by all Chinese nations. It's so obvious that this is how China wants to officially portray itself, and by this movie they primarily educate their own people about this view. Must be a film with high government-approval rating, unlike many other films who have not been allowed to be shown in China.