Change Your Image
eugehet
Reviews
Hui guang zou ming qu (2014)
A film that everyone can relate
This film introduces actress Chen Shiang-Chyi, an under rated and a little less known actress in Taiwan.
The cinematography is brilliant although what's in the frame might not be the most exciting. The pacing is good as well. It doesn't feel too long or draggy.
There is not much dramatic element in the story until the last scene. Much of the conflict is within Ling Zhi's inner world. Pay attention to the physical environment and you will realised it is reflection of her inner world. The sense of lost and hopelessness, the desire to be wanted but not be seen is very much felt in the film than seen. The build up of suppression is also greatly felt until the last scene. To me it much more than just a woman going through mid life crisis or menopause.
Ren xiao yao (2002)
A reflection of an era and a generation of youth
If you are looking for a plot or a strong narrative in this story, you will be disappointed. This film is an observation of a time in china where the economy is bad and how the youth in that time period is affected. Sometimes it feels like there is a plot but really there is no plot because nothing much is happening or going to happen. It reflects alot about the main characters in the movie, like they have a direction but in reality they don't know what they want and what they are doing. You know they are looking for some kind of freedom or pleasures to make them feel alive but then in the end they are desensitised.
There are no character arc in all the actors. They are a reflection of emptiness and loss in the society as the country is undergoing a lot of changes as shown through the TV shows and news broadcast. All the main characters have low self esteem and going through identity crisis. Torn between influences from the west, modernisation while still trying to grasp their conservatism. A small challenge of Xiao Ji kept trying to ride up the small hill with his motorbike shows that he needed some small goals in life to give him confidence.
The director connected very well the physicality of the space and characters showing the hopelessness in them, though not in the most exciting way.
I feel the film is very home-made, shot with camcorder or DV camera. I will very much prefer better lighting, colours and even sound. Many a times the audio from the TV overlaps with the actors's dialogue and I cannot catch the context of the dialogue. Overall I felt Director Jia Zhang Ke had captured very well the feelings of the youths during that time, the many silence, the many unspoken inner conflicts and frictions they are facing in their world. It is not entertaining but a very well informed film.
Kynodontas (2009)
A film not for everyone
This is the first time I'm watching a greek movie. I do not know what to expect. It has claustrophobic framing against a big landscape and architecture as a backdrop. It cause me to think about the world of the characters. The father has never has a life outside of his family and for the children the family is their world. The father's insecurity goes to the extreme, going against the law of nature. Its absurdity is uneasy to watch. It is like a social experiment for the director to go against the human condition.
The children's longing for love, companionship, social connection, their instinct, their intellect has outgrown what's confined in the space. Loneliness and curiosity set in and liberation and truth is what the elder sister seek for. In the end it will take courage to seek out her own truth.
Jiao you (2013)
Distinctive
I first came across Tsai Ming Liang's film when I was watching the "walking on water" short film, part of the monk walking series. I was blown away because it was showing together with award winning directors short film across Asia. While the rest of the directors was telling stories, Tsai's unique style was distinctive. My impression was "slow" and "long" and didn't quite understand what he was telling through his short. It was not a lousy work but it did left me stumped. I did not know film could be made that way.
2 years later, I heard a lot about "Stray Dogs", his latest feature length movie and watched it last night. Again you can see his unique style of slowness in this film but I began to understand what the director is trying to do. Tsai is making film without the constraint of time. Time cannot be a factor in his film. Although each take is long, I realised that the more crucial that particular scene, the longer he holds the shot. While every scene seems like a separate entity in itself, beautifully shot almost like painting but forms together to structure the story.
I heard that he said this film was actually shot wider than the actual ratio we watched in cinema because he wanted the audience to see the environment around the characters. This brings me to understand why certain takes was so long. For e.g.. the scene where 2 men in ponchos in the rain holding the billboard. The director did not want us to just glance at these men but also the surrounding..how the people were driving passed them and don't even take noticed at all..how even more pathetic they are and perhaps men in this job are marginalised in the society. When all the vehicles drove away you see even more men like them in the background. Not sure if the surroundings are staged or real but I could feel a deep sense of helplessness in them. These are the thoughts that went through my mind while I was watching. if it were to be a 10-20sec scene, I would not have taken this scene seriously.
The story is so simple that there really isn't a plot at all. Instead he used his characters to drive the film. His characters redefine what is acting. They bring realism to their characters that I cannot tell if they are trained actors or people that really lived through that lives. I could tell from some of the long takes that the characters are developing the emotion..they are dictating the pacing and the rhythm. Thus it is not just a long dull shot. If you walked away and come back at the same scene, it feels different already. Which I feel why no prominent music or soundtrack is used in the film is because it might actually affect the pacing of what he envisioned. He let the ambiance of the environment set the mood.
While many felt the film is too long, I felt otherwise because it is precisely there are many long takes meaning lesser clips piecing the film together. I think the director faces the problem of choosing the right moment in each clip instead of choosing the right shot. For eg. the scene where the lead actor eating his lunch. The scene shows he was actually eating halfway already which i thought felt very awkward for me.
Are all the female characters suppose to connect and symbolised something? Or they are playing out different scenario setup by the director in each act? It is not clear and i guess it can be either ways leaving it to open interpretation. My only concern is perhaps the significant of the painting on the wall. It is a beautiful painting though.
Not sure the reason why the director did very little close up shot. Perhaps it is to create a distance between us and the characters. The only ones I remembered were with the lead actor. Every close-up shot done on him was brilliant. The long scene of him holding the billboard and singing probably is a defining moment and made me realised how good his acting is. Probably also the toughest shot for the actor himself. Most of the wide shot made me felt like i'm actually standing at a distance observing the characters much like how I observed people in my daily life. On the side note, this film won the 50th Golden Horse Award Best Director & Best Actor.
We are too used to the conventional storytelling way in movies. Fast pace, fast cut and many things going on at same the time, feeding us directly the stories and emotion. You cannot be conscious of time when watching this film. Instead of telling you the moral of the story, he lets you decides your takeaway. The more acceptive you are to his film, the more you can draw.
In conclusion, I think Tsai does not conform to the filmmaking industry. His approach to filmmaking can be hard to comprehend and many a times illogical and pretty random but it is beginning to stand out and open the doors to more possibilities and perception of what film can do. Having said all that, I'm looking forward to watching his future and past works!