FadedBlue_net

Title: Curse of the Golden Flower
Director: Zhang Yimou
Year: 2006
Genre: Drama
Format Reviewed: TV (Encore-Act)

Zhang Yimou has been well received by Americans like myself over the last few years. Hero turned into a kind of cult hit and introduced a lot of people to Chinese film. House of Flying Daggers even reached so far as mainstream theaters in my area. Personally, I loved Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, and thought it was his most emotional and best film of these three. Unlike it, Zhang Yimou returns to an action-infused (though you really can’t call this an action film) and much more fantasy-like setting for Curse of the Golden Flower, more similar in style to Hero if anything. Even the plot in reminiscent of Hero in it’s purposefully slowly paced story with extreme emphasis on the characters’ hierarchal status. But this is both the key point of the film as well as it’s fault.

The first half-hour to hour of the film is slow… dreadfully slow. For a minute I almost stopped watching, though luckily I was lazy enough this day to continue watching, and I’m glad I did. Although this part is slow, it really does serve a purpose in defining the characters and the setting. Especially for a Westerner like myself, it may have been impossible for me to really feel the last half of the film without understanding its seemingly unrealistic politics. There is an emperor, who in all definitions of the term, controls his land, people, and family. His wife, the empress, is living with a long-term illness which she suspects is caused by her own husband, who is also hiding some secrets in his own past. There are three sons, the oldest of which is to become the heir eventually, but he is fooling around with the doctor’s daughter. And just about every emotion and conflict possible arises.

One might expect this to be an action film. After all, it’s directed by the guy who did Hero, right? Obviously, it is, but someone looking for “just” an action packed, choreographed martial acts flick, Jet Li style, will be disappointed. Indeed, there is an epic battle toward the end of this movie, and it does have more emotional pulse than most action flicks because of the background in the family drama, but that’s about it.  There are a few escape and execution scenes as well.  But this action isn’t quite as polished or flashy as Yimou’s earlier work. There are a lot of “holy crap!” moments and it is a blast to watch, though.

Once again, this isn’t a film to be judged in the first half hour. It is quite long and deserves a full viewing. Curse of the Golden Flower never quite reaches the dramatic summit that Riding Alone did, but it not a bad film altogether.

Rating: 3 /5

Title: Bright Future (aka Akarui Mirai)
Director: Kurosawa Kiyoshi
Year: 2003
Genre: Drama
Format Reviewed: TV (Sundance Channel)

Is there no wrong that Kiyoshi Kurosawa can do? Certainly there has to be one movie in his past that doesn’t live up to the hype. Or so I thought going back to this lesser praised (but still praised) work. In the Kurosawa filmography, Bright Future is placed between Kairo (I’ve seen) and Doppleganger (haven’t seen). It’s fun to watch an auteur like Kiyoshi, because you can see different sides of the same world that his mind must work in. Clearly Bright Future builds upon the social loneliness and meaninglessness of life, or so is felt by the main characters, that is present in his other movies, but it is not quite as polished or apocalyptic as Kairo. But since I view Kairo as possibly the best horror movie ever… I won’t judge it solely on it being worse than that!

Indeed, I like Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s movies because they have a distinct realism of everyday life and a purposeful silence in conversation; a point where Bright Future excels. The protagonist is as well-rounded as you’re going to get from a Kurosawa film. That is to say that he doesn’t often work very hard to show background in his characters, or many of their motivations, and at least you see a few different sides of Nimura. Some other classic techniques of Kiyoshi present include the normal moving and looking post-death ghost, on screen in the first shot and invisible in the second. Suicide and general illegal activity is portrayed as the end result of being pushed into some limit by one’s situation, as well.

So what makes it different than a typical Kiyoshi film (if there were such a thing)? Well, for one, the ending. I feel that the ending is really quite satisfying compared to others that he has done. It kind of takes the feelings from throughout the movie and puts them aside… releasing your thoughts onto present life rather than pounding remorse or loneliness into the viewer, as I’ve found Kurosawa to do sometimes. I suppose Bright Future lives up to its name then, as it does seem to give hope in a world without any. And while it’s not as clear as the messages in his other films, he seems to provide some solutions for society, rather than just the cause of despair.

Rating: 4 /5

cultural note: there is a visual reference to the Japanese Obon festival in this movie. If you don’t know what that is… look it up first!

Title: Breath (aka Soom)
Director: Kim Ki-Duk
Year: 2007
Genre: Drama
Format Reviewed: DVD

Who better to make a movie to convince that both there is something intrinsically good about saving life, no matter the cruelty that life may have brought, than Kim Ki-Duk? Breath is a distinctly Ki-Duk film, almost sharing enough elements to be called a spiritual successor, albeit in a much more confined setting, to Spring, Summer… Unfortunately for first-time Ki-Duk viewers, Breath probably won’t win you over on it’s own. In fact, it may be pretty hard to sit through if you aren’t a fan already.

This isn’t to say it’s a bad film or story. Certainly there’s something to be said about tastes in film, in that there are some that you can admit is a work of art, but may not enjoy. This makes it hard to review a movie in general. But relative to Ki-Duk’s past work it doesn’t live up to par (which is set very high to begin with). The story follows a woman whose discovered her husband is having an affair, and then takes to what is seemingly “getting back” at him by visiting a murderer on death’s row. She accomplishes something that just feels morally right by cheering him up and practically becoming his lover. By doing this, she keeps the inmate at peace and from committing suicide in his shared cell.

The setting is quite grim feeling, and the background music doesn’t uplift it much at all, save the protagonist’s seasonal songs which are a blast. I suppose one ought to think of the viewer as looking through the lens of the inmate, as many scenes at the start have obvious bars and a “looking from the inside” vibe. There’s a hint of black comedy in the inmate’s cell-mates and their antics. The woman’s background is quite interesting in that it reflects some of the feelings that the murderer’s victims may have felt. In this way, the inmate seems to review his life and becomes an anti-hero. But you could make an argument that every character in the film is an anti-hero. That’s just how Ki-Duk works.

So where should you go from here? I’d say if you are into meditations on life or are a fan of Ki-Duk’s other work, you should put this on your watch list. Otherwise, I would start with 3-Iron and see if you like that first.

Rating: 3 /5