FadedBlue_net

Title: Chungking Express
Director: Wong Kar-Wai
Year: 1994
Genre: Romance
Format Reviewed: Bluray (Criterion release)

I suppose that when I decided that Wong Kar-Wai (WKW) was one of the best Chinese directors, it was a little naive since I’ve only seen 2046, and I’ve not seen a ton of Chinese movies released before the 90s.  But 2046 was deep enough and had such a good ending, that I saw something great in the director.  Chunking Express just confirms my view of WKW as not only a great director, but a great person.  Chunking Express is a very human story, though admittedly somewhat romanticized, and has all the subtlety and quirkiness of an asian romantic movie without forcing superficiality common to the genre.

The first part of the movie can be a kind of ‘anti-romance’.   There is an honest male protagonist trying to get over his ex, getting no luck or really any satisfaction.  Or is he?  His character is a bit delusional, but if we didn’t know about his past, one might have thought he is doing just fine.  At the end of his story, we have felt most of the emotions in a romantic movie, except the most important, and most superficial one: the ending.  Indeed, WKW gives us a story of what happens if it doesn’t go either way: no one dies, and no one finds their true love.  Although this is an interesting point, it isn’t exactly moving.  Though it does give a good feeling of emptiness left for the second half to fill.

The second part of Chungking Express is where the real meat is.  Faye Wong plays an amazing character (though I have to say I fall for girls with short hair easily!).  She plays the role of a girl who plays a very elaborate game of hard-to-get with a local police officer.  In reality, they both want to be together.  Or do they?  The officer is definitely interested, and probably the movie is over if Faye was up front with him.  But she resorts to almost everything besides direct confrontation.  It is sort of a romance where two people don’t even meet for the majority of the time.  Again WKW gives us the emotions of love without really showing it between the characters.

Chungking Express is the perfect romance for those who don’t actually want romance.  It sounds a bit strange, but actually it’s a very refreshing type of movie that really plays with the genre on a meta- level.  The film itself gives you a need for more, then delivers it with a much more satisfying ending.  The characters are relateable and likeable, Faye is easy to fall in love with, and the city in which they live is perfectly sized.  The action sequences were a bit jarring in the time effects, but this actually keeps the tone of the film from turning too dark or action-oriented.  In the end I was left wanting more (in a good way), and I can’t wait to see my next WKW film.

Bluray notes: the video and audio transfer are superb.  Film grain is left in many scenes, as well as noticeable green lines in the film in a couple shots.  Maybe this was in the original print?

Rating – 5 /5

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