gingerchen Reviews

Waterloo Bridge (1940)

fate is everything

[9 July 2008]

there is always some kind of people, they will have some feelings about the future. Is it bright? is it dark? Is it high or low? They wouldn't know what will really happen, but they just can feel something. It is hard to say this kind of special power is good or bad. It covers all over your heart. You will feel weak, powerless, and you will not be able to be 100%happy, because you can feel the evil fate is coming near. The life is more of an illusion. No matter how beautiful it looks like, it will just disappear. No, you cant stop it, it is way out of your control. She has that special gift. a dark gift. something will happen is a blade hanging above her neck.

Hancock (2008)

who are " they "

[7/10 · 8 July 2008]

she said, "everytime when we were together, they come to get you." who are "they"? They are the eyes watching them? They are the force making sure separating them? They are the subconsciousness which against mixed-race couples? And "they" are always there. Because "they" exist,this in-love couple are not able to be together. And love. Love makes you stronger or vulnerable. Love sure makes you happier. Does it also make you vulnerable. Yes. Because you are open to all kinds of tender beautiful feelings, emotions. Because you are not iron and stone anymore. Because you are flesh and blood again. Because you can't say "whatever" so easily. Because you will have something and someone to feel connected with. You become a vulnerable happy creature.

Kung-Fu Master! (1988)

Does "living together from then on" really answers for all?

[6 July 2008]

a teenager boy, a middle-aged woman. the love between these two? what kind of ending you will give it? it is a delicate movie in the sense of emotion description. From the camera, the director makes us feel that there is a man inside that little boy, who loves the "kung fu master" video game very much. His eyes talk like a man, his hands move like a man, he acts like a man in front of that woman. It is possible to forget about the big age difference between these two. At this point, I think the director did a good job. what kind of ending you will give to a love story, not necessarily this one, certainly can talk about how you see the world and the love and relations between human beings. I can't help thinking about my own ending in the whole process of watching the film. To me, the most important part is not the ending the director shows, it is the ending in my own heart. What is love's perfect ending? Does "living together from then on" really answers for all?

Ethan Mao (2004)

more a family movie than gay movie

[6 July 2008]

it will kind of fly out of your expectation when you hold the idea at the beginning that this is a "gay" movie. it is more about family actually. All different kinds of relationship in an Asian-culturally-related family. The father and the son, the brother and the brother from the same parents, the brother and the brother from different mothers, the step-mother and son, the husband and the wife... they are all melted together here. not wild gay sex, not lots of dick, prepare for something else mentally before you put the disc into the player. And you should give urself a bit of patience the day when you decide to watch it. It is not that catchy at the first part of the movie. cheap-production, that is what i thought, however it will grow into more.

No Country for Old Men (2007)

No country for All Men

[7/10 · 2 March 2008]

This is a movie with two tones. The crimes and dramas are concentrated on two men fighting for the money. On the other side, the old man Ed has been doing the pondering work in a aching way. However the Ed's line comes out not that obvious and strong, so if you don't really pay attention, you probably would miss this part, which makes you rate this movie one out of ten. Ed Tom represents the sadness and heaviness of movie. He is the man who is feeling "overmatched", who doesn't understand the world around him. and chooses to quit. He uses getting old as an explanation for his nonacceptance of the current world. He misses old-time and old-timers. In his eyes, the people nowadays, they kill, they prey, they get into the business which leads to ending their lives, they lack basic human compassion, and they run on the dead road without hesitation. Ed just doesn't get it. But is it really just a time thing? Is it really just about old-time and new-time? Probably not. Ellis says, I quote, "What you got ain't nothing' new. This country is hard on people. You can't stop what's coming. It ain't all waiting' on you. That's vanity." Half of Ed Tom's role is like an observer; he sees the things, he describes the impression this world makes on us, and he speaks out what's in his mind, as other roles in this movie are just going with the storyline. His worries and confusion and frustration is not that different from that of some people in real life. He appears as an archetype of a group of people who has been shocked by the campus shooting, the shopping-mall shooting, the causeless battles, the madness and unseasonableness. It seems to some people, the world has gone mad. What's wrong with us? We can't help asking this question. And the hole caused by the oxygen can is quite a symbol and strong image of the hearts of these confused people. Dark and deep and painful. How can we handle all these things? Accept it? Ignore it? Fight against it? You make your own decision. But still, it is nothing new. Older generations, they have experienced the same darkness and coldness, ahead of us.

The Phantom of Liberty (1974)

A bizarre world.

[17 November 2007]

A bizarre world. Bizarre behavior, bizarre emotion, bizarre recognition. You probably would think this is way too far from the real world you live in. Do you? Then think it a little more? Is it really that far from the reality, or from what you have encountered all your life, even only once? The extremeness in this film does have its prototypes in real life. For example, the missed girl story shows that is how ignorant and mindless people can be sometimes, and the killer story mocks the complicated-but-useless social system, what a waste! Going extremely is just a way to irritate human's nerve.If you like comedy, especially the British humor, you would enjoy this film more, since they share something in common. The artists try to catch the essence of something in life, then exaggerate it, twist it, and play with it. There is no traditional plot in this movie, just a stream of sketches. Not every sketch will make you feel connected, only some. And not every person feels connected to the same sketch, because their own experience gives them different eyes and senses.

Little Children (2006)

Madame Bovary in USA

[10/10 · 5 November 2007]

"Little Children" is a half-cheering-and-half-depressing story. The writers set the whole tone and give out the clue of the ending through "Madame Bovary discussion" in the middle of the movie. Sarah and Brad, they are both like Madame Bovary. They are trapped in dull lives, but instead of accepting that, they fight to feel alive. Just, in the end, they failed, just like Madame Bovary. The writers express their opinions of this struggle through Sarah's viewpoint of Madame Bovary. Sarah said, Madame Bovary is "trapped. She has a choice. She can either accept a life of misery or she can struggle against it. And she chooses to struggle." Actually, at this time, Sarah is talking about herself. She is no more that grad school student, no more the one who thinks Madame Bovary is a fool and the writer is a misogynist. Life and time and experience turn her into a woman who can feel the same pain and desire Madame Bovary feels. She falls in love with Madame Bovary, because she realise she is her. These two women, they live in different times and societies, but they share something in common. And Sarah is not alone. Brad is just like her, and sure he is another Madame Bovary living in the 21st century's USA. That's why these two persons are so connected and so easy to fall into each other. They share the same kind of unhappiness and both are searching for the new possibility to feel alive again. Their struggles start with the kiss. The kiss is like the lightning appearing in the dark night, its brilliant spark suddenly lights up their long-dormant hearts. But it is still just a spark, it takes longer to see the flame. To Brad, picking up the football he had abandoned for 10 years is another thing filled with magic, which electrifies him so much. Football becomes another kiss. Like the narrator says, "there were lots of excuses available to him. But it felt so good to be standing here beneath the bright lights. And he was filled with a feeling similar to the one he'd had right before kissing Sarah, like his world had cracked open to reveal a thrilling new possibility." And for Sarah, only after her husband's "Slutty Kay event", she totally made up her mind to take some real action. And the key to the new world is that red swimming suit. When Sarah opened that catalog magazine, we can see that the page with the red swimming suit was already folded. That is the clue of the ambivalence she had before. To go or not to go, to run out of this dullness or not -Sarah had probably asked this question to herself many many times, and finally she made her decision- she was going, and she would put on that red armor to fight for her happiness in a new world. Sarah and Brad, they try so hard till they even decide to run away together. And they didn't make it. Back to the Bovary discussion, the writers already use Sarah's mouth to say, "she (Madame Bovary) fails in the end, but there's something beautiful and even heroic in her rebellion. Do the writers try to say, there is no hope of this escaping; you can try but you will fail; you will fail in the 19th century's France, you will also fail in the 21st century's USA, and you will probably fail in other place at other time? Just, even though there is no hope, the process is still full of beautiful things, so worth a try. Is this what they try to say? Sarah and Brad end their trying before they really step outside their old worlds. Sarah was holding daughter Lucy, saying to her "I'm sorry. Would you like to go home?" Brad found there was no need for his "good-bye letter" to his wife Kathy, and he required, "could you call my wife?" Before they gave up, they both received some hints. Sarah had a little talk with Ronnie, and conversation is related to mommy's love to child. Then she looked like suddenly realising her daughter's situation or something. For Brad, he just won the football game; the victory made him so high; he finally got that feeling that life was back into his own hand and everything was possible for him. Since he felt that he "can do anything", why not try the skateboard, which he had been watching the kids playing for weeks. So it is, Brad took another try of new thing, but this time, he wasn't that lucky; he failed. Like being informed the oracle, they stepped back to their old worlds. Compared to the developing of Sarah's choice, the one of Brad is more poetic. The failing of the skateboarding can be easy taken as a sign of life's uncertainty. Sometime it gives you happy surprise, sometimes it brings you down. But I am not able to agree with the director about the Sarah's choice that much. Just because of the children, the parents should stay in their unhappiness? I don't think so. After all that long tense beautiful struggle, Sarah and Brad are back to where they started. They might be a little different from the ones a few months before, but how long the nutrition rooting from this escaping can last? Will they find another way out? Will they find a way to break down their old living systems? Will they...? We don't know. Will we...? We don't know.