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lancequan2046
Reviews
Yi jiu si er (2012)
since the one posted yesterday apparently got censored...
A tamer version of my review in desensitized words:
Good film, could've been a great film.
A rather controlled and somber depiction of a dark chapter in modern history, subtly echoing another tragedy that happened 16 years later. Surprisingly un-judgmental and un-sentimental for a historical film recreating despair and lowest possible form of human existence.
Feng presents the multiple layers of clues and facts that lead to the ultimate tolls almost as-matter-of-factly, leaving the audience putting together the puzzles and drawing their own conclusions, which is a rather clever way of avoiding censorship and engaging the audience.
Could have been A LOT grittier and more affecting. The acting is powerful in this film. However for a film depicting a major famine that claimed over 3 million lives in recent history, not much huger is shown as visuals in the film, most of the lingering hunger is talked about/acted out (as opposed to being displayed visually) which reduces the general affecting power of the film.
Xu Fan and Zhang Guo-Li are amazing in this film with their acting. Xu gives her most powerhouse performance yet, portraying the tough bottom- feeder hillbilly b*tch who would attempt anything/everything in defending her and her family's rights to live. However for a country woman who's been starving for over 100 days and more than willing to sell her bottom half for a couple of crackers, what's with her double- chin? (think Jennifer Lawrence's face in The Hunger Game – she can act all she wants but I'm sorry, girlfriend is just NOT that hungry) What TF happens to her makeup artist team and special visual effects people?!
Adrien Brody is effectively engaging as a very eager T.H. White who's desperately trying to expose the truth, whether driven by his journalist instincts, Pulitzer, or a genuine sympathy for the poor and depraved. However don't even get me to start with Tim Robbins - why is he even in the film??? The couple of scenes he's in are cringe-inducing. Even if you edit them out altogether it would not affect the story's flow whatsoever.
Life of Pi (2012)
The Lotus Flower in the Heart
A sad, violent and cruel story disguised as a fairy tale about a kid taming a tiger at sea.
In Ang Lee's hands the book-to-film adaptation was thankfully not turned into something of a young Robinson Crusoe or a love story between a volleyball and a fat Hanks. At the same time none of the magical realism "feel" of the novel was lost in the adaptation / visual interpretation. Eventually the very bloody message of the story (humans are essentially beasts, we create religion or hallucinate about faith to help ourselves forgetting our bestial nature) was impressively preserved without the need to show almost any gore.
Most importantly, the very sensitive topic of the conflicts and dependency of faith, religions, science and nature was beautifully narrated in the movie. The technicality demonstrated in Life Of Pi is everything on a magnificent, grandeur scale, yet at the same time the technicality does not over-shine Lee's nature as an intellectual – his yearning and pursuit for purity and beauty.
I remember coming across a film review that called Lee's Life Of Pi "preachy", which seems to echo quite a few reviews on the book. Whoever said that, in my opinion, made a very basic mistake in understanding the purpose of the story. Both Martel's novel and Magee's script, not only never attempted to coax people to flock to religion or faith, but also put a rather nasty joke on religion and its forms. Yet at the same time in the end the protagonist of the story was able to maintain his faith, despite having some not-so-mild-natured joke cast onto his religions. "Preachy"? Please. This looks more like a sacrilegious story to me.
When I read the book, one of the things that impressed me the most was that Pi never for once cursed, sworn or truly lost it while drifting at sea, amidst all his suffering and misery. My guess is that reverence and hope never really left him, and that, is probably the true distinction between having a faith and not having one. Lee gave this rare, controlled and optimistic narration a beautiful stretch in his film – Pi had a happy ending by textbook definition. In the end, some might think of Lee as some semi-delusional intellect with wishful thinking, he is probably more willing to believe in the deity and beauty in human nature instead of looking into our bestial instincts. Or maybe, he is like the Indian girl in the film dancing Bharatanatyam – there is a blossoming lotus flower hidden somewhere in his heart.
I am far more pessimistic than he is. I am constantly on guard in case my Richard Parker ambushes me and tears me into pieces, although I also know, there is probably still a lotus flower hidden somewhere in my heart.