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Year of the Dragon (1985)
He has an obsession with the Chinese.
This film tells the story of a peculiar police chief and former combatant in the Vietnam War, who is posted to Chinatown and does not follow the rules established and agreed with the neighborhood's Chinese leaders. He fights against the system in general and to his personal detriment, not looking at means to achieve ends, using everything and everyone with the aim of catching the bad guys, who throughout the film become his obsession. On the other hand, there is a pertinent interpretation of the effects of the Vietnam war on the obsessive nature of the character played by Mickey Rourke. "He has an obsession with the Chinese," says a friend and colleague.
There are traces of xenophobia in this film, which are contextualized and justified by the fact that the protagonist himself is of Polish origin and by the ethnic diversity of the characters. The film raises questions about changes in the perception of good and evil over time, as society becomes more sensitive to racial, xenophobic, homophobic and gender issues. Despite the controversies, the story maintains its relevance, providing a remarkable cinematic experience, with exceptional performances, impressive photography and high-quality production. The only negative point is the sound, which falls short of the other technical aspects of the film.
Love Is War (1970)
An innovative novel
This film is a drama/romance that tells a love story between Gro and Aspen and that often takes us back to Aspen as a child and her problematic relationship with her parents. This undoubtedly influenced her future character and behavior in her relationship with Gro.
Ragnar Lasse made this wonderful film, which we can say is experimental, you can see the desire to do new things, mainly at the cinematographic level and also a little in the structure of the story, which is sometimes left in the background, with intermittences that sometimes make us confusing, which makes it seem like some takes were missing; or, put another way, it looks like an argument in chunks. I believe that this is exactly how he wanted to do it. The director, cinematographer and screenwriter Ragnar Lasse also wanted to tell us this novel in an innovative and non-linear way.
I'm sure the director got a lot of pleasure out of shooting the film, you can tell, or is it just me who feels that way.
From experience to experience, he ended up leaving us with a film with unique images, sometimes psychedelic and of transcendental beauty. Watching this film is a unique journey of light, color and innovative framing. The silver bear for outstanding individual performance in Berlin 1971 is fully deserved.
For me, who only knew current Norwegian cinema, this film was a pleasant surprise.
Finally, I am very sorry that this was the only film made by Ragnar Lasse, he would certainly have much more to show us, to leave us with.
84/100.