FILM REVIEW: COMING HOME

Dan Dan (Huiwen Zhang) in Coming Home. Photo Credit: Bai XiaoYan.

Frozen, forgotten and finished

By John Esther

Taking vulgar, ideological populism to its extreme, China's Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s and 1970s imprisoned thousands of intellectuals who were perceived as "counter-revolutionary" effete bourgeois elements who were trying to bring back capitalism to China.

This Cultural Revolution measure, along with thousands of other counterproductive ones, tore families and lives apart. Based on ending of Geling Yan's novel, The Criminal Lu Yanshi, the latest film by Yimou Zhang (Ju Dou; To Live; House of the Flying Daggers) cast two of China's finest actors to relay a story about two people who were sacrificed in the name of ideological purity.

One night, Feng Wanyu (Li Gong -- shedding her beauty as much as she can for the role), a teacher in a provinical town returns home where members of Red Guard surround her, asking if she knows the whereabouts of her recently escaped husband. Feng answers them honestly.

Recently escaped, her husband, Lu Yanshi (Daoming Chen), a professor with alleged counter-revolutionary sentiments is making his way back to their home, but he must do it in secret. Both will be in serious trouble if they are caught.

Meanwhile, their teenage daughter, Dan Dan (Huiwen Zhang) aspires to be the lead dancer in the ballet production of The Red Detachment of Women (Rise up, ye poor working women). Unfortunately, her father's escape threatens Dan Dan's chances. Dan Dan may be the best dancer in the class, but ideology trumps talent. If Dan Dan wants the role, she better do wrong to dad and mom.

In such a culture of despair and fear, the relentlessly ambitious and shortsighted ones are inclined to report whatever knowledge she or he possess if it pleases the powers that be. This can include a best friend or a daughter. 

Years later, Lu Yanshi returns home, again. However, family life has changed drastically. Family members no longer recognize their loved ones the way they used to -- literally and metaphorically.

The one who suffers the most is Feng Wanyu. The Cultural Revolution has taken her mind (in ways not intended) and she will never be the same. Lu Yanshi and Dan Dan work together to try and save her, but the damage may be too great.

The second half of the film deals with Feng Wanyu's "disease." Obviously, her condition is a metaphor for the masses of people of China, who would rather not, perhaps cannot, remember how gullible, raped and complacent they were for an ideology which never came near achievingwhat it pretended to promise.

While the film belabors its points, director Yimou, along with director of photography, Xiaoding Zhao, accomplishes its motives with serenity rather than intensity. The mise-en-scène focuses on details and atmosphere rather than demagoguery and action as it recreates a time of fear and collective denial. The acting conveys the pain of the family (and larger milieu) without resorting to wails of despair (although plenty of tears drop).

In other words, this is politically-fueled melodrama of a higher order.

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FILM REVIEW: DRAGON BLADE

Huo An (Jackie Chan) and Lucius (John Cusack) in Dragon Blade.

Can we all just get along?

By John Esther

Gosh darn it. It is such a big production; it means so well; it stars Jackie Chan -- who is so cool; and it has two likable American actors: Adrien Brody and John Cusack. Yet Dragon Blade barely passes the entertainment muster.

Inspired by, yet hardly accurately based on, historical events, writer-director-production designer Daniel Lee's film sets itself in 50 B.C. along the Silk Road. A significant road for trade between the Occident and the Orient, the protection of the road is headed by Huo An (Chan). A passionate, reasonable, and preferably peaceful man, Huo and his troop protect the land through negotiation and equality -- only resorting to violence when all other means have been resisted by members of the 36 warring nations roaming and occupying the northwestern territory.

With so many belligerent people (primarily men) in the area, a peaceful dude like Huo is bound to be framed for a violent act committed by someone else. This setup leads him to the Wild Geese Gate.

A trading post in the middle of the desert, Wild Geese Gate is currently under construction. If the construction is not done on time, the slave labors, along with their masters, Captain (Xiao Yang) and Rat (Wang Taili), will be killed by the higher echelon.

As the construction completion deadline approaches, matters are complicated when Roman soldiers attack. Led by Lucius (Cusack), the Roman soldiers are in dire need of water. They are many. They are strong. Fortunately, Huo will teach their leader humility through martial arts superiority and generosity.

In return for the compassion the occupants of the trading post have shown the Romans, the Romans will teach the east how to build the post much sooner through the use of cement and newer construction techniques. This collaboration brings east and west together, furthering the film's message about the value, peace and, even self preservation, through multiculturalism. United (nations) we stand.

Naturally, this multiculturalism will be challenged by those who seek power at the expense of others. Divide and conquer.

Led by their ruthless leader, Tiberius (Brody), the Roman soldiers -- those who did not split and follow Lucius -- intend to take over the trading post and steal its treasure. While these Roman soldiers do not have the overall martial arts expertise of the current occupants of Wild Geese Gate, they are far greater in numbers.

A massive hit in China, and one of the most expensive films ever made there, Dragon Blade is indeed a grand production with thousands of soldiers fighting and dieing. The spectacle is quite impressive. People and horses seem to be forever charging ahead. Bodies upon bodies fall to the ground. Masses of men stain the desert with their demise.

On the smaller, more personal levels is where Dragon Blade suffers. Everyone speaks English (and their "native" language -- at least while singing), which was hardly the international language of the time. And the much of the dialogue does not necessarily serve the language well.

The acting is bit sub par for the likes of the main players, too, as if the weight of the spectacle makes any serious thespian effort futile in the grand scope of the film's things. Brody's accent seems to change over the course of the film. And I would mention the actor who plays Publius, but I am not sure his performance is his fault or Lee's. At any rate, I do not like to pick on children.

Having written that, Dragon Blade is still worth the experience. There is a lot going on here, and the glaring anti-xenophobic message of peace, cooperation and understanding is a potent antidote to the trumped up poisonous fears of our times.










 

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LAAPFF 2015: THE CHINESE MAYOR

A scene from The Chinese Mayor.

A different cultural revolution

By Miranda Inganni

Geng Yanbo, the newly-elected mayor of Datong, China wants to transform the city into a tourist-attracting cultural center. Datong, the most polluted city in China, thanks to its coal mining history, has a massive ancient city wall that Geng envisions containing museums and meeting spaces. The problem is that at least 30 percent of the residents of Datong, many of them poor and their housing illegal, live around that city wall. These residents must be relocated and their dwellings demolished in order for Geng’s reconstruction of the city to take place.

Despite the fact that demolition and construction are very slow and behind schedule, the government wants the residents out. But there is no place for many of them to go. People who cannot afford to move are told that they can apply for low-rent housing, but they know the reality is that there is a long waiting period. Some residents protest by simply not leaving their abodes or by blocking the heavy machinery. A few residents who refuse to move face forcible demolition and threaten suicide.

We follow Geng, in Zhou Hao’s The Chinese Mayor, as he inspects the progress of destruction and construction throughout the city, as he attends meetings in his official capacity, and as he is scolded by his wife who thinks he is working himself to death. He appears tough when he deals with contractors who have put in sub-par paving, taken other shortcuts or are not performing their jobs to his satisfaction. But when the affected residents appeal directly to Geng, he is sympathetic and tries to right the wrongs -- helping folks find housing, ensuring the children of rural residents who gave up their farmland for development have access to the city schools, and even trying to move a woman from her 6^th floor apartment to one on the ground floor as she can no longer walk up the stairs (what the hell happened to the elevator anyway?).

Geng wants to leave the reinvented and revitalized Datong as his legacy. Will he be able to oversee all of the construction through to completion before his mayoral term is up? Is he simply a megalomaniac bankrupting a city for his own status? Director Zhou does a masterful job of not getting in the way of the story. Clearly the residents are the one’s suffering in this scenario, but Geng is not without sympathetic sensibilities. He believes so strongly in “cultural industry” that even if he cannot bring his vision to fruition in Datong, the viewer gets the sense that that will not stop him. He will give this city, or any other, his masterful cultural makeover. Even if it kills him.

The Chinese Mayor screens at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival April 26, 4 p.m., CGV Cinemas. For more information: Mayor.

 

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STAGE REVIEW: OCCUPATION

Florian (Brandon Bales) and Bets (Hall Chareton) in Occupation.

Buy, bye

By Ed Rampell

Playwright Ken Ferrigni’s outrageous Occupation appears to possess the hallmarks of Sacred Fools’ productions such as Bill & Joan, Jon Bastian’s Beat Generation play about scrivener William S. Burroughs; Stoneface about comedian Buster Keaton; and the company’s two Sherlock Holmes parodies. Occupation has originality.

In the not-too-distant future an indebted USA sells Florida to the Peoples Republic of China. This leads to an Everglades insurgency fought in the swamps, pitting the South Florida Christian Militia against the People’s Liberation America (PLA).

This is a pretty hilarious notion. Montages of faux news clips with a Jon Stewart panache appear on the stage’s three flat screen TVs. The Chinese consul’s name, Zedong (Robert Paterno), riffs on Chairman Mao Zedong’s moniker. Redbook aficionados are pitted against Bible-thumpers -- one of those Jimmy Swaggart Southern televangelist types, Bay Ray (Bruno Oliver), and his son, Florian (Brandon Bales). Florian and Zedong also cleverly appear in stagecraft stretching videos shot in-house that are played on the playhouse’s screens live (kudos to video designer Anthony Backman). It seems as if all’s well on the satirical frontlines and we’re off and running to the races.

Alas, while the preposterous premise is far out, Occupation’s problem is in its execution. Instead of playing the Sunshine Patriots in the Sunshine State versus socialists saga for laughs as a farce, the Reds vs. Rednecks storyline veers towards tragedy. By taking itself too seriously, as if the credulity-stretching plot was plausible, this dystopian drama loses credibility. At times the acting becomes histrionic.

Sacred Fools is a bold theater company, and in productions such as it s version of Bertolt Brecht’s Baal, it hasn’t flinched from presenting onstage nudity and/or violence, but Occupation arguably becomes too bloody, while the plot’s harrowing denouement is pregnant with mass extermination of biblical proportions. Meanwhile, director Ben Rock’s staged sex is, for some reason, less graphic: It’s a case of make war, not love.

Setting the mood, scenic designer DeAnne Millais does yeoman’s (yeowoman’s?) work in conjuring up a set which convincingly evinces three or four different locales: The office where the corrupt, married Zedong makes out with mistress Mei Mei (willowy Rebecca Larsen); the Everglades where the Swamp Foxes led by Gare (K.J. Middlebrooks) are based and launch their sneak attacks on the PLA invaders from; and the campsite of the pregnant Bets’ (Halle Charleton), who comes across like a female counterpart to Deliverance’s demented hillbillies.

Unfortunately, by buying into its unbelievable hypothesis the satire retires at Florida and is a misfire. Well, they can’t all be Louis and KeelyLive at the Sahara -- the much extended hit that premiered at Sacred Fools and found its way to a larger theatrical venue.


Occupation runs through April 23 at the Sacred Fools Theater, 660 N. Heliotrope Dr., L.A., CA 90004. For more info: 310-281-8337; www.sacredfools.org/.

 

 

 

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FILM REVIEW: BLACKHAT

Nicholas Hathaway (Chris Hemsworth) in Blackhat.

Hack of a Mann

By Ed Rampell

Around the time the anti-nuclear The China Syndrome was released in 1979, the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor calamity occurred. Similarly, just days before the opening of Universal’s hacking epic, Blackhat, the U.S. Central Command’s Twitter account was hacked by ISIS. Not to mention the recent Sony saga, wherein unflattering emails were laid bare and North Korea was blamed for this computer hacking. Although the DPRK denied these allegations, North Korea’s internet system then experienced technical difficulties, with computer outages.

The above cyberattacks seem like publicity stunts to ballyhoo Blackhat. Not even the most inventive Hollywood press agent could conjure up the PR bonanza Universal is enjoying, free of charge, with Blackhat opening Jan. 16 amidst these hack attacks. But instead of instigating promotions, it seems that director Michael Mann and screenwriter Morgan Davis Foehl have their proverbial fingers on the pulse -- not to mention the digital zeitgeist.

While many action packed blockbusters full of explosions and nonstop violence are merely mindless “entertainment” and escapist flicks, with their two hour-plus stylish, cinematic work Mann and Foehl have created the thinker’s thriller. In it, Chris Hemsworth, who has played  Thor in the Marvel movie versions of the Norse God of Thunder, proves he can also portray an action hero outside of a superhero costume. His Nicholas Hathaway, a Dirty Dozen-like computer genius whom authorities release from prison to help them stop an über hacker who has caused a Three Mile Island-like disaster in China.

Along the way Hathaway hooks up with American and Chinese agents and computer whizzes, including Viola Davis as a 9/11-haunted operative, John Ortiz, plus Leehom Wang and Wei Tang as the touching brother-sister team Chen Dawai and Lien Chen.

Director Mann has made socially aware films before, in particular 1999’s The Insider, about an anti-tobacco whistleblower and how 60 Minutes blew his story, plus his 2001 boxer biopic, Ali, a film that pulled no punches and took off the gloves when it came to Muhammad Ali’s resistance to the draft, the Vietnam War and racism. Blackhat’s plot moves in unexpected directions as Hathaway, Lien and company try to unravel the mystery of who did the hacking -- and more importantly, why?

Although in its form and content Blackhat is thoughtful (if sometimes ponderous and hard to follow), the movie displays Mann’s filmic flair for action. The director brings the same cinematic sensibility to Blackhat’s riveting shootouts and so on that Mann infused in 2006’s Miami Vice and 1995’s Heat. Although, as in his 1992 The Last of the Mohicans, Mann combines action with intelligence. 

In that age old tradition of the Western male romancing the “Oriental” female (can you say “Madame Butterfly”?), Hathaway and Lien inexorably couple up. Although the lovers are filmed in bed two-gether, she is always more or less dressed and beneath blankets or sheets, which seems rather odd, considering the fact that it’s pretty hot outside (apparently hotter than inside). Perhaps this has something to do with the film’s financing and its release in the world’s biggest movie market, China? Tang was far sexier in Ang Lee’s 2007 film, Lust, Caution, which reportedly caused her to have problems with PRC apparatchiks. The apparent effort to curry favor with Chinese officials and audiences may also explain the depiction of various PRC authorities, officers, agents, etc.

Another curious thing about Blackhat is how the story unfolds in a futuristic world of hi-tech high rises in Hong Kong, etc., but for some reason the characters usually shack up, lie low and hideout in fleabag low rise dives. The contrasts are stark.

Nevertheless, by tackling a ripped-from-the-headlines crisis Mann has made the tried and true thriller genre timely and cutting edge, as well as sitting-on-the-edge-of-your-seat exciting. Welcome to the not-so-brave new world of hacking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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PSIFF 2013: CAUGHT IN THE WEB

Ye Lanqiu (Yuanyaun Gao) in Caught in the Web.

Spinning yarns

By Miranda Inganni

Caught in the Web tells the tale of a terminally ill woman’s online character assassination in director Chen Kaige’s (Farewell My Concubine) latest film.

One day, budding news reporter Yang Jiaqi (Luodan Wang) secretly records on her phone a seemingly rude and selfish woman on a bus. Through Jiaqi’s cousin’s girlfriend (and Jiaqi’s housemate), Chen Ruoxi (Chen Yao) -- a young woman establishing herself as a reporter -- the video goes viral and becomes the topic of the day. Unbeknown to them, the video’s subject, Ye Lanqiu (Yuanyuan Gao), has just learned that she has advanced lymphatic cancer.

Lanqiu becomes an Internet villain overnight. Known simply as “Sunglasses Girl,” until her jealous colleague identifies her online, the scandal sends Lanqiu into hiding, but not until Jiaqi and her cousin, Yang Shoucheng (Mark Chao) film Lanqiu’s sincere apology for the ordeal.

In the meantime, Lanqiu has asked her boss, company president Shen Liushu (Xuegi Wang) for a loan and time off from her executive assistant position. Unfortunately for all involved, Mr. Shen’s wife (Chen Hong) interrupts the tearful moment and misreads the situation.

Lanqiu ends up hiring Shoucheng to ostensibly protect her from herself and to experience as much as possible out of the time that she has left.

And that’s only the first part of this China's most recent Oscar submission for Best Film in a Foreign Language. Whew!

With more plot twists and turns than any historic (or histrionic) romance, Caught in the Web is entertaining and intriguing. Mrs. Shen finds herself in a loveless marriage to a husband who relishes his power more than his wife or wealth. Mr. Shen enjoys manipulating the lives of those who he believes have caused him some harm, including his wife. Ruoxi will stop at nothing to establish her career in the industry while Jiaqi merely wants to play ball in the big league. Shoucheng wants to be a loyal boyfriend to Ruoxi, but finds himself falling for Lanqiu. Lanqiu on the other hand, as the only one who knows that her time is limited, doesn’t want to allow herself to get too close to anyone, even at the cost of her own reputation.

The performances throughout this drama/comedy are equally as excellent as the levels of intrigue. The human capacity for a knee-jerk response to even perceived gossip is an overwhelming theme to Caught in the Web, as is the point that anyone at any time can be destroyed by the power of the inter-webs.

 

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TRIBECA 2012: HIGH TECH, LOW LIFE

A scene from High Tech, Low Life.

Undercover brothers

By Don Simpson

Similar to Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, Stephen Maing’s High Tech, Low Life looks at the Chinese government’s tyrannical control over the dissemination of information; but whereas Alison Klayman conveys the message(s) of her documentary via the perspective of a provocative multimedia artist, Maing utilizes two bloggers who achieve a similar goal with drastically different approaches.

Zola is a cocky young blogger who represents the “new guard” of Chinese revolutionaries. His unassuming appearance allows him to pass as just another bystander taking photos, rather than attracting attention to himself as a journalist. Zola’s goal is to document newsworthy events and tell the truth before the government has a chance to cover-up the facts. He then relies upon his notoriety and fame to communicate the truth to the legions of loyal fans who follow his blog.

Tiger Temple is part of the “old guard” of Chinese revolutionaries. He functions as an investigative reporter, interviewing people in order to document the ways in which they have been wronged by their government. Whereas Zola just blogs about events, Tiger Temple goes beyond just blogging. He actively assists his downtrodden subjects in a concerted effort to improve their situation.

Not only does High Tech, Low Life observe the detrimental effects of censorship in China, but it also functions as a smart compare and contrast piece on the ways two different generations attempt to change their situation.

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