Asian films

Netflix to Spend Nearly $500 Million on Korean Content This Year.

I wish they'd dump that kind of money on Hong Kong cinema threatened by the mainland expansion and censorship, but alas.

The dramedy Hi Mom has become the third highest grossing movie in China, surpassing The Wandering Earth and Avengers: Endgame. Its director and lead actor Jia Ling is also now the highest grossing woman director in China (fifth highest worldwide.)

By curiosity, I rented 1911: Revolution, the film made to comemorate the 100th anniversary of the first Chinese Revolution, starring and directed by Jackie Chan.

I’m mixed, honestly… the film certainly looks good, but it doesn’t do a very good job at explaining the events clearly − even though it had expodump cards between scenes. By the end I still wasn’t sure what the hell Sun Yat-Sen was trying to do − was he gonna resign to hand over the presidency to Yuan Shikai or was he gonna oppose him…? Or… both, somehow? If you’re not already familiar with that era, it’s pretty confusing.

Still, overall I was more invested in the second half of the movie than the first. Rather than overly romanticized war martyrdom, I was more interested in the political intrigues. The acting was also a mixed bag; Winston Chao (a Taiwanese actor, fittingly) and Jackie Chan are okay as Sun Yat-Sen and Huang Xing, but the foreign characters range from "pretty bad" to "hilariously bad" − special mentions to Michael Lacidonia as Homer Lea, who worships the ground Sun walks on, and a French representative who is very audibly from Québec. But the main reason I liked the second half more was Yuan Shikai. Seriously, Sun Chun steals the show in every scene he’s in.

Aaaand in case you forgot who sponsored this film, it ends with some flowers thrown at the Communist Party, which didn’t even exist in 1911. Even though I’m not sure Sun would be fond of the current regime, but whatever.

Sun Yat-Sen favored an alliance with the CPC and was fond of Lenin. His wife continued supporting the CPC after Chiang Kai-Shek began his massacres of communists (and I think she even became a member of the party).

As far as whether Sun would support the modern Chinese government...I don't like playing the "What would X think of today" game, but I'd think his firm belief in liberal democracy would be opposed to the fascist rule of the current PRC? Just uh, just a hunch there.

Yeah… Though people’s views do evolve with time, it’s a bit ironic that the current CCP regime seems like something their mortal enemy Chiang Kai-Shek would have supported, while their hero Sun Yat-Sen would have probably prefered something like modern-day Taiwan.

Moving to a different part of Asia, I just watch the 2003 South-Korean animated film Oseam (pronounced "Oh-seh-am"), directed by Sung Baek-Yeop. A film that I had been aware of since I was a kid but hadn’t piqued my interest back then. Now I’ve finally gotten to it.

The story follows a little boy named Gil-Seon and his blind older sister Gam-i, two orphans who are adopted by Buddhist monks and try to cope with the absence of their mother (Gil-Seon doesn’t know she’s dead) while adapting to their new environment. Gam-i has no trouble fitting in the silent and peaceful temple but Gil-Seon is bored and spends his energy in various mischiefs. The last act has him accompany one of the monks to a remote mountain temple, but the monk has an accident on his way back from the village, leaving Gil-Seon alone for days, praying the Goddess of Compassion (whom he starts calling "Mom")… which literally descends in front of the characters with the boy in her arms at the end of the movie.

So it’s like one of those "sight of Virgin Mary" stories, except Buddhist and Korean − Oseam is apparently a real site.

It’s… an interesting film, but also a little annoying? It’s visually beautiful and has great atmosphere, but the dialogue feels really pompous (though I’d have to rewatch it subtitled) and that literal Deus ex Machina at the end seemed to come out of the blue, since the film was very grounded up to that point. There are also some pacing issues − I jumped straight to the last act in my description because… not much really happens before that.

I’m probably missing some cultural references to fully appreciate the film’s meaning and messages, but some scenes did feel really poignant. I’m not sure which period the story takes place in, though? The protagonists wear Western-ish clothes, but there are no electrical devices or signs of modernity anywhere.

Edited by Lyendith on Mar 18th 2022 at 8:39:40 PM

What's the general opinion on Satyajit Ray? I'm aware he's very beloved in film circles as one of India's most famous directors, but I also read that there was apparently some backlash to his work inside of India. Not sure if it's genuine criticism or something along the lines of what Akira Kurosawa was criticized for inside Japan (films were too "western" and not as deeply rooted in "tradition").

I’m not familiar with his work, what did he do?

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Rewatched Oseam in Korean this time, it was somewhat better? It didn’t feel as pumpous at least. Not sure if it’s because I don’t understand Korean or because it’s a language that melts like butter in your ear, but Gami and Gilseon didn’t sound as annoying.

His most famous work was the Apu Trilogy of three films chronicling the life of a Bengali youth. The three films in the trilogy are Pather Panchali, Aparajito, and The World of Apu. All three of them are very well-beloved in film circles.

Gotta check this out then.

I do know about Deepa Mehta’s Fire/Earth/Water trilogy (Earth was a pretty big trauma I must say), but the director lives and produced them mostly in Canada so I’m not sure they count as "Asian films".

Edited by Lyendith on Mar 26th 2022 at 4:59:51 PM

Alright, I watched two films from Ray (Bordeaux’s public library has a suprisingly large collection of his films), "The World of Apu" and "The Great City". Two very different films, but both interesting in their own ways.

The actor playing Apu did quite an impression on me, I must say, going pretty seemlessly between "naïve and dreamy (and slightly annoying) young guy" to "depressed grieving husband and father-in-denial". Though I was bummed his wife was Killed Offscreen. And the whole situation of their marriage felt pretty contrived, not gonna lie. That last scene with his son was pretty sweet though.

The Great City felt more… modern, for lack of a better word? Camera work felt a bit more complex and we get a bit more insight into urban life in a post-independence capitalist India (though that was quickly touched upon in the other film). It goes some suprising routes at times. Like that scene where Subrata sees Arati meet with a client outside a café, I was like "oh great, he’s gonna think she’s cheating on him, isn’t he." Turns out… nope, she enters the café and actually finds a convincing lie to protect her husband’s honor. And when she dumps her job in protest of her boss firing Edith for no reason, he’s actually surprisingly understanding. That was all very sweet, considering he comes out as a bit of a jerk in the first half of the film. Too bad the blurb on the DVD box literally spoils the entire film, final scene and all.

Outside of having touching stories and being pretty well filmed and paced, it’s also interesting to see some of the traces colonization left in the culture, such as characters quoting English proverbs or some very audible English loanwords in the Bengali dialogue. Hell, the boss in the Great City seems to be a bit racist against Anglo-Indians while randomly switching to Enlish every three sentence.

…I’ll probably watch the rest of the Apu trilogy soon. And maybe some of his later color films.

So I watched Pather Panchali and Aparajito to complete the trilogy.

They’re… kinda boring, honestly? I don’t know, not much happens outside of Apu’s entire family dying of illness within a few years and yeah, that makes for some pretty poignant scenes (especially the "sari" scene at the end of the first film), but other than that they’re basically just slice-of-life movies. An interesting look at Bengali society at that time, nonetheless. And I did like the character of Durga a lot, I wish she had stuck around.

One thing I do like in these films (the first one especially) is how they sometimes move away from dialogue to focus on silence and the sounds of nature for a while. There’s a lot of Show, Don't Tell too in the interactions, now that I think of it.

Edited by Lyendith on Jun 10th 2022 at 4:39:46 PM

From Deadline: The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil is getting an American remake, with Ma Dong-seok / Don Lee once again taking the lead role.

Randomly reminded of the greatest fight scene ever put to wire:

I managed to see Decision to Leave. Very good indeed. I started the work page; a few tropes are minor spoilers that are in fact revealed in the first half of the film.

Edited by gropcbf on Jul 4th 2022 at 11:50:30 AM

Does this thread also discuss Philippine Films?

I guess it should.

Finally watched GomBurZa, and while it's not the best Biopic I've ever seen, it was definitely masterfully well done. I'd say it gives Heneral Luna a run for its money.

I created the work page for Hirokazu Kore-eda's Monster. Very good film!

I translated the recurring insult as having a pig's brain, but then I watched the French subs so I am not sure of the English wording.