Several months ago, I reviewed the following controversial Chinese films for Video Librarian, and thought they were worth sharing.LOST IN BEIJING / Ping Guo [***]
(Yu Li, China, 2007, 112 minutes)
In her native land, Yu Li's third feature experienced the best and worst her country had to offer. On the one hand, Lost in Beijing was a hit. On the other, authorities pulled it from theaters after a few weeks and imposed a two-year ban on the director and writer/producer Li Fang (Summer Palace). Western viewers may not find the results as "pornographic" as China's Film Bureau—non-gratuitous nudity aside—but nor will anyone confuse this claustrophobic melodrama for chamber of commerce propaganda.
In Yu Li's Beijing, money buys everything but happiness. Liu Ping Guo (Fan Bingbing, Battle of Wits), wife of high-rise window washer An Kun (Tong Da Wei), works in a foot massage parlor. Lin Dong (Election's Tony Leung Ka Fai), husband of infertile aesthetician Wang Mei (Yi Yi's Elaine Jin), runs the joint. One couple is poor and powerless; the other rich and powerful.
After a night of drinking with a depressed colleague, Liu Ping Guo passes out at work, and Lin Dong takes advantage of her. Washing windows outside the parlor at the time, An Kun catches him in the act, and attempts blackmail. Then, when his wife becomes pregnant, he offers to sell Lin Dong the baby. Relations between the haves and the have-nots become hopelessly tangled.
Tough going at times, but always well acted, Lost in Beijing loosens up once the two couples become unlikely business partners. Fans of Jia Zhangke (The World) and early Zhang Yimou (The Story of Qiu Ju) should find this film of particular interest.
SUMMER PALACE / Yi He Yuan [***]
(Lou Ye, China, 2006, 140 minutes)
In 2000's dreamy Suzhou River, Lou Ye proved he had a strong visual sense. With the leisurely-paced Summer Palace, his fourth feature, the director combines fluid camera work with an impressionistic narrative that spans almost two decades.
Starting in 1987, the beautiful, but introverted Yu Hong (television veteran Hao Lei) leaves her provincial boyfriend behind when she goes off to Beijing University. In the city, she drifts aimlessly until the outgoing Li Ti (Lingling Hu) befriends her. Yu Hong's new friend then introduces her to the idealistic Zhou Wei (Guo Xiaodong), with whom she enters into a tempestuous relationship. From that point forward, her journal entries serve as narration. After the pro-democracy protests at Tiananmen, she drops out of school, Li Ti moves to Berlin, and Zhou Wei enters the military, later joining Li Ti in Germany, while Yu Hong remains in China, traveling from Wuhan to Chongqing and from man to man.
All the while, she thinks about Zhou Wei, but makes no effort to contact him (and vice versa). Eventually, she settles down, and Zhou Wei returns from Europe, but they're more tamped-down
than ever. The director doesn't spell it out in so many words, but the events of 1989 have crushed their collective spirits.
On the surface, the story may not sound controversial, but Chinese authorities sentenced Lee Ye to a five-year ban due to the Tiananmen footage and sexually explicit material. At 140 minutes, Summer Palace is longer than necessary, but comes recommended for its intimate approach towards historic events. Two featurettes examine the production (The Making of Summer Palace) and the controversy (Summer Palace and Chinese Censorship).
Click here for Movie of the Month, Part Three: Chris & Don
Endnote: Slightly revised from the original text. Incidentally, I covered these films at the same time as The Last Emperor and Sunflower. Fortunately, I never get tired of Chinese-oriented cinema. And speaking of Suzhou River, I caught it at the Toronto Film Festival. It's a lovely film, but Lou Ye had a hard time talking about it. From the extras included with the Summer DVD, it's clear he's learned to articulate his ideas more succinctly (there are few things more discomfiting than listening to a filmmaker hem and haw for several minutes in a row). Images from New Yorker Films.
2 comments:
I saw Lost in Beijing at a screening where a host family to a Chinese exchange student had brought their young guest. Periodically they would apologize to her for bringing her to the film and ask if she wanted to go. She assured them every time that she was interested in the film, but the family could hardly contain their discomfort.
How funny. It's definitely an adult film--in every sense of the word--but I would hope Chinese citizens of all ages would make the effort to see it while they're in the States. And who knows how long these New Yorkers discs will remain in circulation!
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