I probably should have mentioned earlier this week that the London Film Festival was imminent (it kicked off last night) and I have now seen the first two of the seven movies I have prebooked (a very conservative number for me). I shall probably comment on these on my next entry, but for now I feel the need to review some of the recent Chinese movies that Film Four scheduled last week in the wee hours -- all of which I set and three of which I have now seen.
As I have said before I have gone off Film Four since it stopped being a subscription film channel and went commercial on Freeview -- my main complaint (apart from the annoyance of ads) being that they have shown very little that I have not viewed previously elsewhere and seem to be majoring in safe rather than adventurous programming. So five new (to me) Chinese films was something of a treat. The first that I viewed was "Little Red Flowers" (2006) which was a sweet but slight story of a five-year old rebel at a state nursery school shortly after the Revolution. I suppose it was some sort of allegory about the futility of nonconformity in modern Chinese society and ultimately inconclusive. The second film was the oldest of the five, "Beijing Bastards" from 1993. I had heard of this one, but it was actually pretty weak in its story of rebel musicians imitating the ennui of Western bands; it could just as easily have been set in Berlin or Budapest.
However the above film was something of a surprise, especially since I do not usually like war films, although there are various movies that I do like which, as this one, take war as the setting for a story of human nature. This one was set in Northern China in 1945 where the Japanese are the occupying enemy. Two captured soldiers -- a fierce Japanese and a Chinese interpreter -- are dumped on a peasant village by an unknown captor, who says he will return for them in five days. The five days stretch into six months and the hapless villagers having attempted to kill them (but quite unable to do so) find themselves nurturing their unwanted guests. This section is actually quite humourous as the Jap wants to insult his captors and goad them into ending his life (so that he can die heroically), but the interpreter actually teaches him good and complimentary phrases to prolong their existence. Eventually the prisoners (both now quite tame) and the villagers settle on a plan to return the captives to the Japanese troops and to benefit the village with supplies of grain. However I had a nagging feeling that things would end in tears, and despite the amusing business before the denouement, that was unfortunately the case.
This movie was nominated for the Golden Palm in Cannes and did win the Jury Prize, but was subsequently suppressed by the Chinese government on the grounds that it presented the Japanese in too good a light and the Chinese in too poor a one. Despite its length, it was very involving and for most of its running time, it was very good-humoured. The dark turn at the end, however, only reinforces my wariness about war movies in general. At heart, I'm a very peaceful soul!!!
1 comment:
You seem to read my mind - 'Little Red Flowers' had a first rate performance by the little boy and I did read it as a rather sly commentary on what was then recent Chinese history. I felt that 'Beijing Bastards' might have been included to
get the others - "You can have those four only if you take this one as well" - as it
was rubbish. 'Devils on the Doorstep' was a delight despite the complete change
of tone at the end which did remind one that war atrocities have been around for
a long time.
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