24 City (2008) (China)

This piece of Chinese movie is dramatically thought provoking as it has a very thin line between fiction and reality. Being masterfully directed by renowned Chinese director Zhanke Jia  I believe there is nothing less you can actually expect from it.

The plot is based on the demolishing of a factory complex known as factory 420 in the city of Chengdu which has stood there for over 50 years. The property is now set to build a luxury apartment complex known as 24 City. The movie one by one introduces several people panning through 3 generations who have had connections with the factory 420 in different ways for many decades. These people reveal uniquely different stories from their lives surrounding the factory 420 and it ultimately leads to the history of China and its recent economic revelations effect on its people.

Though 24 City has a strong documentary type narrative and structure, it’s actually a movie made with real actors and actresses.  I’m certain that for anyone who is not familiar with the cast might immediately have a belief that the events that take place are certainly for real. However, it is not entirely wrong either due to the fact that some strong elements of the movie do exists for real and the director has very skillfully combined these fiction and nonfiction elements in to a single storyline. Due to this nature 24 City is definitely a movie that has the capacity to play with the viewers minds no matter in which way you would like to interpret it, as a documentary or as a movie.

24 City has very best of cinematography and storytelling structure. Every scene and story is built on certain theme that differentiates with short verses mostly extracted from old and contemporary poems. And each of these story segment has a wonderful feel of its own and its certain that the viewers would connect with some stories more than others with relatively close personal experiences of their own.

Even from a view point of a person who has very less knowledge and experience of China and its people 24 City will open up new windows of realization. Its indeed is because of the magical touch of Zhanke Jia.

Genre: Drama

"Er shi si cheng ji" (original title)

Director: Zhanke Jia

Rating: 4/5

A Touch of Sin (2013)

Every crime has a victim and every criminal has a story of their own to tell. A Touch of Sin is one of the most powerful of such crime stories I have seeing recently and its directed by the well-known Chinese director Zhangke Jia. Zhangke is famous for his style in powerful dramas that mostly speak of the contemporary themes that surround the rise of Chinese economic boom and the resulting cultural changes.

A Touch of Sin is a collaborative of four different storylines that has minor connections with each other (which remind me of the great Mexican production Amores Perros-2000) that had the same style of story telling. There are more than few main characters in this due to it’s nature of the plot and each story has certain uniqueness’s and similarities to fathom. For me it’s hard to tell which story is my favorite and which is not as I see a certain beauty in all of them. As all the stories are based on some sort of a crime (large or minor) at a certain point viewer comes to the realization of where it is heading.

Though there is no hard hitting ending to this movie once it’s done the viewer will be still living a trance. There is beautiful cinematography, acting and very little of music and laughter going around. But I completely like the way it flow at times wished that some stories has more. And truly this portray the cultural and economical effects the modern China and its people are going through and some of it may seems overwhelming.

Genre: Crime| Drama

Director: Zhangke Jia

Original title: "Tian zhu ding"

Score: 4/5

The Grandmaster 2013- "Yi dai zong shi" (original title), Rating 3/5

(language Mandarin)

I have nothing but respect for Kar Wai Wong. His movies are deeply thought provoking and mesmerizing in every possible way that you can imagine and they are pure works of art. As a director he knows what cinema is truly capable of and touching the deepest corner of hearts for him is just magically simple. However his latest The Grandmaster is very noticeable out of his usual movie making style and it’s different. While being one of the most beautiful martial art movies I have seeing ever this gives me mixed feelings. 

To start with the plot is not an unfamiliar one for anyone who has seeing previous movies by Wilson Yip about the great master IP (IP Man 2008, IP Man 2 2010). However The Grandmaster is an exploration of master IP’s life from the early 1930s which is somewhat an unexplored era of his life in previous movies. This could be the main reason that Kar Wai Wong has spent significant time on master IP’s early life but given a short span of the movie for his life after arriving in Hong Kong. Master IP was truly known for his contribution to take martial arts especially Win Chun to a global arena and that part of his life is less explored in this movie. If anyone expects to see the same story unveiling with the great hands of Kar Wai Wong they will be somewhat disappointed. 

But The Grandmaster offers much more than just master IP’s life. For a good deal of time the viewer feels like it’s an exploration in to an era where China has gone through lot of domestic and international disturbances and the evolution and the struggle of Chinese people as a whole to keep up their life and traditions. At this point the plot spreads in few directions and master IP’s story at times takes backstage. Though this is a bold move made by the director to give the story more weight and meaning it feels like master IP’s character was not given the proper respect he deserve. For me the different story lines were a distraction and a reason to drift away from the main plot than an anchor point. Being a slow moving film the time spent on sub plots is harming the main plot. 

Performance wise The Grandmaster is brilliant. The simple yet rich performance by Tony Chiu Wai as master IP and sharp eyed stunningly beautiful Leung Ziyi Zhang delivering the role of ambitious Gong Er keeps the movie alive and warm. And the wonderful cinematography with close up and high speed camera sequences makes The Grandmaster a visually memorable one. You will witness some wonderfully crafted action sequences in this one that’s lethal yet eye pleasing. As I recall this only fall short to the beautiful cinematography of Hero (2002).

All in all The Grandmaster does not fall in to one of those amazing movies made by Kar Wai Wong. But that does not mean that he loses his title as one of the greatest directors of the contemporary international cinema. His flags are still flying high while the flag for The Grandmaster is at a bit lower level than the rest. 

Aftershock (2010) (China)(Chinese)

Aftershock (2010) (China)(Chinese)

Drama

 

When I saw the end credits appear on the screen… I realized that if I don’t rate this movie 5/5 I will curse myself forever. A movie doesn’t simply be different or strikes as being great without strong presence of emotional element. Because, good cinema is completely about self realization for the viewer whatever the volumes it maybe. This movie is just a mind blowing emotional experience that you may come across very rarely. I don’t recall me being so engulfed in emotions and heart ache and expecting to see some solace for the characters that appear in this than any other movie. I wanted them to find peace with themselves… become normal though how hard it may seem.  But deep within I knew there is no joy for them anymore as life has changed forever. If a movie can make you feel that pain and regret just like it was your own experience, then there is nothing else that you can ever expect from cinema. This Chinese masterpiece I will take to my grave.

 

සිනමා කෘතියක් අනර්ඝ වීමට නම් එය යම් කිසි දුරකට හෝ එය නරඹන්නාගේ සිත තුල ස්ව ආත්ම ගවේෂණයක් ජනිත කල හැකි කෘතියක් විය යුතුමය්. මේ චිත්‍රපටිය නරඹන විට මා සිත ජනිත වූ අනේක හැඟීම මෙතෙකය් කියා පහසුවෙන් කිව නොහැකි තරම්. මුල සිට අගට ජීවිතයක් තරම් බරැති හැඟීම් ගොන්නක් සමග පොර බදන මේ කතාව, ප්‍රේක්ෂකයාගේ මනස සහ හදවත ඉතාමත්ම තදින් ස්පර්ශ කරනවා. සමහර විටක මෙහි ඇති චරිත වටා සැරිසරන දුක්බර මතක සමුදාය අපිට අපේම මතකයම් මෙන් දැනෙනවා. ඔබ කොතරම් තද සිත්  ඇත්තෙක් උවත් ඔබේ හදවත හඬවා ඇසට කඳුලක් නැගෙනු වලකනු නොහැකි වේවි. මා දන්නේ එක් සත්‍යයක් පමණි. එනම් මේ විශිෂ්ඨ චීන සිනමා කෘතිය මාගේ මනස තුල නොමැකෙන මතකයන් ගොන්නට එක් වූ බවය්.

 

5/5

 

Synopsis: The epic story of a family separated as a result of the Great Tangshan Earthquake of 1976.

The Flowers of War (2011)(China)

The Flowers of War (2011)

Drama | War | History

After seeing too many martial art movies from China here comes a gem like film magic that stands up shoulder to shoulder with great war movies made in western cinema. This maybe the best Chinese historical war based movie that awe impressed me so far. It’s emotional, heroic , brutal and suspenseful that is of the perfect formula for a good war movie. No doubt the plot is what makes this movie a wonderful experience keeping aside the fantastic work done on acting, sets, graphics and war action. To be honest I was impressed to see Bale appearing in a Chinese production and was curious to find out how he pulls it off. And there is no amusement there but pure talent displayed again. There are so many reasons why this is a good movie. But I think the best reason of all is how it leaves you wondering at the ending scene. It will leave you with hope in one hand but despair on the other. Wonderful wonderful movie.

වචන වලින් විස්තර කරන්න බැරි තරම් හැඟීම් වලින් බර වූ සිනමා කෘතියක්. මෙතෙක් කල් අප දැක ඇති සාම්ප්‍රදායික චීන චිත්‍රපටි වලට සැබෑ අභියෝගයක් වෙමින් නිපදවුණු මෙය ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම අනර්ඝය්. මෙහි ඇත්තේ විශිෂ්ට රඟපෑම්, ක්‍රියාදාම සහ යුධ ජවනිකා පමණක් නොවේ. එහි තිබෙන කතා වස්තුව ඉතාමත් සංවේදී ජනකය්. මිනිසුන් විසින් අනෙක් මිනිසුන් සත්වයින් සේ මරා දමද්දී ඒ මිනිසුන් අතර සිටින දෙවියන් වැනි සැඟවුණු චරිත ගැනය් මින් කියවෙන්නේ. මේ චරිත ඔබ අප පිළිකුල් කරන අවමංගල්‍යය සහයකයින් හෝ පහත් කර සලකන ගණිකාවන් හෝ විය හැකි. නමුත් ඔවුන්ගේ ගතේ නැති නමුත් සිතේ ඇති පිරිසිඳු බවට හොඳ ක්‍රියාව මිසක් වෙනත් සාක්ෂි අවශ්‍යය නොවනු ඇත. 

4.5/5

Synopsis: A Westerner finds refuge with a group of women in a church during Japan's rape of Nanking in 1937. Posing as a priest, he attempts to lead the women to safety.