Week 27 in film

Some great surprises last week.

Trance (Danny Boyle, 2013)
What do we know about Danny Boyle? That he excels in his use of lighting and soundtrack choice. Those are probably the only things that are good about this film. Trance could therefore be seen as a visual treat (Rosario Dawson!) but lacks in originality. The writers 'borrowed' from Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind and plot twists are so 1995!   5/10

The Terrorizers (Edward Yang, 1986)
If you want to watch a film again after you finished it it must be great. Yang shows to be a very intelligent filmmaker by presenting a very calm and compelling network narrative which, as it should, provides its viewer with more pieces of the puzzle as the film carries on. Not so much do we receive clues or facts but are we getting more and more involved emotionally and do we learn to understand the choices of the individuals. Add some stunning cinematography and several graphic similarities which I always dig. Contains a lot of elements (even a photographer) that would be in the later masterpiece Yi Yi. Only thing I didn't like so much was the ending, but a second viewing shouldn't take too long.  8.5/10


The Element of Crime (Lars von Trier, 1984)
Von Trier's debut is clearly influenced by his idol Tarkovsky. The plot has hints from Hitchcock, perhaps if von Trier would have quoted Hitchcock a bit more this would have been a better film, now it is too much style for a crime plot. His style is nevertheless impressive. 6.5/10

Two Lovers (James Gray, 2008)
The best film for this week. Joaquin Phoenix is a romantically naive photographer with suicidal tendencies who lives with his parents after his fiancee dumped him. His father introduces him to the likeable and decent daughter of a business colleague. A romance is born, but Phoenix seems to develop a weak spot for his more unstable neighbour, the beautiful Gwyneth Paltrow. A film that stands out not only in its performances, but in portraying a harsh and emotional reality. As so often in a great film, the ending makes all the difference.  9/10 

Xich Lo (Anh Hung Tran, 1995)
Vietnam's Cidade de Deus. Good film, but a bit too dark and depressive for me. Some misery is shot beautifully though, but I couldn't enjoy it as much as I could in different themes and settings.  7.5/10

Le Bonheur (Agnes Varda, 1965)
Varda's happiness has almost the same opening as my favorite The Tree of Life, at least visually. Funny how a different tone can change a film experience. Left me colder than it should, I guess.  7/10

Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, 2012)
Looks like a Manhattan-inspired exercise by Allen-adept Baumbach. Thanks to an honest and smart script co-written by its 'mumblecore' lead Greta Gerwig proves to be more than just a copy. Credit for portraying a complex and somewhat annoying lead character you slowly learn to love.  8/10

Yi Yi (Edward Yang, 2000)

If there’s one part of the world I should watch more movies from it’s definitely Asia. Every now and then I do decide to watch Asian cinema and it rarely disappoints me, but somehow I am not watching as many as I should. Why this is? Not a clue. Maybe the big cultural difference compared to the ‘conventional’ Hollywood movies I grew up with and defined my standards. Yesterday I decided it was about time to watch the 3 hour long Yi Yi from Taiwan, and boy was it worth my time!

The movie portrays a family living in Taipei. We kick off with a wedding where the whole family is presented to us. The family is shortly forced to take care of their grandmother who is in a coma. In a network narrative the movie mainly follows four family members starting with the dad NJ, who is unhappy in his job and forced to do business with a Japanese videogame company associate, making him aware of the purely commercial aim of his colleagues. When he runs into an old flame he evaluates his entire life and being. His youngest, 8 year old son Yang Yang, has trouble with his teachers and female students and likes to make photographs. His daughter is getting involved with the boyfriend of her friend who lives next door. Finally we follow NJ’s brother-in-law who has a lot of trouble with his newly wed involving an ex-girlfriend who shows up at their baby shower.

The strength of this film is the universality of the story. Even though it plays in Taiwan, the stories are those of every day life and could be yours or mine just as well. It never dramatizes or wants to be pretentious, it simply shows us the lives of the different generations in a family and what they are dealing with. The length of 173 minutes never feels too long, again nothing special or spectacular happens in this movie but it gets your attention from the first to last minute. The final scene brings all the members together and is simply brilliant. A movie that gets under your skin with ease without ever forcing anything.

Of course from a Hollywood perspective associations with movies like Magnolia or Babel can be made. The main difference between those two titles and Yi Yi is the fact that I would call this movie more modest and calm. The story doesn’t really build up to a climax but nevertheless fascinated me until the last second. It sounds corny, but this is really a movie about life, nothing more and nothing less. The writer-director Edward Yang deserves a lot of credit (received the best director award at Cannes) for making such a delicate and pure picture. I couldn’t pick one or two scenes that make the difference, it really is a movie as a whole, demonstrating the brilliance of the writer. If I had to pick one scene though there is a wonderful sequence where NJ and his former love are evaluating their lives, which reminded me of Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset, but again I have a Hollywood reference frame.

Yi Yi impressed me deeply and it likely might end up as one of my personal favorites (I suspect a second viewing will impress me even more). I will not spend too many words, just watch this ‘small’ masterpiece. I will for sure search for more Asian films like this. Comes highly recommended!

10/10