Lost in Beijing: Grade A

A
Lost in Beijing (2007)
Tony Leung, Bingbing Fan, Dawei Tong. Cowriter and Director: Yu Li. (Chinese, subtitled).

A young, poor couple and an older, rich couple interact in modern Beijing, which was unrecognizable since I was there in 1979 when there was no building over about 7 storeys, and even those were crumbling stone blocks built by the British. Now gleaming glass and steel towers sprout like mushrooms after a rain, under a filthy brown sky. It could be Detroit or Miami or any other modern city. The movie gives a glimpse into the lives of people living high in the towers and low on the ground.

The young man (Tong) is a window washer and happens to see through the window, his wife (Fan) being raped by her boss (Leung). The young man demands payment in retribution, but things become complicated when we learn that Fan is pregnant. This movie is banned in China and the filmmakers are forbidden to work for two years, ostensibly because of the sex and nudity in the film. But I don’t think that is the real reason it was banned. There isn’t really much nudity on screen and the film is in no sense pornographic. We see some naked legs and buttocks, and that’s about it.

Of course among a billion people, there is sex every minute of every day, but to show it on film probably contrasts too harshly with the “official” view that all Chinese people are proud and dignified. The sharp division between inner and outer personality is core to the culture, and this film allows all the world, especially us barbarian Westerners, to look past the outer formalities to the inner private life.

More important though was probably the censors’ embarrassment or shame about how badly women are treated. The movie is a strong social statement by the female director and co-writer. Women are raped, beat up, murdered, ordered to have an abortion, forbidden to have an abortion, kidnapped, their babies bought and sold. Although the movie is not explicitly violent, the story makes it very clear that women are chattel in China today, despite the veneer of modern civilization. If that were not so, the censors would not be embarrassed by the movie and would have let it run. In the ending, the protagonist woman makes a defiant move, her declaration of independence, but I wonder how realistic that possibility is in today’s Beijing.

It is a very well-acted movie, with considerable sensitivity and humor, great photography, some interesting editing, and a stunning look into modern Beijing. But above all, it is a courageous expose and plea on behalf of Chinese women, and women everywhere.

Lust, Caution: Grade A

A
Lust, Caution (2007)
Wei Tang, Tony Leung. Director Ang Lee. (Chinese, subtitled).

Wei Tang lights up the screen in this visually gorgeous historical drama set in Shanghai in the late 1930’s. The Japanese have invaded China and Leung is a collaborator rounding up anti-Japanese resisters. Tang’s college theater group makes it their patriotic duty to assassinate him. Tang insinuates herself into his wife’s mah-jongg group then seduces him, setting him up for the kill. In their increasingly passionate relationship she sacrifices her body and her soul to gain his trust. There is no reason why the resistance cell could not just pop him while he walks down the street. The idea that he needs to be seduced is an arbitrary story device.

There are a couple of attractively photographed and very steamy sex scenes that border on the gratuitous, but could suggest her mind moving from murder to lust to love. I didn’t buy it. Tang gives an impassioned speech to her fellow assassins about how she despises the guy and is making this huge sacrifice of her mind and body for the cause. Was she lying to them? I thought not. At the key moment in the movie a big diamond clouds her mind and she makes a choice that betrays everything. Dramatic, but again, I didn’t buy it. That’s not her character. So even though tension is maintained between the title nouns, lust and caution, the plot line is anemic and inconsistent with the protagonist’s psychology. But it is a different time and a different culture, so who knows, really?

Another criticism is that every costume, car windshield, bicycle, storefront and sidewalk is perfect, clean, and brand new, not a speck of dirt, dust, or time-worn age anywhere. There are no flowing gutters, no street beggars. Lots of cigarettes but no ashtrays. I’m sure it was artistic choice, perhaps to make the sex scenes seem more aesthetic than sex is. But once you accept the abstract visual style, you can appreciate that Tang’s face is stunning, the costumes are stunning, the sets are stunning, the music is stunning. The movie is a feast for eyes and ears, so beautiful, you don’t need a plot.

A World Without Thieves: Grade B

B
A World Without Thieves (2004)
Andy Lau, Rene Liu. Writer-director: Xiaogang Feng. Chinese (subtitled).

A pair of thieves in contemporary China spot a village idiot on a train carrying his life savings in his backpack. The woman thief (Liu) has compassion on the boy and resolves to protect him and even resolves to “quit the business” and settle down, possibly because she is secretly pregnant. Her partner however can’t get his mind off that money. A rival band of thieves on the same train also spot the mark. Lau’s character repeatedly saves the boy, rescues the money from the “bad” thieves, and reluctantly returns it, to appease his girlfriend. There are numerous battles of wits, tricks, picking of pockets, and contests of skill, many involving eggs, which apparently figure large in the rural Chinese mindscape. The characters are attractive, the story amusing, and the acting convincing although played with self-conscious irony much of the time. Characters often quote Confucius (I assume) at each other to convey complex meanings indirectly. Those are quite witty, probably much more so for a native speaker. The cinematography is wonderful, displaying the Chinese countryside, villages and cities with equal care. The train set is a hothouse where the action sprouts organically. It is a small movie. There is no master strategy, as in The Sting or The Orient Express; just a series of incidents. The film also lacks the epic historical sweep of many Chinese pictures and there are no martial arts or traditional costumes or weaponry on display. But the story carries its weight and as a bonus you get a glimpse into contemporary Chinese life.

The Painted Veil: Grade D

D

The Painted Veil (2006)

Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Liev Schrieber, Toby Jones. Director John Curran.

You have to be a fan of Somerset Maugham novels to appreciate this sluggish movie. With Maugham you are supposed to get into the mind of the characters and experience life as they do. But these characters are not developed enough for that, leaving only a series of scenes that don’t add up to anything. Norton is a bacteriologist who takes his wife, Watts, to central China between the world wars to fight cholera in villages. He is utterly without emotional expression and thus a cipher both to his wife and to the viewer. Watts’ character is emotionally abandoned, frustrated, and purposeless. In bored desperation she signs up to care for cholera stricken children at a Catholic missionary. There are rumors of civil war. Villagers die of cholera. And so on. The cinematography is well done and the movie is perhaps worth watching for that. Toby Jones gives a small but well-executed performance but overall, this is a tragic waste of acting talent.