可可西里 (KeKeXiLi)

[Ian_Lee]

Has anyone watched 可可西里? The Tibetan actor has been nominated for Best Actor Award in Taiwan's Golden Horse Film Festival.

[roddy]

No, but it's very high on my list of things to watch - the subject matter sounds great, and I really enjoyed the directors last film (The Missing Gun with Jiang Wen)

Roddy

[laolee]

Also won the Juror's Prize at the Tokyo Int'l Film Festival last week.

[wendy]

As a new film directed by Chinese promising director Lu Chuan, Kekexili is set in a highland area in the Tibet and Qinghai areas of western China. The endangered Tibetan antelope is hunted by poachers for the international fur trade, and a not-so-official patrol tries to stop them. As the good guys hunt the bad guys (who are also hunting), survival motives become more complex, and I see how each side is capable of both mercy and greed. The good guys need to be a little bad to survive -- yeah it's the western frontier, but when it comes to human nature, how different is it from Beijing? I believe that Fans of American westerns will find the shots and themes familiar.

Maybe it's a small step forward for Chinese non-mainstream film. I especially like how it handles such an obviously controversial subject without being heavy-handed or ignoring reality. It won the Special Jury Prize at the Tokyo Film Festival last month, and there's talk of an Oscar nod.

[laolee]

Has anyone seen the DVD version yet? I heard that it had the onscreen logo a la Hero - Extended Version and House of Flying Daggers?

[Ian_Lee]

Kekexili beat 2046 by just one vote and was awarded the "Best Film" in the Golden Horse Film Festival hosted by Taiwan last weekend.

[Jive Turkey]

I saw it last night. It was quite good. You can get it on DVD on the mainland now. I've seen a lot in the newspapers about how the director was afraid of mainland censorship. Was the distribution of the film actually stopped on the mainland? It doesn't seem so.

The shots are amazing. The music is good. The production quality is as good as I've seen, which is no small feat considering where they were shooting. One thing I liked about it was that it was through and through a Tibetan story. Most of what we see about Tibet is either pro-government propaganda or anti-government Shangrila kind of nonsense. This movie was neither. I know little about Tibet and have never been there. After watching mainland films about Tibet or western films like Seven Years in Tibet, I haven't felt like I had seen anything real about the place. After watching Kekexili, I actually felt like I had learned a little bit.

I really liked 2046, but I can understand why Kekexili beat it.

[Ian_Lee]

I watched the DVD last night and was really overwhelmed.

The scene where the Liu guy was killed by the floating sand is really saddening. And throughout the film there is a sense that you can't fight the nature.

This is a really typical Tibetan film but I checked those exile Tibetan websites and they hardly mentioned about it.

Columbia is going to have this film limited release later this year in U.S. And I saw its commercial on National Geographic.

Don't miss it.

[WoAiJolinTsai]

I'm thinking about buying this from yesasia, but tell me, is it all in Mandarin? IMDB says "Mandarin / Tibetan" as the language... and I'm only interested in purchasing Mandarin movies with english subtitles at this time.

Thanks

[Ian_Lee]

Basically this is a Tibetan movie with most of the actors/actresses ethnic Tibetans. So about half of the dialog is in Tibetan while about the other half is in Mandarin.

[Jive Turkey]

It seemed to me that it was mostly in Mandarin, but it's been a while since I saw it. A lot of the speakers have a Tibetan accent, which at first was a bit difficult for me to follow since I'd never really heard it before. I like watching movies that represent regional accents well. Zhang Yimou's film's are good in that way.

[wix]

One thing I liked about it was that it was through and through a Tibetan story. Most of what we see about Tibet is either pro-government propaganda or anti-government Shangrila kind of nonsense. This movie was neither. I know little about Tibet and have never been there. After watching mainland films about Tibet or western films like Seven Years in Tibet, I haven't felt like I had seen anything real about the place. After watching Kekexili, I actually felt like I had learned a little bit.

I just watched this film on DVD and thought it was quite brilliant for a low budget movie shot on such a difficult location. I have to agree with Jive Turkey's comment. I think it provided a realistic picture of many aspects of life in modern day Tibet and a good contrast to some of the other recent films about Tibet.

Another bit of Tibetan history that would make great material for a film would be story of the guerrilla army that was supported by the CIA in the 1960s. There is already a documentary about it.

btw the alternative English title of the movie is Mountain Patrol. I just thought I'd note that because it doesn't come up in a search.

[Ian_Lee]

Here is a movie review of Kekexili by an exile Tibetan film maker:

http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?c=8&t=1&id=13574&article=Mountain+Patrol%3a+Kekexili

[rodeodrive]

Hi! I have now seen this film and it is fantastic. Visually stunning- really sensitively handled. I really can't recommend it highly enough.

It will be out in Cinemas in the UK from the 29th of September. I saw the film at the Firecracker showcase, and the director Lu Chuan came over from Beijing for a Q&A session which was really interesting.

I looked on the website of the UK distributors, Axiom films, and lots of details are up there- but it is going to be in Cinemas so go if you are in the UK- it is just not the same on a small screen.

[aristotle1990]

Saw this movie recently, thought it was brilliant. Any recommendations for Mandarin films of a similar quality/style?