Fruit Chan's Dumplings 饺子 & Liu Fendou's The Green H

[gato]

Saw a couple of Chinese movies over the weekend at the San Francisco Asian-American Film Festival. Here's a mini review.

Fruit Chan's Dumplings 饺子

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- A bitter social satire. A 64-year-old former abortion doctor from mainland China (played by Bai Ling 白灵) peddles dumplings made of aborted fetuses as a fountain-of-youth to the rich and formerly beautful in Hong Kong. The beautiful former doctor is her own best customer and endorsement, of course, and she has no lack of wealthy customers.

- Fruit Chan grew up partly in GuangZhou before emigrating to HK. One could see a strong Marxist, social-realistic tendencies in his films (e.g. "Made in Hong Kong" 香港制造), but he does it fairly well and subtly and fits a much needed niche.

- The ubiquitous and magnificent Christopher Doyle, Wong Kar-Wai's (王家为) old sidekick, shot the film. It has his signature style, wonderful colors, interesting pacing, and so forth. It helps to soften an otherwise gruesome subject.

- Bai Ling is wonderful in this film. Everyone else pales in comparison. In post-showing interview, she mentions that she didn't want to come back to Hollywood after visiting China recently. She's very beautiful and a talented actress (much more so than Zhang ZiYi, in my opinion) and might have had much meatier roles if she had stayed in the Chinese film industry. Maybe "Dumplings" will be an important break for her.

- A good first-date film. (Just kidding!) I give it an A-.

The Green Hat (绿帽子) directed by 刘奋斗（screenwriter of Shower (洗澡))

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- This film is technically accomplished. Stylish cinematography. Nice editing, lighting, color, Quentin Taratino/Pulp Fiction-style opening

- However, a big letdown is its weak character development, static, few new revelations after initial introduction

- It's too self-concious in the breaking of sexual taboos (most of which had long ago been broken in the West). The transgression is mostly verbal, with the cataloging of a variety of sexual acts. There is some on-screen sex, but no nudity (which might have been left on the cutting room floor).

- One thing that annoyed me was the unrealistic luxury in which the main police officer character lived. His family lives in a large condo with a basement garage and a Olympic-sized pool and locker-room. Yet, one sees no indication for how he could afford all this. This was a major deterrant to the story's credibility for me. Maybe it's 安example of Chinese filmmakers using luxury goods eye-candy to attract an audience.

- The dialog is at times clever (with lots of cuss words thrown in, perhaps gratuitously), but some of it was trite (at least to my jaded ears)

- Overall, it was a mediocre film to me. I give it a B.

Is either one of these allowed for public showing in the mainland?

[Gary Soup]

I was also at the SF International Asian American Film Festival, to see Cheuk Kwan's Chinese Restaurants: Three Continents. It was part of his series on Chinese Restaurants and their owners in 15 countries, and featured Madagascar, Norway and Canada. Not much to say about it, except that it's good documentary work, focused on the lives of the owners in "exile" more than the food itself. I thought the most compelling segment was the one in Tromso, Norway because the owner (described by Kwan as a "John Woo character") revealed himself more than Chinese in the spotlight are likely to do. The segment on Madagascar was the most educational of the three. I'm looking forward to seeing the entire series, which Kwan is going to release on DVD.

I already had seen "Dumplings" on VCD and liked it a lot. I agree with you on Bai Ling, and I suspect she played her role the way she wanted to and made it more effective than it could have been. But how could she find a "meatier" role than that one?

I didn't think much of ZZ's acting either until I saw "2046" (which otherwise didn't live up to its over-hyped expectations, IMHO).

[gato]

I already had seen "Dumplings" on VCD and liked it a lot. I agree with you on Bai Ling, and I suspect she played her role the way she wanted to and made it more effective than it could have been.

She said in the post-show Q&A that the whole film was shot in three weeks and because she was working on another project in New York at the same time, she was flying between HK and NYC and did much of the movie while under jetlag. Because of the limited time, she said she also didn't rehearse much and did very few takes. I think you can see some of that spontaneity in the movie.

I thought Zhang Ziyi's performance in "2046" was too exaggerated and unnatural, but I liked the movie overall. I just wish Wong Karwai had cut another ten minutes of Zhang out and included more Maggie Cheung.

[TitTauGong]

oh, 白灵 was hot in this movie. she was very good.

I thought Zhang Ziyi's performance in "2046" was too exaggerated and unnatural, but I liked the movie overall. I just wish Wong Karwai had cut another ten minutes of Zhang out and included more Maggie Cheung.

when is Zhang Ziyi not exaggerated in her acting? perhaps in 我的父親母親 （The Road Home), her first movie. in my opinion she's only good in acting like an angry woman.

[gato]

She sucks, as the kids would say.