"Der gute Mensch von Sezuan" is a West German movie from 1966, so this one is already over half a century old now. The director was Fritzh Umgelter and he also adapted the novel by Bertolt Brecht. So yes, the base material here is by a really famous German writer and taking that into account, I cannot deny I find it a bit surprising that this one has never really been turned into movies. Especially with the recent wave of films about Brecht (Klaußner, Eidinger), his work here was never really included, let alone turned into a movie again. This one we have here is I believe still the only, or at least the mist known adaptation. And that says quite a lot as it is really not famous by any means as you can see from the (lacking) number of ratings. It is a black-and-white film and runs for a massive 3 hours, slightly over even. The cast includes names of prolific actors, but today even for a German film buff like myself it is a bit difficult to identify these. One of the more known is Nicole Heesters (daughter of Johannes and still alive today). Another would be Klaus Löwitsch, long dead, even if he really does not have a lot of screen time here. It is a fairly big ensemble. Heesters is seen almost always and usually she shares the screen with some of the supporting players. Not unusual for German films from the 1960s, this feels much more like a stage play than a movie, not only because of characters talking directly to the audience on many occasions, but also in terms of the set, how they use walls with pictures on them to illustrate certain locations like the tobacco factory for example.
This is based on a book I had in German lessons at school many years ago and I remember liking it, which was not too common back then. But of course, it is almost always a challenge to turn a book into a movie and changes are inevitable. Still with this one here, it felt as if they stayed close to the base material and while it may not be the perfect choice, it is working most of the time. We also need to keep in mind that you don't have to consider just the book having aged since being written, but also the movie with how old it is now already. I must say I did like Heesters. The way she is depicted as Shui Ta was working well too after I got used to the mask. The suit is working from the beginning. I felt the film was at its best early on as the whole scenario is explained to us and the Gods' motivation of finding somebody who is a good person, but still able to live well from what he is doing from the financial perspective. And Shen Te is their lab rat you could say. Of course this is German actors playing Asian characters, which may not appeal to everybody, but for me it was not a problem at all. The film has some lengths in-between I must say with all the romantic/marriage plot involving Shen Te, also her pregnancy, but towards the end with the courtroom proceedings, it is working better again and more interesting. Funnily here nobody is surprised about Gods really stepping down to Planet Earth, but instead the citizens are angry at Shui Ta and how he treated them despite basically each and every one of them (except the water carrier perhaps) being greedy egoistic maggots and they are the reason why Shen Te cannot live as a good person and at the same time making profit. I mentioned the water carrier just in the last sentence, he is the one with the second most screen time perhaps, but still considerably less than Heesters. Sadly Teege who plays the character died very early not a long time after this filmw as made and released. All in all, if you liked the book or just enjoy stories about moral and how to be a good person against all odds, this movie is worth checking out. You should not give up on it during those phases that maybe do not feel too interesting. Go see it and I am glad it is not too difficult to get a hand on it nowadays despite how old it is. And underseen. Yep it is definitely very underseen! Probably also hurts that with this running time, it can just not be shown in school classes. That's all folks. I think the good is more frequent than the weak all in all.
This is based on a book I had in German lessons at school many years ago and I remember liking it, which was not too common back then. But of course, it is almost always a challenge to turn a book into a movie and changes are inevitable. Still with this one here, it felt as if they stayed close to the base material and while it may not be the perfect choice, it is working most of the time. We also need to keep in mind that you don't have to consider just the book having aged since being written, but also the movie with how old it is now already. I must say I did like Heesters. The way she is depicted as Shui Ta was working well too after I got used to the mask. The suit is working from the beginning. I felt the film was at its best early on as the whole scenario is explained to us and the Gods' motivation of finding somebody who is a good person, but still able to live well from what he is doing from the financial perspective. And Shen Te is their lab rat you could say. Of course this is German actors playing Asian characters, which may not appeal to everybody, but for me it was not a problem at all. The film has some lengths in-between I must say with all the romantic/marriage plot involving Shen Te, also her pregnancy, but towards the end with the courtroom proceedings, it is working better again and more interesting. Funnily here nobody is surprised about Gods really stepping down to Planet Earth, but instead the citizens are angry at Shui Ta and how he treated them despite basically each and every one of them (except the water carrier perhaps) being greedy egoistic maggots and they are the reason why Shen Te cannot live as a good person and at the same time making profit. I mentioned the water carrier just in the last sentence, he is the one with the second most screen time perhaps, but still considerably less than Heesters. Sadly Teege who plays the character died very early not a long time after this filmw as made and released. All in all, if you liked the book or just enjoy stories about moral and how to be a good person against all odds, this movie is worth checking out. You should not give up on it during those phases that maybe do not feel too interesting. Go see it and I am glad it is not too difficult to get a hand on it nowadays despite how old it is. And underseen. Yep it is definitely very underseen! Probably also hurts that with this running time, it can just not be shown in school classes. That's all folks. I think the good is more frequent than the weak all in all.
