rez-11 Reviews

Lovely & Amazing (2001)

an honest movie about passive-aggressive behavior

[9/10 · 24 January 2007]

Like some other viewers, I was disappointed that some key plot elements were left unresolved at the end of an otherwise well-made movie. But I still had a sense of the film being essentially whole. It's not just about self-absorption or about body image problems. Probably the most important thematic thread is that the main characters relate to other people only in a passive-aggressive mode, and must learn the importance of more direct and less manipulative ways of interacting, whether by assertion or by acceptance of others' frankness. Each of the three sisters learns in one way or another, to one degree or another, that it's possible and productive to do so. It doesn't make for a big feel-good finale, but it provides a sense that happiness may be possible for these characters who at the beginning are incapable of straightforward conversation.

That's the importance of the much-discussed and much-derided scene in which the young actress demands a frank appraisal of her nude body--her reaction shows us the beginning of an effort to achieve honesty.

The movie's dialog at first seems rather strained, and "off", but that's because it's different from standard-model Hollywood dialog. It's dialog in which the style is true to its content--no zingers and clever phrasing, just the kind of talk that passes between people who are trying to avoid responsibility for their own feelings. I thought it was rigorously true and authentically brilliant rather than artificially polished. All the actors made it seem thoroughly real. It's worth watching over and over because it tells us an important truth about our culture.

Flowers of Shanghai (1998)

beautiful film--slow pace not a problem

[19 August 2001]

"Flowers of Shanhai" is a stunningly beautiful film, elegantly visualized and intriguingly scripted. It explores not only the conflicts between individuals, but also issues of gender and class, and the way in which the people in power find their lives eroding under the influence of opium, foreign currency, and the buying and selling of sexual favors and social influence. The intricate connections between older and younger businessmen, older and younger courtesans, masters, mistresses, and servants, and people of differing degrees of wealth and influence, are all examined as prostitutes try to buy their freedom, or find reasons for staying in the brothels even when someone wants to buy their freedom for them, and as both men and women fix themselves on paths to self-destruction.

Calling it too slow paced for a modern audience rather misses the point. Certainly there aren't many car chases or gunfights in it, and if one defines pace only in terms of physical action, it might be fair to call it slow. For audiences with an attention span of longer than 60 seconds and an interest in psychological action rather than physical action, it moves right along. In fact, I found myself having to rewind and view several scenes again because they developed too fast for me to follow as I took in the subtitles. I was very pleased at its lack of Hollywoodism. It's the kind of film "Age of Innocence" might have been if "Age of Innocence" had relied more on acting and less on posing in its cultivation of emotional intensity. In "Flowers of Shanhai," melodramatic action is depicted as a weakness displayed by characters, rather than being exploited as a way of sustaining the audience's interest in a character-based story in which the director has no confidence.