Everything Must Go

Will Ferrell never stops amazing me with his talent. Just a few weeks ago I watched his portrayal of George W. Bush in the Broadway parody that blew my mind, now in Everything Must Go, I got to see his vulnerable side, and what great moments a comedian can create when he underplays.

The most moving, and beautiful scene in the film comes toward the end, when Will Ferrel, in his extreme state of loneliness and depression, calls an old high school classmate’s Mom, and lies to her that he is putting together a high school reunion so that he can get the old classmate’s address. The whole reason for him to do it, is because she had left a note in his graduation book that showed her affection for him 20 years ago.

Then Will Ferrell comes to her house. The old classmate, played by Laura Dern, is now a single Mom with two kids. It’s awkward, showing up out of blue like this after 20 years. But Laura Dern can see that Will Ferrel is not doing well emotionally, and maybe she is still a little attracted to him. So she invites him to sit on the porch and catch up when her kids have dinner out on the lawn.

What follows is the moment that almost drove me to tears. When Will Ferrel is ready to leave, he gives Laura Dern a hug. He hugs for a couple of seconds too long, comforted by the brief companionship from Laura Dern. She senses that, and asks him if there is anything else he wants to say to her.

Even more awkwardly now, Will produces the Graduation album from his pant pocket, and shows her the note she left 20 years ago. It’s an incredibly sad moment, when Will, at his emotional lowest, makes his last attempt at affection, and sees that her reaction, although perfectly normal, is not what he has hoped. She is surprised that he came to find her because of the note, but at the same time, she tells him that he had a good heart, and that never changes. And maybe, maybe after he pulls himself together, they can have coffee together and see where that leads them.

Will Ferrell in this scene is incredibly vulnerable and sympathetic, and he portrays something that is within all of us. As simple as the the way the scene was shot, I felt the beauty is beyond words can describe. It’s the kind of beauty that we feel when hope is gone, yet we get a little bit comfort from people who truly know us, who tell us that there is still some redeeming quality inside of us. And infusing some romantic feel into this moment just makes it sublime.

Maybe this scene moves me so much because it reflects the current state of my life, but regardless the reason, the scene alone makes the movie compelling.

The Thing

I haven’t seen many horror films because I am not a fan of this genre. In my recent memory, the only horror film I truly enjoyed is “28 Days Later”, because only most horror films, whose only purpose seems to be scare the shit out of the audience, “28 Days Later” touched me on an emotional level. There is human truth in that movie, when the main character and his friends trek through perils and deaths in order to reach their “promise land”, only to find out that the promise land is a worse place, and they have seek strength within themselves to defeat the demons.

I saw only one small moment like that in “The Thing”, and it wasn’t well earned. The premise is interesting (and hence the remake, I suppose) - a group of scientists have to find out who among them are replicates created by the aliens, and eradicate them before the virus-like replications spread to the rest of the world. Kate, the main character, is smart and brave, and she does not give up. However, as she conquers the demons one after another, she becomes more and more paranoid, and she loses her trust in any human beings, until at the end she kills her only companion, who is actually a human.

But most of the movie that leads to that moment is filled with nothing but blood and gross, twisted bodies. The computer graphics are amazing and believable, at least to my untrained eyes to special effects. They are revolting, which serves the sic-fi/horror tone of the movie well. However, I couldn’t really see how Kate’s character transforms from a normal brave person to someone who can’t trust just about anyone.

My 9 favorite moments in "Love Actually"

"Love Actually' is one of my favorite romantic comedies and ensemble pieces.

1. Juliet comes to Mark's apartment hoping to get the video Mark videotaped on her wedding with his best friend Peter. Having help secret feelings for Juliet, Mark has been cold to his best friend's fiancee. When Juliet unexpectedly shows up and watches the video, she realizes that all the shots are of her. An unspoken confession of love in a perfectly justifiable situation. It's moving, funny, and heartbroken

2. Writer Jamie, who moved to the countryside after his girlfriend cheated on him with his brother, hires Portuguese girl Aurelia as his housekeeper. When Jamie is writing by the lake, Aurelia accidentally has his script blown to the lake and both jump into the cold water to salvage the pages. After the rescue, they have coffee after changing into dry clothes. Although Jamie and Aurelia don't speak the same language, they talk each other nonetheless, as if they could understand each other. Their dialogue transcends the different languages because their hearts and minds are connected. What a wonderful way to show the connection between 2 people in spite of the language barrier.

3. When Harry attempts to buy a necklace for Mia, his secretary at work behind his wife Karen's back, he encounters a perfectionist jeweler Rufus, who insists on making the perfect gift wrap for his anxious customer, as Karen is coming back to the scene any minute.

4. When Karen realizes that the necklace Harry bought isn't for her, she realizes that her husband may be having an affair. She excuses herself from him and the kids and retreats to the bedroom. In the brief moment she told her family she was in the bathroom, she cries at the photos she took with Harry. But she doesn't have enough time - she has to come out and be excited with her kids just in time so they won't know what she is thinking.

5. Colin, who thinks the reason he can't get laid is because he is in England. He travels to Wisconsin on the leap of faith and ends up in a country bar in the middle of nowhere. Who would have thought he meets 3 smoking hot girls the minute he walks in. Here the most unlikely event becomes the most hilarious, and the viewer is more than willing to believe it as unbelievable as it is.

6. Sarah has had a secret crush on her colleague Carl. When she finally realizes that Carl also has feelings for her and she gets to make love with the man of her dream, her mentally ill brother keeps calling her and totally ruins the moment of her life. She goes to the hospital. A slight disagreement angers the brother and he tries to slap Sarah with the back of his hand. She blocks his blow expertly and calmly. It tells me she has been hit before, yet she still cares about her brother, even after he destroyed the best moment of her life. Very moving.

7. Daniel's wife just passes away and he is left to take care of his step-son Sam on his own. As if that's not hard enough, Sam is deeply depressed because he is hopelessly in love with his classmate Joanna. Daniel encourages Sam to pursue his love, as young as he is. At the airport, when Joanna is on her way back to America, Sam outruns the security guards and gets to see Joanna one last time before she boards the plane. Much to his surprise, Joanna not only knows his name, but also likes him. She comes back to the security check gate and gives Sam a peck on the cheek. Sam looks at his stepfather and smiles. Truly lovely moment to see the connection between the stepfather and the stepson.

8. Jamie travels to Portugal in order to propose to Aurelia, having learned just a tiny bit of Portuguese. The whole village gathers at the restaurant where Aurelia works to behold the Englishman proposing to Aurelia. As Jamie proposes to Aurelia in ridiculously broken yet comprehensible Portuguese, Aurelia responds with brief but also broken English. Funny and magical.

9. The end of the movie. A typically cheesy moment of people hugging each other at the airport becomes so uplifting and intoxicating after the interwoven stories well told throughout the movie. As we continue the moments of love to strangers, unknown people at the airport, I am more than willing to believe the world is full of love.

我从小在唐山长大,又是冯导的影迷。近十年来我一直在美国从事电影制作的学习和 工作,这次回来赶上《唐山大地震》的上映自然一定不会错过。我爸妈都已经从唐山退休 了,今年夏天住在上海,所以我们唐山一家人一起到电影院看这场电影。事先已经听说了 《唐山大地震》的故事梗概及其强大的催泪功能,心里有点紧张。为什么紧张呢?因为据 我以往的经验,虽然我看电影哭得不多,但一旦哭了就很难停下来。我们看的是上午场, 如果我一大老爷们光天化日下在大街上哭哭啼啼回家实在丢人。

《唐山大地震》讲述的是一个唐山家庭,在地震中爸爸为了保护妈妈而被砸死,而妈 妈随后面临着她一生中最艰难的选择:她的一对孪生子女被压在同一块石板的两端,当时 营救的唯一办法就是从一端撬起石板,但救出一个就会牺牲另一个。她应该救哪一个?当 妈妈选择救弟弟的时候,压在石板下的姐姐听在耳中,痛在心里。然而,姐姐并没有死 去,她最后从废墟里爬了出来,被前来赈灾的一对解放军夫妇领养。从此以后,姐姐再也 没去寻找过她的妈妈和弟弟。姐姐无法原谅妈妈的选择,直到汶川大地震时姐姐目睹了灾 区一位母亲的痛苦,姐姐才从心里原谅了妈妈。姐弟俩同时作为赈灾志愿者在另一场灾难 中重逢,姐姐与弟弟一起回到唐山,当她看到妈妈32年来的痛楚和弟弟的生活,她第一次 发现,自己这么多年来的怨恨是错的。

影片才放了不到二十分钟,我的眼泪就不争气地流了下来。我几乎可以肯定,我是全 场观众里第一个流泪的。我为什么流泪?因为我第一次看到我熟悉的儿时故乡在一部制作 如此精良的电影作品中被再现。影片卓越的美工,让我不能不相信那就是我出生前的唐山 市。成千上万个蜻蜓在低空飞翔,地震的预兆创造了不祥的氛围;姐姐为了保护弟弟踢倒 恶少,让观众感到姐弟情深;炎热的夏夜爸爸妈妈在卡车里“偷情”,简陋的环境盖不住生 活的热情--寥寥数笔立刻抓住了我的心。地震的场面--镜头/特技/还有音响设计- -都让我激动不已。如果说几年前的《集结号》让我看到国产片战争场面可以与美国大片 媲美,而《唐山大地震》中地震场面的逼真和创造性表现手法则让我忘记了把它和国外的 电影做比较。在我眼前呈现的是真实的正在发生的灾难,我看到了震后的废墟和人们的悲 痛。当我亲眼目睹我的故乡曾经遭受的灾难时,我假装用手拖住我的腮帮,偷偷擦掉从眼 角留下的泪水。

遗憾的是,从那以后将近两个小时的影片时间,我没有再流下任何眼泪。尽管几个主 要演员的出色表演曾经几次打动我,但是没有一次影片中的情感冲破了我的心理防线。散 场后,我看到我的父母哭泣过的双眼,看到很多人脸颊上仍然留着泪痕,虽然我可以庆幸 我保持了我的“爷们形象”,但是我其实更希望能够成为他们中的一员。

不可否认,冯小刚这一次又完成了一部出色的作品。《唐山大地震》故事人物清晰, 演员表演真挚感人,画面和音效一流。更重要的是,大部分观众被影片深深感动。我绝对 不怀疑它的票房会又一次为冯导创造奇迹。《唐山大地震》没有动摇冯导在我心中的地 位,他仍然是我最敬佩的中国导演,但是期望越高,要求也就越高,看完这部等待了很久 的电影,我的心里留下更多的是遗憾。

《唐山大地震》改编自张翎的小说《余震》。我没有看过原著,但是我可以想象这个 动人的故事赋予这部文学作品的震撼力。如果还没有开始这么做的话,华师大出版社应该 马上印刷大量此书。将文学作品改编成电影一直很流行,但是其中挑战也很大,尤其是那 些时间跨度很大的故事。而《唐山大地震》的挑战则更加巨大,因为它把灾难片和生活伦 理片两种在节奏风格及冲击性迥然不同的片种硬碰硬地拼在了一起。整部影片从全局上看 在节奏和结构上有点头重脚轻。

为什么会头重脚轻呢?因为地震的场面尽管精彩,但是影片在营造场面的同时却忽略 了人物。场面固然重要,但是再大的场面,也是为故事的人物做铺垫。《唐山大地震》的 最大的忽略,就是影片没有展现对弟弟的营救及妈妈确信姐姐的死亡场景,还有姐姐的奇 迹生还也没有做细致的再现。和近乎完美的地震特效相比,妈妈的呼天抢地就显得那样的 粗糙和无力。我们没有看到人们是怎样搬开石板拖出弟弟,从而看到他的生命的珍贵;我 们没有看到姐姐是怎样在石板的另一头被淹没,还有在那瞬间妈妈失去女儿的悲痛;我们 也没有看到妈妈在女儿消失以后,再一次企图打开石板,希望女儿还有一线生还的可能; 我们没有看到弟弟知道为他抢回雪糕的姐姐为他而死后的感受; 我们没有看到姐姐是怎 样从石板下爬出来,她的身体健全但是心灵破碎,以致当解放军叔叔问她有没有家人时, 她不回答。我们没有看到电影的主人公在故事中最重要时刻的心理历程。

姐姐被收养以后,她的内心世界是怎样的?影片中大量的时间用于她和养父养母的生 活,但是对她小时候怎样接受他们却处理得相当粗糙。唯一的线索,就是养父养母同意用 她原来的名字。为什么用原来的名字对她那么重要?如果妈妈彻底伤了她的心,她想和过 去一刀两断,改名对她来说也不该是一件坏事。如果她无法原谅妈妈,她三十年来的每一 个选择都应该想远离唐山。为什么她到杭州读大学几个学期不回家?最根本的原因应该是 想远离她的生母,远离她的老家。这种无法原谅的感情应该贯穿她的一生,而不是仅仅在 接近片尾时,对养父的一句回答。

到了影片的最后,我被姐姐说的一句话所感动。她说当她看到弟弟第一眼的时候,她 就知道她错了。她不该恨妈妈,弟弟应该活下来。为什么这么重要的时刻,在影片中我们 没有见证而只是在最后听她说出来?弟弟看到姐姐的那一刻,他的反应是什么?是惊喜? 还是内疚?而妈妈听到女儿消息时又是什么感受?

时间跨度大的故事,不可避免地需要压缩,省去其中很多的细节。但是情感的连贯性 对任何形式的电影都不能忽略。《唐山大地震》缺少情感的连贯,而只是取出故事中最感 人的片段,让观众通过想象来弥补其中情感的空白。虽然每一个片段都处理的非常精致, 徐帆,陈道明,张静初的表演真实感人,但是故事的凌乱多少给剧情带来了一丝勉强和做 作。

Nanking! Nanking!

If I gained anything from watching Lu Chuan’s Nanking! Nanking!, I learned what self-indulgent was, and how distasteful it could be. It has got to be one of the most dreadful movies I have seen, in spite of a couple sequences that were close to inspiring, but not quite. Those sequences include a montage of massacre, where the preparation of the killings are cut together first, followed by the intercut of the different scenes of butchering.

What I was most offended by the film is the lack of compassion and humanity the filmmaker showed. How do we sympathize with the victims of the massacre? To show that they are not just faces, but fleshed out human beings. So we could relate to them, care for them, or even like them before anything terrible happen to them. But the first thirty minutes of the movie was just reenactments of the killings, in which all the Chinese people are just faces, and we see them fall on the ground as if they were ants. We know the history, and we don't need them to recreate the scenes in such details. On the other hand, we need to know the details of the victims' lives. We need to know their likes and dislikes, their personalities, their habits, so we know that they are not just another creature to be eliminated, but human beings.

Most of the movie was shot hand-held, and it proved me that handheld shots are not a sure-cure for melodrama. The discrepancy in the style is evident - the camera technique doesn’t match other aspects of the directing. The acting is stilted, and the pacing excruciatingly slow at times.

The film doesn’t have a main character. It focuses on a few people: a soldier of the Nationalist army, John Rabe's interpreter, a woman who works in Rabe's factory to protect Chinese people, and a Japanese soldier sympathetic towards Chinese people. Because the movie never truly focuses on any of these characters, the structure seems fragmental and hard to follow.

A movie has to, first and foremost, tell a story. Second, a movie should have interesting, believable, and ideally sympathetic or likable characters. Third, it should have an emotional impact on the audience. Fourth and the last, if a movie has a message/meaning, it’s a nice thing. This is the order of priorities in making a film. These priorities should never be taken out of order. Nanking! Nanking! violated the order and put the meaning/style/message before everything else. It doesn’t have a clear story, or a strong character, therefore, it doesn’t have the emotional impact, and the message it tries to get across doesn’t resonate with the viewer.

Ye Wen 2

This was the first movie I saw in theater since I came back to China 2 and a half weeks ago. I hadn’t expected to see a great movie, and I was ready to be very critical. But after the movie was over, I stayed in my seat a little longer, because I didn’t want anyone to see I had tears in my eyes. Yes, I had tears in my eyes at the end of the movie because I was so involved with the main character, and I was so happy that I saw a Chinese language film that was so well made.

The movie, a second installment of “Ye Wen” released two years earlier, tells the story of Ye Wen, Bruce Lee’s teacher (which I didn’t find out until the very end). We start with Ye struggling to open a Martial Arts school. Here we are introduced to one of the most powerful martial artist in the world. He is extremely humble, and he looked almost meek. That got me hooked right away. I hadn’t seen a Martial Arts character like that, and it fascinated me.

After some minor scuffles with a rebellious youth, Ye manages to run a fairly decent business, but then he is confronted by Hong, a local martial art teacher, and a thug who “approves" other teachers and collects money from them. Ye impresses Hong by defeating other teachers in a showcase, and proving himself a good match for Hong. But the conflict remains - Ye refuses to pay Hong the monthly fee that he collects from everyone else, until another confrontation between them gets abruptly halted by the appearance of Hong's own family, when Ye finally wins Hong's friendship.

Then the movie takes a sharp turn as it moves to the second half, which would be my only criticism on the plot. Hong is outraged by the fact that the Hong Kong Royal Police are taking advantage of him with no respect whatsoever. During the boxing match he was commissioned to set up, but with obviously no pay, he takes on the boxing champion, who openly mocks Chinese martial arts. Hong gets brutally beaten in the ring, and dies on the spot. And that's when Yen decides to take on the boxer himself. The movie ends with a heated boxing match between Yen and the boxing champion, which reminded me of "Cinderella Man" in a smaller scale, and Yen defeats the box champion and delivers a somewhat preachy speech afterwards.

The story is somewhat cheesy and cliche, but the movie still rekindled my hope for Chinese cinema, or at least Chinese language cinema made in Hong Kong. The main character got me immediately at the beginning, and the scenes were all constructed cleverly. Every moment of the film was either thrilling or entertaining. I was also amazed at the fact that the acting was a world better than the acting in most mainland productions I had seen so far. Hong Kong actors have better personalities for sure.

Chloe

I had watched some of Atom Egoyan’s earlier works before I went to see Chloe. His “Family viewing” was very hard to watch. It was slow and poorly edited, and bared every characteristic of ultra-low budget films. In fact, I didn’t finish watching it. I remember watching “Sweet Thereafter” a few years ago. It was a good film, although the end of the film was a little too abstract for my taste.

Seeing “Chloe” was a good experience, although I wouldn’t say I totally loved the movie. It was an art film, fully financed by French production company Studio Canal. On the Internet it was said that the film company had already made all the money back through international sales before the US release. It was encouraging to know that, because the film has a style that I strongly identify with, in spite of quite a few things in the plot that seemed forced and even absurd to me.

The film tells the story of Kathryn, a middle-aged doctor whose insecurity in her sextuality compels her to test her husband’s loyalty by hiring a hooker to seduce him, only to find herself in the middle of an emotional turmoil. Chloe, the hooker Kathryn hires, takes on the job and lies to her about all the details of her sexual encounters with the husband, eventually seduces her client and it is revealed at the end that her infatuation with Kathryn is the reason for she went through.

The film has a lyrical tone throughout that I find very familiar to the films I have made, as well as its dark dramatic feel. It’s also a film that I find encouraging because the strength of the actors’ performances carried many heavy moments and made them work without feeling melodramatic. The reason I think those moments are potentially melodramatic is because most of the characters lacked logical motivations, or when they did have motivations, I felt they were not strong enough. Chloe's infatuation with Kathryn doesn't seem to have been established strong enough to make her action in the end believable. As cliche as most Hollywood movies are, they do a good job providing the reasons for their characters' actions. For instance, in "Single White Female", Jennifer Jason Leigh's character's behavior is justified by her guilt and pain over the loss of her twin sister. In Chloe, we don't see a strong justification for Chloe. Is it because she is fed up with having sex with men that makes her helplessly fall in love with Kathryn? We don't know.

Also Kathryn’s decision to hire Chloe to seduce her husband seems a little random. What triggers that idea in her? I don’t even remember the scene in which she approaches Chloe. There needs to be an incident, or a character trait that makes her decision logical. But at the same time I understand the story is about how she gets emotionally wrecked because of her decision, and we can't afford to spend too much time at the beginning to see how she comes up with that decision.

The end of the film, where Chloe seems to commit suicide, again shows the damage of lack of justification of her behavior can do to a movie. I actually heard people laughing at the moment. It was a scary and understandable scene where Chloe, after failing to make Kathryn love her, turns to her son because of the resemblance between the two, but her committing suicide after she is rejected? That was too much for me.

Maybe this is the difference between an art film and a commercial film. In an art film, you don't have to worry too much about the logic. What matters is the depiction of the emotion, and how it makes us feel. But I think it's also a sign of sloppiness. A good piece of work, again, should make us believe the characters first, and then we will be able to feel the emotional impact.