Review LXXXIII - Monsieur Lazhar

Review LXXXIII
Monsieur Lazhar (2011)

On the way back from Japan, I managed to squeeze in some films on the plane ride. There is a joke in that statement because it was not squeezing but rather desperately attempting to waste as much time as I possibly could on the plane. Anyway, when I saw that Philippe Falardeau's Monsieur Lazhar was one of the options, I knew which film I was watching next. This film stars Mohamed Fellag, Sophie Nélisse, and Émilien Néron.

Simon (Néron), a young student, discovers that his teacher has hung herself in the classroom. With the class shaken completely, outside help is called. One of these helpers ends up being the class's new teacher, Monsieur Bashir Lazhar (Fellag). Monsieur Lazhar has recently immigrated to Canada from Algeria, so while the school attempts to overcome the grieving period of having lost one of their faculty members, Lazhar attempts to adapt into a new culture and overcome his horrible past.

The film is interesting, very human. The opening scene is seeing two children witness their teacher's hanging in their classroom. This delivers the initial shock of seeing someone's death. The rest of the film really deals with the grieving process. In fact, the whole film is a grieving process. First, with the students. Their teacher has committed suicide, and one of the students, the first to witness her, especially lashes out. We get one side of how people can react to a suicide. The second student, Alice (Nélisse), grieves, but we see she tries to keep her head about her. The interaction between the two of them is interesting, a clash of grieving processes. We see how, even though they are the only two who actually saw her, their approaches to dealing with their teacher's death brings them apart. It's a realistic view of how adults would deal with a suicide, at least in my opinion. At the same time we deal with the grieving process, we have a distant character come in, that is, Bashir Lazhar. He is an immigrant who is dealing with grief on his own part. I've never experienced being an immigrant and feeling alien to a new culture, but from what I've heard, it seems like a rather accurate portrayal. Not to mention the hardship Lazhar went through in his home country - but I shan't ruin that part for anyone. With the clash of this man and the suicide of a teacher, we get a really interesting mix. I thought it was grand, personally. Like I said, the film was human. It began with sadness, continued with trying to get over the melancholy, and, finally, with a sort of justice, a sort of letting go. The same thing was seen in Falardeau's other film, C'est pas moi, je le jure (It's Not Me, I Swear!)!, though I found Monsieur Lazhar a little better put together. It seemed cleaner, more focused. I... can't really say anything other than it was so human. It also had its little bits of comic relief, just as his other film.

The characters were great. Falardeau has a way of taking children and portraying them as adults, yet still as children. He puts them into these adult situations and sees how they play it out. He does a good job, I find. It makes it interesting instead of just having an adult dealing with an adult situation. And again, he tackles two ways of handling suicide in this film. Pretty legit. Plus adding in the bit of an immigrant seeking refuge status. Guys, I loved the film. I recommend it. I really liked C'est pas moi, je le jure, but I could see people not really getting what they were watching. Here, Falardeau does what he does in his previous film, but does it better. He takes it and really shows what he wants to show. Or, at least, I find.

The film is grand. It's sad, but still hopeful. I'm sure the play it is based on is just as great. Thank you!

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Review LXXXII - Forbidden City Cop

Review LXXXII
Forbidden City Cop 大內密探零零發 (1996)

What? Another review? That's right, baby, I'm on fire. I'm here to review the only other film I really looked into from my film class. It was also one of the most hated films we watched. I could not disagree more. I'm talking about Forbidden City Cop 大內密探零零發. The film is directed by Vincent Kok and Stephen Chow, and stars Stephen Chow, Carina Lau, and Carman Lee. I could have stopped after Stephen Chow because, seriously, his name just advocates craziness and hilarity. But hey, this was my first Stephen Chow film (I know, I never watched Shaolin Soccer - shame on me!). Run with it, okay?

The film begins with Ling Ling Fat (Chow) - a parody to James Bond's 007 status - running into a group of trespassers at the Forbidden City. While he fails to capture the swordsmen, he does acquire a scroll describing the kung fu move "flying fairy". Meet one of the elite personal bodyguards of the emperor, folks. However, this man, when not working as a gynaecologist and admiring his wife (Lau), prefers working on new inventions and can barely display any martial arts skills. However, he may just prove to be a useful asset to the emperor's crew in the end.

Writing a synopsis for this film was rather difficult because this film is everywhere. You really get the "mo lei tau" style that Stephen Chow is known for in this movie. Nonetheless, it was hilarious. To say it's a full blown parody of James Bond, it isn't. Instead, it pokes fun at James Bond and kung fu films reigning from Hong Kong. That makes it all the more hilarious. But again, I have difficulty really speaking about this movie because it is all over the place. I can only mention that it had extraordinary scenes. The introduction of the bodyguards was just brilliant. You go through the impeccable guards ready to defend and die for the emperor. Suddenly Ling Ling Fat comes rolling through, failing at a basic somersault. Pure genius. Next scene, the gynaecologist's office. He simply offers medication to everyone who comes in. The sex-crazed woman made me die. That tiger cry was too good. Another memorable scene, this one nearing the end, included the Oscar nomination. That was just brilliant. Just from those three scenes, can you not see how I can't exactly review this movie? It's pure comedy, out there to be crazy. I can see my father laughing at this film, and maybe it's my background that makes me really like this movie. Honestly, it's not something you can really sell to everyone. Hell, everyone in my class disliked the movie. But if you see it as a satire of Hong Kong cinema, specifically kung fu films, as well as a satire of just... random things, you could totally have fun with this movie. Or, you know, if you're 多动症 - hyperactive.

I can't sell this movie, but I had to make mention of it. Check it out if you're looking for something insane - you will not be disappointed.

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Review LXXXI - Farewell My Concubine

Review LXXXI
Farewell My Concubine 霸王别姬 (1993)

I return yet again, and this time I come back from 中国 - China! 你好大家, 最近怎么样? 我很好, 有很多的故事, 看很多的电影! To explain my experiences here would be superfluous given that I only speak about films on this blog, so my last bit is relevant. I watched a lot of films in China! Well, one reason goes to the fact that I downloaded some in case I ever got ridiculously bored (for the fourteen hour plane ride basically), but also because one of my classes consisted of experiencing Chinese cinema. The class was not a dream come true - well, for me, at least. It revolved around the teacher presenting a film briefly (that is, who directed the film, what year it was released), watching the film, and then exiting the class. There was no analysis of the film, no critique of the film, nothing except for a final presentation on whatever the hell you wanted. This translates to a useless class that wasted my time. But I'm not here to insult my university, I'm here to speak about films, which I established above. The films I watched in the class were all Chinese based, whether it be the North or the South (including Hong Kong, though the films were dubbed into Mandarin... Yeah...). The first film we checked out I had been meaning to watch for a long time but, as per usual, had never gotten around to watching. It is directed by Chen Kaige 陈凯歌 and stars the famous Leslie Cheung 張國榮 and Gong Li 巩俐, as well as Zhang Fengyi 张丰毅. The film is notable for making chinese cinema more known worldwide and is the only Chinese film to date to win a Pannes d'Or. The film, of course, is Farewell My Concubine 霸王别姬.

The film follows a Peking Opera duo over the course of 50-odd years, beginning with the brutal teachings at a Peking Opera training school, through the Japanese occupation of China, all the way to the end of the Cultural Revolution. The duo are especially known for their act of Farewell My Concubine, with Duan Xiaolou (Zhang) as our emperor Xiang Yu and Cheng Dieyi (Cheung) as the only-too-real Consort Yu. However, their relationship will be tested with a marriage and a war, as well as the communist takeover of China.

Farewell My Concubine was an interesting piece of work, and it explains the twentieth century history of China in two hours and a half, while making a comparison to the Peking opera of the same name. Thus, you're getting a taste of classic Chinese story-telling (Beijing opera "Farewell My Concubine"), but with a modern twist (set throughout the 1900s). If ever you were looking to research modern China in a glance, this film can get you there in some aspects. Of course, it is very far from explaining the political tensions in China and even really experiencing Peking opera (I went to an opera - I really loved it. No sarcasm in that statement), but again, the film can still give a foreigner a look into how it was to be Chinese in the early 1900s. Not a thorough look, but a little look. So in that regard, I think the film is worth a watch if ever you were interested in getting acquainted with China. Now, how about as a film itself? I re-watched the film while I was in Japan (sitting on the train no less!), so I'm going to give you a first-watching perspective and a re-watching perspective.

As a first-watch, I must admit, I was biased as hell because I knew this film class was going to deliver me typical Hollywood-but-Chinese-version films, so I clung onto this film with such great admiration because it had won a Cannes award. So did I enjoy it? I did. The film really did capture China's modern history well, and I loved the underlying Peking opera story. It was well incorporated. For example, in the original opera, Xiang Yu, the emperor there, ends up being defeated, thus beginning the emergence of the Han dynasty. This directly parallels the communist takeover of China (thank you, Wikipedia). We also see that Zhang's character really reflects a king - he's strong-willed and ready to take risks for others, or at least he is initially - whereas Cheung's character is feminine, fiesty, loves "her" man. Alright, fine, the characters were somewhat lacking, and sometimes rather incompetent, but I forgive it because the film is trying to follow a Peking opera. The characters' personalities are established based on face paint, guys. I mean, the characters do develop a bit, but they're mostly just flat. The prostitute wife (Gong) was added in, but really, I felt she was a tad unnecessary, or rather, just not as necessary as they made her out to be. But given they wanted Gong Li in the film to help sell it, it's only expected she'd be a main character. On the IMDb poster, she's the biggest thing, for Christ's sake. But whatever, I forgave it since the acting was not horrendous, but especially since the film really had some great mirror play. I loved those shots. There were also great shots of the characters, like when Cheung and Zhang's characters are putting on make-up. The film was not just slapped together - there was at least some thought put into it. I wasn't disappointed with the ending, and, though it reflects its opera counterpart, the reasoning behind it was different. Overall, the film was better than I had expected and I would recommend it.

After a second viewing, I can really say that Gong Li's character bothered me. She can be useful and great at times, but mostly, it was like a mosquito coming and buzzing in your ear. Why is she suddenly present when Duan Xiaolou and Cheng Dieyi are being punished for breaking up the duo? Why is she there to ask Cheng Dieyi to help Duan Xiaolou, slowing down the movie and then breaking her promise of going back to the brothel? She was a thorn in my side... Not to mention the characters are rather lacking. I mentioned it before, but man, after Cheng Dieyi's hissy fit with Duan Xiaolou marrying Juxian, the characters really stall. Prior to this, I loved the development of Cheng Dieyi's love for Duan Xiaolou, despite being a man (did he take on Consort Yu's role too seriously?). I think this should have gone even further. But no, Duan Xiaolou rejects him and suddenly there's a marriage and then boom, Cheng Dieyi goes for another guy. The two characters on their own was fine, but them together was painful. It was just so... lacking. And what is up with the disgraceful son who Cheng Dieyi raises? However, given that it is a reflection of the director's experiences as a Red Guard and denouncing his father, I suppose it is forgivable, but the way it was done was so quick and sloppy. Cutting to the chase, the film is pretty good, but it was pretty lacking. The mirror play was brilliant and some shots were great. I also still love the initial development as well, but the duo's development gets odd in the middle, and that was the main point of the film. Nonetheless, I could totally watch it again. I also think it is a pretty accessible film for a foreigner. That is to say, I've watched other Mandarin-speaking films and they feel really governed to the Mandarin-speaking public. I watch them, but they fly over my head because I don't understand the issues at hand given I'm not that familiar with China's issues... Well, maybe more so now that I resided in China for two months, but anyway, this is a good film to watch to at least get a taste of Chinese cinema. Hence why I think it did so well internationally. It's a good film to slowly ease into Chinese cinema.

WHEW. Now that I've discussed and pondered over this film for almost two months, I think I can put it to rest for now. To say it quickly, in a sentence, the film is pretty good. It's a nice introduction to Chinese cinema, but it can be lacking. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed some of the shots. Would I watch it again? Sure. I just hope I won't be graded this time. On to the next film!

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