(Kuang ye shi dai)
Country: CHI/FR/US
Technical: col/1.33:1, 1.85:1, 2.39:1 160m
Director: Bi Gan
Cast: Jackson Yee, Shu Qi, Mark Chao, Gengxi Li, Jue Huang
Synopsis:
In a society of the future, humanity has given up dreaming, save for some so-called Deliriants who threaten to warp time through their actions. The Big Other, or a kind of Earth Mother, relives the hundred years of a monster's life using the techniques of film and exploring them through Buddhist philosophy of the senses.
Review:
Undeniably clever and artistic, but infuriatingly obscure, leaden and incomplete, this is supposedly a cinefile's delight, but what the different aspect ratios and quotations add up to is anybody's guess. The first segment is in silent mode and imitates L'arroseur arrosé (but then so does the last), while the second has a hall of mirrors borrowed, one presumes, from The Lady from Shanghai; the fifth segment, again, has a continuous take and colour scheme from Irreversible; the other two eluded me. Some sources claim the film follows a century of Chinese history, but it seems rather a pseud's wet dream after a rich diet of Guillermo del Toro, Kitano Takeshi and Cloud Atlas.
(Kuang ye shi dai)
Country: CHI/FR/US
Technical: col/1.33:1, 1.85:1, 2.39:1 160m
Director: Bi Gan
Cast: Jackson Yee, Shu Qi, Mark Chao, Gengxi Li, Jue Huang
Synopsis:
In a society of the future, humanity has given up dreaming, save for some so-called Deliriants who threaten to warp time through their actions. The Big Other, or a kind of Earth Mother, relives the hundred years of a monster's life using the techniques of film and exploring them through Buddhist philosophy of the senses.
Review:
Undeniably clever and artistic, but infuriatingly obscure, leaden and incomplete, this is supposedly a cinefile's delight, but what the different aspect ratios and quotations add up to is anybody's guess. The first segment is in silent mode and imitates L'arroseur arrosé (but then so does the last), while the second has a hall of mirrors borrowed, one presumes, from The Lady from Shanghai; the fifth segment, again, has a continuous take and colour scheme from Irreversible; the other two eluded me. Some sources claim the film follows a century of Chinese history, but it seems rather a pseud's wet dream after a rich diet of Guillermo del Toro, Kitano Takeshi and Cloud Atlas.
