The 80-year retrospective of Chinese cinema is
concluding at TIFF. I have seen a few of what was shown, and missed some
classics because of schedule conflicts (e.g. Shanghai 1948's "Spring in a Small Town"). Of those that I have seen (notably “Farewell
my Concubine”, a projection attended by the director, Chen Kaige, and Zhang
Yimou’s “Red Sorghum”, as a souvenir of my time in Shanghai where I saw it first
in the mid-80’s…), I remember in particular 2 “recent” wuxia films, (both incidentally
featuring Zhang Ziyi): “The Banquet” – inspired by (more than a “loose adaptation”
from) Shakespeare’s Hamlet – and the earlier film (2006 versus 2000 – in between
there have been a few wuxia films by Zhang Yimou, “Hero” with Jet Li, and “House
of the Flying Daggers” with…Zhang Ziyi! ) Ang Lee’s popular “Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon”, with, aside from Zhang Ziyi, Hong-Kong Chow Yun–Fat and Malaysian
Michelle Yeoh, eclipsing by far the first one in America’s box office (although
“The Banquet” covered it would appear its costs put at some $15M). I truly
enjoyed both films, especially “Crouching Tiger…” – I had forgotten the plot
and much of the film! but I believe “The Banquet” would have been better
without the last bit, when the empress gets killed – it’s like the director
could not bring himself to a close, or that 10-15 additional minutes were
commercially required – a last “vehicle” to show Zhang Ziyi!
Missed out on most films of the 'new waves" and the "new directions" sections, during the retrospective - but remember well Wong kar-wai's "In the mood for Love" from another time...and totally missed films of "a new China" ("The East is Red"!)
August 04, 2013
