Reviews: DVD

Walk on the Wild Side (Lai Xiaozi)

Directed by Han Jie, starring Bai Peijiang, Guo Qiang, Hou Jing

The biggest credit on the cover is Jia Zhangke's, even though he is just the producer.

On closer examination, this does feel like a Jia movie, set in a small Shanxi town ruled by the coal industry. Three youths engage in their usual rebellious activities. They fight over a girl and hurt someone. Fearing they have killed him, they run away from home. In the end, the trio is shattered with one killed, one disappearing and the third returning home.

Growing pains are portrayed against a dusty landscape. The movie does not have tentacles reaching into all corners of society, but just lightly scratches the surface of the recklessness of a fast-modernizing segment.

The movie is essentially a variation of Jia's Pickpocket (Xiao Wu), but lacks the latter's freshness and sensitivity. It is watchable, but not particularly enjoyable.

Raymond Zhou

Green Hat (Lu Maozi)

Directed by Liu Fendou, starring Liao Fan, Guo Tao

This movie has received the biggest push from "comeback" author Wang Shuo. Other than that, it is still at the bottom of the cinephile's list.

It consists of two thematically linked stories: A guy is ready to join his girlfriend in the US, but a lengthy telephone conversation before departure leaves him despondent. She has jilted him for someone else. A hostage situation places him face to face with a crisis expert, but he ends it in a drastic way.

That expert has his own family crisis: He is impotent and his wife has a lover. Upon discovering the magic blue pill, he is ready for a comeback, but it may be too late.

The movie has striking color schemes and quiet moments when characters communicate by what is left unsaid. The actors give good larger-than-life portrayals. The pacing is measured but not ponderous.

RZ

Big Movie (Da Dianying)

Directed by Ah Gan, starring Eric Tsang, Huang Bo

The name "Forrest Gump" translates as Ah Gan in Chinese, and that's where the director of this movie gets his alias. And his forte is playing dumb.

Ah Gan is China's worst filmmaker. All of his movies are trash, and he freely admits it. When I slammed his work years ago, he did not pick a fight with me.

Ah Gan is also China's best filmmaker because he always has the investors' interests at heart. All his movies make money, and he carries no pretensions of being an artist, which is rare in China.

His latest offering, a box office hit, is a spoof of the hot movies in China, including a Korean romance tale. The gags are strewn on a clothesline that identifies real-estate developers as the ultimate evil of our society. This will resonate with the target audience, young urbanites who are saving every penny to sacrifice at the altar of the ever escalating Big House.

Some of the jokes are funny, which can be attributed to the scriptwriter, who was also responsible for last year's most beloved television sitcom. But like the Waynes brothers in Hollywood, this "Forrest Gump" will not win an Oscar any time soon.

RZ

(China Daily 02/07/2007 page20)