(A SIMPLE) LIFE ON MARS?
Mar. 20th, 2012 11:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogWe went to the cinemas over the weekend and saw two films almost diametrically opposed to each other: a smallish indie film and an epic Hollywood CGI blockbuster.
A Simple Life
Hong Kong movie from director Ann Hui that made a splash at the Venice Film Festival, but they only just released it here this month, after a ton of promo for it that basically harps on the fact that the two leads (Andy Lau and Deanie Ip) have worked together since the 80s, and that Ip once played Lau’s momma on TV.
That’s not the case here – Ip plays a servant who has worked for the same family for 60 years, and currently works for son Roger (Lau). The two suddenly find their roles reversed after she is forced into retirement by a stroke, and requests to be put in a nursing home.
This being an Ann Hui film, it’s slow-paced slice-of-life fare. That said, it’s also free of the melodramatic cheese and histrionics you’d get with just about any other director (either in HK or Hollywood), which works in its favor, thanks to Hui’s ability to direct her actors to say so much with so little.
It’s probably not for everyone, and I’m a little biased here because it’s probably the most realistic cinematic portrayal of HK nursing homes I’ve ever seen (we had to put my wife’s aunt in one, so I’ve experienced them first-hand), so maybe I identify with it more closely than I usually do with Hui’s films. It’s a little too long, but it’s very well done, and I will say Deanie Ip deserves the best actress award she received in Venice.
John Carter
There’s been a lot of hype over this, mainly from Disney’s apparent inability to market it to both the fans of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter books and people who have no idea the books even exist. (Apparently if you put “Mars” in the title, people will automatically assume it sucks.)
I fall somewhere in the middle – I read A Princess of Mars, and found the basic idea okay but the narrative rather wooden. But I figured a movie version had potential, and with Andrew Stanton directing and Michael Chabon helping with the script, why not?
Result: Not bad, but not great. Both Barsoom and the Tharks look about the way I pictured them, and the explanation for how Carter manages to get to Mars in the 1880s (which Burroughs never really explained, at least not in the first book) works fine. The main problem is the uneven pace – it’s essentially an action film that’s frequently bogged down with really slow drama scenes that make the whole film longer than it needs to be. Also, the plot gets muddled when it comes to the different factions at play, which probably needed a little more explanation since I’m sure many people were wondering, “Why are there humans on Mars in 1880?”
So it’s a little messy. Still, as SF blockbusters go, it’s okay. But I wouldn’t call it a must-see either.
Red sand between my toes,
This is dF
A Simple Life
Hong Kong movie from director Ann Hui that made a splash at the Venice Film Festival, but they only just released it here this month, after a ton of promo for it that basically harps on the fact that the two leads (Andy Lau and Deanie Ip) have worked together since the 80s, and that Ip once played Lau’s momma on TV.
That’s not the case here – Ip plays a servant who has worked for the same family for 60 years, and currently works for son Roger (Lau). The two suddenly find their roles reversed after she is forced into retirement by a stroke, and requests to be put in a nursing home.
This being an Ann Hui film, it’s slow-paced slice-of-life fare. That said, it’s also free of the melodramatic cheese and histrionics you’d get with just about any other director (either in HK or Hollywood), which works in its favor, thanks to Hui’s ability to direct her actors to say so much with so little.
It’s probably not for everyone, and I’m a little biased here because it’s probably the most realistic cinematic portrayal of HK nursing homes I’ve ever seen (we had to put my wife’s aunt in one, so I’ve experienced them first-hand), so maybe I identify with it more closely than I usually do with Hui’s films. It’s a little too long, but it’s very well done, and I will say Deanie Ip deserves the best actress award she received in Venice.
John Carter
There’s been a lot of hype over this, mainly from Disney’s apparent inability to market it to both the fans of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter books and people who have no idea the books even exist. (Apparently if you put “Mars” in the title, people will automatically assume it sucks.)
I fall somewhere in the middle – I read A Princess of Mars, and found the basic idea okay but the narrative rather wooden. But I figured a movie version had potential, and with Andrew Stanton directing and Michael Chabon helping with the script, why not?
Result: Not bad, but not great. Both Barsoom and the Tharks look about the way I pictured them, and the explanation for how Carter manages to get to Mars in the 1880s (which Burroughs never really explained, at least not in the first book) works fine. The main problem is the uneven pace – it’s essentially an action film that’s frequently bogged down with really slow drama scenes that make the whole film longer than it needs to be. Also, the plot gets muddled when it comes to the different factions at play, which probably needed a little more explanation since I’m sure many people were wondering, “Why are there humans on Mars in 1880?”
So it’s a little messy. Still, as SF blockbusters go, it’s okay. But I wouldn’t call it a must-see either.
Red sand between my toes,
This is dF
