The Climbers: Wu Jing Takes on Everest

China generally has had friendly relations with Nepal, yet it still has found a way to have a territorial dispute with the smaller nation. The area of contention is majestic Mt. Everest. The truth is, the famous mountain peak really ought to be under the jurisdiction of a free and independent Tibetan government. Regardless, producer Tsui Hark and Wu Jing, the star of the Wolf Warrior franchise will do their best to bolster China’s case with Daniel Lee’s The Climbers, which opens today in IMAX and this Friday on conventional screens.

In 1960, Fang Wuzhou led the first Chinese expedition to successfully summit Everest. Unfortunately, they lost their camera and a good portion of their party along the way, so the international mountaineering establishment (including the Soviets who trained them) did not recognize their claims. For a while, the country went utterly insane with Maoist ideology, but by 1975 they were finally ready to mount another Everest campaign.

Fang will be the assault captain. Xu Ying, his college girlfriend and the love of his life, will serve as director of the meteorological team. Qu Songlin will be the deputy chief of the campaign, but he will have effective operational control (since the top boss is basically a political figure head). Qu was a veteran of the campaign, who has never forgiven Fang for saving his angry, bitter hide, instead of the camera. Jiebu will be the third returning veteran from 1960, who will lead the advance team.

As you would expect from anything Tsui produces, The Climbers has plenty of spectacle. Frankly, he and Lee throw so many avalanches and gale force winds at the mountaineers, it is hard to believe they could possibly have the strength to make it to the summit—and safely come back down again. As most fans of mountaineering and alpinist movies can tell you, the descent is the most dangerous part, but that challenge gets skipped over in the film’s coverage of both campaigns.

The stunt work and visual effects are impressive, but The Climbers is not nearly as engaging as other mountain climbing dramas, such as The Himalayas from South Korea and Climber’s High from Japan, because it lacks a human touch. Granted, it is hard to compete with Hwang Jung-min, who is always an electric screen presence, but the characters in Lee’s film always seem distractingly conscious of their roles striving for greater Chinese glory.

Maggie Cheung at Metrograph: 2046

It is the sequel to end all sequels. Frankly, it is hard to imagine they were conceived together, yet Wong Kar-wai reportedly was already planning it while he was filming the masterful In the Mood for Love. They might sound radically different on paper, but the same longing and regret is present throughout Wong’s 2046 (trailer here), which screens as part of the Metrograph’s retrospective series Maggie Cheung: Center Stage.

In one sense, 2046 might seem like a ringer in the Cheung series, because she only appears in brief flashback scenes, but her absence thoroughly dominates the film. Chow Mo-wan has returned from Singapore and Cambodia, picking up his literary and journalistic career as best he can. He never saw Cheung’s Su Li-zhen again, but her memory clearly haunts. In fact, his unresolved feelings make him incapable of maintaining a healthy relationship.

Chow and Su used to meet in room #2046 of his residency hotel, so he requests the same number in Mr. Wang’s seedy, but assignation friendly Oriental Hotel (we are still in the mid-1960s here). However, he will settle for #2047. At first, #2046 is occupied by Lulu, a.k.a. Mimi, a callback from Wong’s Days of Being Wild. When she precipitously moves out (a not-so uncommon practice in Wang’s establishment), Bai Ling moves in. Chow definitely notices her and can often hear her entertaining through the thin walls (and vice versa).

For a while, they carry on an ambiguous something, but he can never give her what she needs. He also assumes the role of a flirtatious Cyrano figure for Wang Jing-wen, the owner’s eldest daughter, who conducts a secret long distance love affair with a Japanese man her father disapproves of, due to national prejudice. Chow cannot even make things work with the second Su Li-zhen, a mysterious professional gambler who saves his skin in Singapore.

Yet, Chow himself duly notes, the women who lose patience and exit his life often turn up in his fiction, particularly his science fiction stories, “2046” and “2047.” In this dystopia universe, 2046 is ambiguously both a time and a place of stasis, reachable by a train staffed with sexually compliant automatons (two of whom look like Wang Jing-wen and Lulu). Heartsick lovers often travel there to revisit past memories, but nobody ever came back, until Tak (a dead ringer for Wang’s Japanese lover) embarks on a return trip.

When seen in close succession, Mood and 2046 pack a mean one-two combination punch. We definitely miss Cheung’s Su, but that is the whole point. We also fall hard for Bai Ling, Wang Jing-wen, and the second Su, yet we understand exactly why Chow is so emotionally hobbled.

Even with his Errol Flynn mustache, “Little” Tony Leung Chiu Wai just radiates broken-hearted weariness. He has panache, but he cuts a rather gloomy, existential figure. However, it is Zhang Ziyi who really gives viewers a kick in the teeth as the radiate but heart-rending Bai Ling. Arguably, Faye Wong covers an even greater spectrum as the more upbeat Wang Jing-wen and the exquisitely tragic gynoid. Carina Lau makes the most of her diva turn as Lulu, but Gong Li is an outright showstopper as the Singapore Su. Nobody else could wring so much intrigue and dark romance out of such limited screen time.

Production on 2046 was inconveniently interrupted by the SARS outbreak, but you would not know it from the finished film. It is seductively sad in a way that flows naturally from Mood, even during its flights of fantastical speculation. Without question, it features some of the best screen thesps of our time, working with one of the most distinctive international auteurs and accomplished cinematographers (Christopher Doyle, with an assist from the skilled Kwan Pung-leung), all of whom are working at the peaks of their creative powers. Very highly recommended, 2046 screens twice today (12/18) at the Metrograph, as part of Maggie Cheung: Center Stage.

China Institute Film Course: The Road Home

It is the sort of tradition that has not been practiced since the Cultural Revolution, but Zhao Di is dead set on conveying her husband Luo Changyu’s body back to their village in an old fashioned, pallbearing procession. She and Luo must have had a rough go of it during Mao’s 1960’s insanity, but it was the Anti-Rightist Movement of the 1950s that nearly derailed their gentle courtship. The couple’s grown son tells their story in Zhang Yimou’s contemporary classic The Road Home (trailer here), which is the subject of this week’s Chinese Film Short Course lecture at the China Institute in New York.

Luo Yusheng rarely returns to his parents’ snowy provincial village. He studied to become a teacher like his father, but found success in business instead. When his father arrived to become the village’s first teacher, it was a big deal, but first he had to preside over the construction of the one room school house. Zhao would lovingly prepare her share of the meals for the construction team, never knowing if Luo would be the one to eat them.

Of course, she had caught his eye as well. He was also duly impressed by the quality of the ceremonial Lucky Red Banner she weaved for the school’s central beam. Yet, they only started to understand the reciprocity of their feelings on the night Zhao and her grandmother finally had their turn hosting Luo for dinner. Sadly, Luo would be summoned back to the city the next day to answer some “political questions.” Viewers should know better than young Zhao the broad strokes of what that was to entail.

Road Home is a G-rated romance (literally, per the MPAA), interrupted by episodes of ideologically driven violence that would be R-rated or worse if they happened on camera. It is a deceptively simple story that expresses deep feelings, while functioning as an intimate microcosm of Twentieth Century Chinese history. Indeed, it makes a perfect companion film to Zhang’s thematically related but even more tragic Coming Home.

By all aesthetic standards, Road Home should be considered an understated artistic triumph, but it is also significant as the cinematic debuts of both Zhang Ziyi and Sun Honglei. The teenaged Zhang looks arrestingly youthful and innocent, but she also has the goods, anchoring the film with the forcefulness of her ardor and yearning. Zheng Hao is also quite effective, considering most of his work is done through glances exchanged across open fields. However, like Zhang, you can tell Sun Honglei has the spark of something in his scenes as the urbanized son.

Perhaps counter-intuitively, Road Home’s flashback scenes are in color, while the framing sequences are in black-and-white. However, it rather makes sense given the importance of a certain red dress Zhao wears at key moments. Both Zhang Ziyi and cinematography Yong Hou do it justice. This is a great film that should provide plenty for the China Institute’s lecturer to discuss, but the core human drama will be accessible to any viewer. Highly recommended, The Road Home is currently available on iTunes and will be the lecture topic at the Institute this Wednesday (5/18).

My Lucky Star: Zhang Ziyi’s Sophie Returns

It is hard for a comic book artist to navigate a Sex in the City world, especially a hopeless romantic like Sophie.  At least her work provides her an outlet for her frustrations, but not a steady income.  However, Sophie will finally meet her real life international man of mystery in My Lucky Star (trailer here), Dennie Gordon’s stand-alone sequel to Sophie’s Revenge, which opens this Friday in New York.

Sophie is a talented artist, but the world’s worst travel agent.  Her day job boss tells her so, frequently.  When she wins the “My Lucky Star” sweepstakes’ luxury vacation to Singapore, her man-eating friends convince her to take the plunge.  As soon as she arrives, the clumsy knockout stumbles into the arms of David Yan, who happens to be the spitting image of her comic book super spy.  He also happens to be in the same line of work—a fact Sophie is painfully oblivious to. 

Before long, Sophie’s attempts to pursue Yan put her smack dab in the middle of a caper involving a massive stolen diamond.  It happens to be perfect for refracting a WMD laser, which is why the notorious Black Widow arms dealer is out to acquire it.  Yes, she is also hot and Yan happens to have some complicated history with her.  The indomitable Sophie will have to knuckle down if she is going to win the man of her dreams and save the world (or at least Bermuda).

The first domestic Chinese production helmed by an American woman (Gordon, best known for Joe Dirt and her DGA Award winning work on Tracey Takes On), Lucky incontrovertibly establishes Zhang Ziyi looks cute in a gondolier’s costume.  You might have suspected as much, but here’s the proof.  In fact, she has more wardrobe changes than Anne Hathaway hosting the Oscars.  That is really what this film is all about: fab clothes, the picturesque opulence of Singapore and Macao, and a spot of vicarious romance. 

Sophie’s Revenge was a monster hit in China, so producer Zhang’s title character is back to feed the appetite she helped create (but viewers need not be familiar with the first film to follow the second).  However, for American audiences, it is rather ironic to see her playing a lovelorn klutz so soon after her exquisitely tragic, massively butt-kicking turn in Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster.  She is clearly versatile—and quite appealing in both very different films.

Wang Leehom, the American-born Taiwanese pop idol, is a game straight man, looking credible enough in his action sequences.  Ruby Lin and Chen Yao also return from Revenge, adding attitude and sex appeal as Sophie’s BFFs.  However, Terri Kwan sort of steals the show as the Black Widow.

Indeed, aside from an overbearing boss here and a henchman there, everyone in Lucky is outrageously good looking.  This is definitely escapist fare.  However, fans of Revenge will miss Sophie’s unapologetically macabre animated fantasies.  Gordon doubles down on the slapstick humor instead, which, ironically, does not travel as well.  Never particularly deep or memorable, My Lucky Star offers up plenty of sugary confections for the eye and a dash of plucky empowerment.  If that suits your movie going purposes, it opens this Friday (9/20) in New York at the AMC Empire, courtesy of China Lion Entertainment.

Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster

Ip Man has become a transcendent hero.  All the films and stories about him are true, even when they contradict each other, because we need his example of heroic humility.  Ip was a master of the southern style of kung fu known as Wing Chun.  Settling in Hong Kong after the Communist takeover, he became the city’s most prominent martial arts teacher.  He often lived a hand-to-mouth existence, but he attained a measure of immortality through his celebrated student, Bruce Lee.  Posterity will not be so kind to the northern school, for classically tragic reasons revealed in The Grandmaster (trailer here), Wong Kar Wai’s eagerly anticipated take on Ip Man, the man and the legend, which opens this Friday in New York.

Born to a life of privilege, Ip Man has become the leading proponent of the Wing Chun school of kung fu.  For Grandmaster Gong Baosen of the northern 64 Hands school, Ip is a fitting sparring partner for his grand retirement tour.  In observance of custom, challenges are made and met with grace.  However, Gong’s intensely loyal daughter Gong Er is determined to take matters further.  When she and Ip spar, it makes a profound impression on them both.  No longer mere rivals, an ambiguous but palpable mutual attraction develops between them.  Ip plans to travel north to see Gong and her 64 Hands style again, but the Japanese invasion rudely intervenes.

The occupation years will be difficult for both non-lovers.  Ip and his wife Zhang Yongcheng will mourn their children who succumb to starvation, while Gong Er watches in horror as Ma San, her father’s last great pupil-turned Japanse collaborator, usurps the 64 Hands.  Years later, Ip Man and Gong Er will meet again in Hong Kong, but their wartime decisions will continue to keep them apart.

Considering how long fans have waited, it is almost impossible for Grandmaster to live up to expectations, but happily it comes pretty close.  Although separate and distinct from the Ip Man franchise distributed by Well Go USA, “Little” Tony Leung Chiu Wai has the perfect look and gravitas for the celebrated master, nicely finding his niche as the experienced leading man Ip Man, in between Donnie Yen’s young, confident Ip and Anthony Wong’s elder statesman Ip.  Pushed and prodded by Wong, Leung arguably does some of his best martial arts work yet, but he also conveys the essence of the acutely disciplined Ip.

As good as Leung is, Ziyi Zhang more or less takes over the picture and that’s totally cool.  She even gets the big pivotal fight scene, which delivers in spades. A haunting and seductive presence, she brings out genuinely Shakespearean dimensions in Gong.

As a martial arts film, Grandmaster offers plenty of show-stopping sequences, clearly and fluidly staged with only a hint of the extreme stylization that marked Wong’s Ashes of Time Redux.  Surprisingly though, the film is as much a lyrical epic of love and yearning.  Indeed, the snowy northern climes and train station settings call to mind Doctor Zhivago more than Enter the Dragon.  Of course, Wong fully understands the power of a passing glance and incidental touch, exquisitely conveying the perverse satisfaction of denial.

The Grandmaster is a very good film that should please genre fans and art house audiences in equal measure.  It is probably the Ziyi Zhang, Tony Leung, and Wong Kar Wai collaboration we have hoped for since 2046. A sensitive but muscular portrait of Bruce Lee’s great master, it is a worthy addition to the Ip Man canon.  Highly recommended, The Grandmaster opens this Friday (8/23) in New York at the Angelika Film Center and the AMC Empire.

Dangerous Liaisons in Shanghai

In the 1930’s, Japan was gobbling up Manchuria, but Shanghai’s privileged class refused to let it spoil the party.  Violence and foreboding hang in the air, but the cruel emotional games played by a merry widow and her dissolute ex will be more treacherous in the short term.  This is indeed Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ scandalous Eighteenth Century novel adapted to Republican era China.  It makes the transition rather well in Hur Jin-ho’s Dangerous Liaisons (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

This time around, the Marquise de Merteuil is Mo Jieyu, the widowed chairwoman of a major banking concern and all around hedonist.  She is slightly out of sorts after reading in the newspaper her industrialist lover has dropped her in favor of his new sixteen year old fiancée, Beibei (the Cécile de Volanges).  Seeking revenge, she turns to her former lover turned torch-carrying friend, playboy Xie Yifan, to corrupt her innocent rival.  However, he has become preoccupied with the virtuous widow Du Fenyu (a.k.a. Madame de Tourvel).  As most viewers will know, this leads to a fateful bet.  If Xie cannot seduce and discard Du in reasonable period of time, he will do Mo’s bidding, whereas if he meets his challenge, she will finally yield to his advances.

Granted, the French tale of scandal has been told and retold many times in the past, but probably never with such an attractive ensemble cast (sure they are good actors, but Malkovich and Close as predatory seducers?).  The chemistry between Xie/Valmont and Mo/Merteuil has rarely been as scorching either.  Whenever Dong-gun Jang and Cecilia Cheung are on-screen together, it seems like they can barely resist ripping off each others’ clothes.  It almost throws off the necessary dramatic dynamic between them, but it is certainly entertaining to watch.  In contrast, Zhang Ziyi, somewhat playing against type, plays the indrawn Du/Tourvel with subtle power and genuine sensitivity.  Not all the supporters players fare as well, but most eyes will squarely focused on Cheung and Zhang.

In fact, resetting Liaisons in Shanghai works quite well, because it establishes a fittingly dangerous backdrop, thereby raising the stakes.  It also gives rise to an enjoyably era appropriate big band jazz soundtrack, somewhat following in the tradition of Roger Vadim’s 1960 film adaptation, which featured the music of Thelonius Monk and Art Blakey.

There is truly nothing new under the sun.  Hur Jin-ho’s Korean and Chinese cast and crew were not the first to produce an Asian Dangerous Liaisons.  That distinction probably belongs to Lee Je-yong’s Untold Scandal.  The real story of this Liaison is Cheung’s diva turn as the scheming but endlessly complex Mo/Merteuil.  She is worth the price of admission in Manhattan by herself.  Unapologetically melodramatic, Hur Jin-ho’s Dangerous Liaisons is recommended for fans of tragic Chinese and Korean period cinema when it opens this Friday (11/9) at the AMC Empire in New York and the AMC Metreon in San Francisco.

NYAFF ’10: Sophie’s Revenge

They are called “chick flicks,” because guys supposedly do not enjoy relationship comedies written from a woman’s perspective. The real reason for these films’ gender gap is that they always seem to star protagonists that are supposed to be attractive, but could not interest us any less (yes, this very definitely includes Sarah Jessica Parker). However, when Zhang Ziyi and Fan Bingbing make a rom-com, any man would take notice. Happily, such is the case with Eva Jin’s glittery Sophie’s Revenge (trailer here), which also features some ridiculously cartoonish revenge fantasies that probably explain its selection for the 2010 New York Asian Film Festival.

Sophie is a beautiful graphic novelist. It is hard to believe she was dumped by her milquetoast boyfriend Jeff, but she explains it all during a flashback. Jeff threw her over for Joanna, who, played by Fan, is also hot and happens to be a famous movie star who swept the impressionable doctor off his feet after he treated her. Rather than getting on with her life, Sophie obsesses, hatching a plan to win back Jeff, only to dump him shortly thereafter. Or so she says. Her friends Lily and Lucy are not so sure revenge is her ultimate goal (and yes, they are pretty cute too). Still, she is able to enlist the aid of Gordon, a Taiwanese photographer who has his own history with Joanna. Of course, he seems like Mr. Right for Sophie, but she has her revenge to worry about.

Granted, the notion of Zhang (who also served as producer) getting dumped stretches credibility right from the start, but she proves to be a good sport, gamely enduring all manner of humiliations. Indeed, she and Fan sparkle in the film and Ruby Lin and Chen Yao add charm and energy as Sophie’s cronies. The men though are a pretty dull and uncharismatic lot, even including Peter Ho as nice guy Gordon. Still, the rom-com proceedings never get too cloying thanks to some quirky animation, over-the-top violent flights-of-fancy, and a refreshingly scatological sense of humor.

While some of Sophie’s embarrassments are truly wince-inducing, Revenge moves along briskly and has a good heart. Thanks to Zhang’s winning presence as a surrogate Carrie Bradshaw, it all works fairly well as a light and frothy entertainment. Its selection is definitely something of a departure for the New York Asian Film Festival, but to recap, it does have Zhang Ziyi, Fan Bingbing, and cartoon violence, so any guy will be able to handle it just fine. It screens Tuesday (6/29) and Saturday (7/3) as NYAFF continues at the Walter Reade Theater, right in the heart of New York’s Lincoln Center.