Homecomings
are important to Taiwan-based Burmese filmmaker Midi Z. For the Burmese
diaspora, coming home is a rare luxury. Within the Evangelical and Holiness
traditions, the term “coming home” has multiple meanings. Such also seems to be
the case for an exhausted Burmese migrant worker, even though she adheres to
Buddhist teachings. Time and destiny blur together for her in Midi Z’s short
film, The Palace on the Sea (trailer here), which screens
with his debut feature, Return to Burma,
as part of the Asia Society’s new film series, Homecoming Myanmar: A Midi Z Retrospective.
It
was once a grand floating luxury restaurant, but now it is a floating ghost ship.
Sanmei has come there, acting on an uncanny desire for a homecoming. Inside,
past and present will intersect when she dances with her former husband, who has
since become a Buddhist monk. Frankly, Palace
is not exactly a plotty film, but it is rich with symbolism and meaning.
In
just about every way, Palace represents
a pronounced departure from Midi Z’s feature films. Unlike the rigorous
naturalism of Return to Burma and Ice Poison, Palace is experimental and expressionistic. In his features, Midi Z’s
aesthetic sensibilities are closely akin to the work of the independent Chinese
filmmakers loosely affiliated with the Digital Generation (dGenerate) movement.
Midi Z largely forgoes stylistic flourish, for the sake of his features’
intimacy and immediacy.
In
general, that is probably a wise strategy, but Palace is a different sort of project. Here Midi Z wows the
audience with a number of stunning tracking shots that fully exploit the
cinematic nature of the ghost ship. It is a great looking film that proves he
has the chops for showier work as well as his socially conscious films.
Yet,
just like his features, Palace stars
his muse, Wu Ke-xi. Arguably, the role of Sanmei is more about serving the
needs of the film than an acting showcase, per se. Nonetheless, the film
certainly proves she can dance. In fact, she brings a sensitive, nuanced presence
that helps viewers engage on an emotional level rather than just taking in the
spectacle of it all.
