Midi Z at the Freer: 14 Apples

It almost sounds like the premise of a Michael J. Fox movie, circa Doc Hollywood. A fortune-teller told Wang Shin-hong’s mother that he should travel to an isolated monastery in central Burma, where he will live as a brother for fourteen days. He was also instructed to eat one apple each day to cure his insomnia, revive his sluggish business, and generally keep the doctor away. However, Wang will not find love in that hardscrabble community, as a rom-com character surely would. Instead, he gets an eye-opening lesson in what both the monks and villagers must do to survive in Midi Z’s 14 Apples (trailer here), which screens at the Freer as part of the mini-retrospective Borderlands: A Weekend with Midi Z.

Why this monastery you or Wang might ask? Good question. It is never clear why the fortune teller was directed here specifically. Since it was a remote stretch of the country the Taiwan-based, Burma-born Midi Z had never visited, he decided to grab his camera and film his friend on his pseudo-pilgrimage.

Arguably, this might have been the worst site for Wang’s retreat. Instead of training him in meditation and mindfulness, they put him to work collecting the considerable offerings freely given by the desperately poor villagers. He even starts serving as a community mediator.

At this point, it is important to remember many, many Buddhist monks have endured beatings and even sacrificed their lives for the cause of democracy in Burma. On the other hand, it is not uncommon for the slacker children of middle class families in Southeast Asia to gravitate towards monastic life—a phenomenon depicted in the Thai mystery, Mindfulness and Murder. There seems to be a bit of the latter going on here. Indeed, the already quite worldly Wang shows signs of further disillusionment during his stay, but he also clearly understands the monks must do what they need to do to survive.

14 Apples is a straight-up doc, but it shares obvious stylistic and thematic commonalities with Midi Z’s previous films, in which the border between documentary and narrative fiction has always been rather porous. It also reflects his interests in migration and statelessness, especially when we learn how many villagers are living and working illegally in China, Singapore, and other more economically vibrant Asian nations.

There are some telling moments in 14 Apples, but there are also times when the long-takes feel like padding. Frankly, it might have worked better as a thirty or forty-minute short film rather than a full feature, even though the pacing and aesthetics are exactly what the filmmaker’s admirers will expect. Regardless, those fascinated by monasticism should appreciate the very different perspective the film provides (this comes from a whole different universe than Into Great Silence).

On a positive note, it is also encouraging that Z could film rather openly in Burma and not have to take extraordinary measures to smuggle out the footage (in contrast to his experience making Return to Burma). Recommended for cineastes with a personal interest in Burmese cinema and Buddhist monasticism, 14 Apples screens tomorrow (6/10) at the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery, as part of their Midi Z film series.

PSIFF ’15: The Monk

Serving as a Buddhist monk should be a calling rather than a mere job. However, employment prospects in Burma are so bleak, many take up robes for subsistence reasons. In Zawana’s case, he was adopted into the monastic life he seems so ill-suited for. However, his abbot’s illness will bring the novice to a crossroads in The Maw Naing’s The Monk (trailer here), which screens during the 2015 Palm Springs International Film Festival.

Zawana enjoys exchanging flirtatious love notes with the cute village girl Marlar and listening to the rebellious monk Yewata’s mp3 player. Still, he feels a tie of loyalty to Abbot U Dahma, who found him starving on a park bench when just a young child. When Yewata decides to seek a less strict monastery in Yangon (a.k.a. Rangoon), Zawana nearly leaves with him. He somewhat regrets his lack of daring when Marlar also ventures to the big city, ostensibly to pursue her studies. Unfortunately, Zawana will soon follow them when the Abbot’s cancer demands treatment in a bigger hospital.

As is often the case, the change of environment helps Zawana put things in perspective, but the bustling capitol does alter the film’s quiet, defiantly naturalistic aesthetic. Indeed, it is easy to see how the director’s work as a poet and a documentarian influenced his stylistic approach. Viewers also get a sense of how the monks and novices do or don’t live in balance with nature and their more profane neighbors.

Many will need to acclimate themselves to The Monk’s contemplative pace, but there is an easily discernable narrative to follow, involving very real stakes. It truly transports viewers to the distant Burmese province, lushly lensed by cinematographer Vit Janecek, but it is considerably more character driven than a travelogue or docu-essay. Novice Zawana is a classically conflicted figure, impressively brought to life by Kyaw Nyi Thu’s tremendous range and depth. Likewise, Han Newe Nyein shows uncommon presence and subtlety as Marlar, while Thein Swe Myint plays the Abbot with fitting gravitas.

It is a shame the modern-era Burmese film industry is still in its intimacy, because the entire ensemble shows a natural talent for screen acting. Some reports bill The Monk as the first independent feature narrative produced inside Burma (as most citizens call it), but similar claims were made for the Burmese-raised, Taiwan-based Midi Z’s Return to Burma. In truth, it seems like an exaggeration in both cases, since Ohn Maung’s cautionary 1920 silent Love and Liquor would clearly predate them both.

That hardly matters though. It is just encouraging to see Burmese filmmakers examining the country’s current condition through a cinematic prism. The even better news is The Monk is quite rewarding when considered strictly on its own cinematic merits. Recommended for those who appreciate meditative films with an understated but powerful emotional kicker, The Monk screens this Tuesday (1/6) and Thursday (1/8), as part of this year’s PSIFF.

Tribeca ’14: Ice Poison

He is not exactly a budding Walter White. His partner is more daring, but her willingness to sample their goods does not bode well. Thanks to Burma’s economic stagnation, the young protagonists willingly make some very problematic choices in Midi Z’s Ice Poison (trailer here), which screens during the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival.

When we first meet the former farmer, he is so poor, Midi Z’s screenplay does not even grant him a proper name. With prices for their vegetables tumbling, the man and his father hock the family cow to buy a scooter. The old man seems to think there is good money to be made shuttling people home from the local bus depot, but proper cabs take most of that business. His surly son can only scuffle odd delivery jobs. However, that might be just what Sanmei needs.

Tricked into an involuntary marriage in China, Sanmei has been granted leave to bury her failing grandfather. Even though she left behind a child in Yunnan, she has no intention of returning. Determined to make some real money, she gets involved with her drug dealing cousin. Her deal with the scooter driver is simple. If he does the driving, she will handle all the exchanges, giving him a healthy cut for his efforts. They might not be Bonnie and Clyde, but we can all assume they are headed in a similar direction. Yet despite their reckless behavior, Midi Z would not have us judge them harshly. After all, they have taken some pretty drastic steps to secure legitimate work, only to be disappointed at every step.

Arguably, Ice is an unusually ambitious film, grappling with at least two and a half hot button issues. Obviously, Midi Z shines a light on Burma’s drug related social pathologies. He also directly addresses the plight of migrant workers, particularly with respects to bait-and-switch white slavery. Finally, Poison drops intriguing, if under-developed, hints regarding the extent secular modernity has challenged cultural and religious traditions. As a case in point, Sanmei’s return from China was delayed so she could retrieve her grandfather’s burial clothes, which had to be secretly buried themselves to survive the Cultural Revolution.

The Burma-born, Taiwan-based Midi Z is almost a one-man dynamo for the nascent Burmese film business (and they do call their nation Burma, rather than “Myanmar”). His eye for visuals has sharpened considerably since Return to Burma. However, the narrative balance is a bit out of whack. He spends considerably more time establishing the crumminess of the two protagonists’ lives than building suspense around their illicit trade. Still, the closing scene will knock the wind out of audiences, vividly reminding us just who the biggest loser is amidst this tale of woe.

Given her frequent collaborations with Midi Z, Wu Ke-xi probably qualifies as the first lady of Burmese cinema. In a chilling performance, she conveys both desperate vulnerability as well as a chillingly nihilistic inclination. In contrast, Wang Shin-hong is almost too reserved as the scooter-driver, even making it rather tricky to discern when he is stoned. Nevertheless, when he loses it down the stretch, it is something fierce to behold.

Ice Poison is not a perfect film, but it is significant, both as a symbol of Burma’s cinematic potential and a documentary like exercise in holding a mirror up to nature. It is a bit slack at times, but the stakes are about as serious as could be. Recommended who those who appreciate challenging social dramas, Ice Poison screens again tonight (4/22) during this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

LAFF ’12: Return to Burma

Coca-Cola may have just announced its imminent return to Burma, but China maintains a chokehold on its client state’s closed economy.  Such is the situation an expatriate construction worker finds on his homecoming.  Regardless of potential political liberalizations, economic opportunities remain few and far between in Midi Z’s Return to Burma (trailer here), which screens during the 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival.

After years of working and saving in Taipei, Wang Xing-hong is returning home.  He had planned to travel with his co-worker Rong, but instead he will carry his countryman’s ashes.  Transferring from bus to bus he hears the saccharine radio jingles proclaiming the promise of progress through new elections.  Yet, he arrives home to the same depressed provincial town, except now maybe even more so.

Traveling between Taiwan and Burma is an expensive and complicated proposition.  Clearly, Wang would prefer to stay and put down roots.  Simultaneously, his sporadically employed younger brother is about to leave for Malaysia in search of work.  The fact the neighboring country offers greater opportunity than the more richly resource-endowed Burma is a testament to decades of government mismanagement and plunder.  Yet, that is the state of things.

The pseudo-characters of Return are a lot like New Yorkers compulsively discussing comparative rents and maintenance fees at a dinner party.  Viewers will leave knowing the market wage for just about every form of manual labor in the country as well as the start-up cost for numerous small service proprietorships.  The lesson is clear—do not relocate to Burma.  By the way, Midi Z and his colleagues obviously call it Burma and not Myanmar, unlike the military junta and the legacy media.

Shot surreptitiously on the streets of Yangon and Mandalay, with non-professional actors kind of-sort of playing themselves, Return is the first domestically produced Burmese feature (evidently ever).  It was also more or less illegal.  Perhaps not surprisingly, it is closely akin stylistically to the Digital Generation school of independent Chinese filmmakers.  Deliberate and observational rather than action-driven or chatty, the film is really all about conveying the experience of Burma’s underclass—and that includes everyone except the top military and government officials.

It is probably a small miracle the Burma-born Taiwan-based Midi Z and his crew-members were not imprisoned during the Return shoot.  They earn considerable kudos for vividly capturing the atmosphere of Burma.  There are times when you can practically smell the humid night air.  Still, the languid pace and hardscrabble living conditions have a rather claustrophobic effect.  It is a worthy but wearying look inside the isolated society.  Recommended for dedicated Burma watchers (but not necessarily casual connoisseurs of Asian cinema), Return to Burma screens this Friday (6/22) and Saturday (6/23) as an International Showcase selection of the 2012 LA Film Fest.