Bali: Beats of Paradise

It’s about time somebody made a documentary about Gamelan music. It is as percussive as music gets, yet it has a bright, irrepressibly upbeat sound. People say it “shimmers” with good reason—it has to do with the tuning. Granted, Gamelan has not quite cracked the mainstream here in America, but its popularity continues to grow steadily. Master Gamelan musician and dancer Nyoman Wenten is determined to kick it up a notch through a collaboration with R&B singer Judith Hill. Livi Zheng documents their creative process and the making of the music video (also directed by her) in Bali: Beats of Paradise (trailer here), which opens tomorrow in New York.

In the 1960s, Nyoman Wenten and his wife Nanik performed good will tours through Mao’s China and Kim Il-sung’s North Korea, preparing them to live in today’s California. They teach in universities and train eager, multi-ethnic ensembles of musicians dedicated to traditional Gamelan. Something about the sound caught the ear of Judith Hill, whose own solo career has been on the upswing after she was featured in 20 Feet from Stardom.

Fusing their two styles of music would be a complicated process for many reasons, starting with the size and complexity of Gamelan ensembles. Yet, Wenten set an ambitious goal of one million YouTube views for the resulting music video (appended to Bali in its entirety as a stinger following the closing credits).

Frankly, “Queen of the Hill” is a much better, more representative showcase for Hill than for Wenten’s Gamelan ensemble, but it is still an opportunity for good publicity. Zheng also incorporates some really cool performances by Balawan, a crossover Gamelan guitarist, influenced by the finger-tapping style popularly associated with Stanley Clarke.

Bali clocks in at a succinct 55-minutes, but it features some highly cinematic images of Indonesia that would have looked incredible in IMAX. Zheng directs with confidence and flair, crafting an unusually dynamic doc. It is a rather unexpected follow-up to her previous feature, the martial arts narrative, Brush with Danger, but it featured some fight scenes that were also quite nicely directed and choreographed (it was just the script that was a little weak).

Bali looks good and sounds great. The film has a buoyant spirit, just like the Gamelan music it documents. Highly recommended for fans of world music and crossover soul and R&B, Bali: Beats of Paradise opens tomorrow (11/16) in New York, at the Cinema Village.

Brush with Danger: Art and Action in Seattle

These undocumented siblings do the sort of jobs native-born Americans just won’t do, like forging a Van Gogh and boxing in unregulated after hours bouts. To be fair, she is highly conflicted about the former, whereas he faces plenty of home grown talent in the latter. Their legal status is precarious, but their spirit is indomitable in Livi Zheng’s Brush with Danger (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Alice and Ken Qiang were two of the lucky ones, who survived their cargo container transit to America. They came in search of a better life, but they also had to get out of Dodge fast. They have practically nothing to their names, except for some of her paintings that they will try to sell on the streets. They also have skills, which is part of the reason why they had to leave in a hurry. Yet, despite Alice’s reluctance, the Qiangs discover they can quickly fill a hat with their street displays of martial arts and acrobatics. Gallerist Justus Sullivan also notices them doing their act, but it is Alice’s work that really catches his eye.

Playing the role of patron, Sullivan moves the Qiangs into his McMansion, so Alice can finally live up to her potential. To keep Ken busy, Sullivan introduces the impetuous kid to his associate running Seattle’s underground fight circuit. Soon Ken is earning his own illegal spending money, fair and square. However, just when Sullivan asks if maybe Alice wouldn’t mind doing an extremely high quality reproduction—for a terminally ill friend, mind you—Det. Nick Thompson starts snooping around.

Brush is the directorial debut Livi Zheng, an Indonesian-born former stuntwoman and NCAA Karate competitor. It does indeed have some of the roughness you might associate with first features, but she and her real life kick-boxer brother Ken are totally convincing in the action scenes. In spite of some narrative slack, Zheng keeps it well paced and Norman Newkirk adds some memorable villainous charm as Sullivan.

Frankly, the problem is it is all too nice. The Zhengs are hugely likeably rooting interests and former cop-turned-wrestler Nikita Breznikov is rather likable as Det. Thompson, in a doofus kind of way. Even Sullivan is kind of nice (although some of his angry associates are definitely not). Still, if you had to choose a movie bad guy to have lunch with, he should be at the top of the list.

So if everyone is nice, does that mean the movie is nice too? Unfortunately, that probably constitutes a fallacy of composition. Regardless, it is impossible to root against the Qiangs and the Zhengs, who are already at work on their next action picture. If they maintain their earnestness and add some narrative edge, they could really get somewhere. For now, Brush with Danger opens this Friday (9/19) in New York at the Cinema Village.