Mesmerizing film, this kind of films are the ones that Hollywood should realese ALL THE TIME!!! I merely doubt some average americans out there would ever understand and/or like this film, this is art and absolutely expected not to have the distribution and support of the american media.
Great performances, amazing story, great direction achievement!
Is Mesmerizing and a must see.
shareOh please. This movie was doomed from its opening scenes of Meryl Streep doing slow-motion Tai Chi to classical music - it's the most contrived storyline I've seen in years. And overall it's a nothing movie that tries to be special by resorting to the most revolting of shock-value non-sequitur endings. If you think it's "great" or "mesmerizing" you need your head examined.
Most accurate depiction of the grad school experience that I've ever seen.
shareReally? Lots of kids running amok with handguns to weepy orchestral scores at your school?
Did you watch the movie?
Everything about the adviser/student relationship, the office atmosphere, the campus atmosphere, even the free food culture was dead on.
See here: www.phdcomics.com.
Yes, I watched the movie. You can't disregard the idiotic, non-sequitur ending when you say it was 'realistic'.
I agree that the setting for the story was good - I actually think it would have been a much better story without the sensationalistic ending. But the ending was the whole point for the filmmaker, and it ruins the film.
Ending was based on a true story.
So I don't think the screenwriters had much leeway.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gang_Lu
Also, a lot of grad students probably fantasize about having the dissertation committee "have it".
It is based upon an actual school shooting, yes. But the movie tries to make the shooter sympathetic. We are given 'explanations' for his actions which take all responsibility away from him and leave you with a weepy melodrama in which he is the 'real victim'. Which is precisely how you DON'T want to present this - particularly when there's ZERO real-world evidence that some mistreatment led to his rampage (in reality it was losing that seemed to push him over the edge).
Romanticizing school shooters only leads to more people committing the act - look at all the Columbine copies after the media made those idiots into celebrities.
Good points.
But given what is going on in real grad schools on a daily basis, I am a little surprised that this kind of thing does not happen more often.
Not exactly, Fenrir! The movie just want to give us some light into the culture clash that lead into the tragedy. It will help both Americans and Chinese to understand each other (the best they can in about 90 nmins). Liu xing didn't understand the politics in grad school in U.S. As a grad student myself, I felt this unfainess between some students with the professors. This movie plays out beautifully in a short amout of time. Very powerful movie.
I am just a regular person but a Unique one, not a clone type person.
Fenrir-5 wrote:
...the movie tries to make the shooter sympathetic.
Wow. I got the exact opposite impression. I sympathized with Prof. Reiser - he is Aidan Quinn afterall - and thought that Liu Xing was a megalomaniac from the git-go. When he started lying to his parents very early on and stated, more to himself, that he would win the Nobel Prize, I knew he would come to a bad end. That type of arrogance doesn't survive well in grad school unless your thesis adviser is on board, and even then you will probably get 'punished'. I thought Reiser had it exactly right: Liu was not a team player and was in over his head. The ending merely confirmed it.
We are given 'explanations' for his actions which take all responsibility away from him...
Funny, I don't remember any such 'explanations'.
Interested in collaborating on a new type of film rating system? Contact me.
If you still read this more than a year later....
I appreciate your concern with not encouraging other people to follow the tracks of murder, but this is another story.
What the movie depicts is true life. I never killed my supervisor, and if I had watched the film before he failed my dissertation I doubt I would have differently of what I did(n't). However, the bastard well deserved a bullet in the middle of his head. He really damaged my life.
I got my PhD many years later, but then, it was too late. I tell you, the thesis he failed was perfectly enough for the degree. Why was it not approved? Because supervisors' decision is final, unquestionable and need no justification. All a supervisor has to say is: "in my view it is not enough". That is it.
So, many years have passed, this man has surely damaged a few more lives and he is still alive. At the time I was his student he had done the same to other people. Later they got their degrees somewhere else, but then, it is not the same. Damage was done.
As shoesforyou says: “a lot of grad students probably fantasize about having the dissertation committee "have it" " and "but given what is going on in real grad schools on a daily basis, I am a little surprised that this kind of thing does not happen more often.”
I agree, it is surprising that it does not happen all the time. However, it is not this movie that is going to move people to do it. Actually, if there were no consequences for the revenger, this would happen all the time. Then, sometimes you are so down, so lost, that you think you have nothing else to loose. This is the critical moment, the critical point.
I found this film very uneven and it didn't even scratch the surface as to what caused him to go on the shooting spree.
I think people who are trying to be trendy and PC because it deals with two different cultures make it out to be something it is not.
It wasn't awful by any means, but it lacked quite a bit.
Please---a Ph.D isn't worth hurting someone over--it's just not.
shareGetting a PhD is an aim. It is a person's dream and at that moment it is what gives sense to the person's life. If you can live without it or if it is worth whatever it might, it is another story. Most people don't have it and many people are better off than PhDs or professors. Alright, but if you set to get it, failure can be a severe disruption to your life.
Then, you are in this path, you do your best to get there and you cross an unfair situation of manipulation by mean people who happens to be in position to damage your dream, your career and your life. It is no joke. Some people even commit suicide because they can't cope with this. So, it is not a question of if it worth or not. This is not a rational decision, it is emotional. Reason follows emotion. The brain speeches for the soul rather than guide it.
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