MovieChat Forums > Rang zi dan fei (2010) Discussion > Derivative, but original - surreal + sin...

Derivative, but original - surreal + sincere - potential classic

posted 12 years ago by j-z-o
4 replies | jump to latest

Since the lead is the director and co-wrote, clearly an auteur vision. Those who say "either you get it or your don't" are probably right. The Chinese vs. non-Asian culture issues don't really apply if you experience film as an universal language, altho it's likely a given non-Asians will miss some of the jokes. I fall into that group and still laughed many times.

If you consider yourself a student of or at least interested in individualized-vision film making this should probably be in your queue. Visually striking with verbal wordplay, drawing from many sources that film buffs will recognize, yet has an original, engaging plot.

Worth it if you got Netflix and willing to take a shot on what might be one of the best films so far of the 2010s.

[–] activista 12 years ago

Just saw this film and really enjoyed it--it sounded like it was going to have lots of action alone just from the title,but it was a pleasant surprise that turned out to be more than your usual-shoot-'em-up flick. Not familiar with the lead, Jiang Wen, but he's handsome in an old-school (liked the mustache) way and very effective/commanding in the lead. I liked the fact that the two main characters were pitting themselves against each another in a very dark-humored game of psychological warfare,and how they constantly tried to one-up one another, with one incident escalating on top of another. What I liked about the humor in this film was how it came from people just doing funny things, as opposed to everybody trying to be funny all the time by just acting up and doing stupid things.

Anyway, now that I know who this Jiang Wen is (I've seen his name pop up in a couple of recent Chinese flicks) he's given me an extra reason to check out last year's period actioner THE LOST BLADESMAN (the first reason being Donnie Yen.) And last but not least, it was great to see Chow Yun-Fat in a role that utilized his comic skills for once (the only movies I've seen where he's been flat-out funny was GOD OF GAMBLERS and TO CATCH A THIEF---especially the latter). Plus he still looks great for his age---it was good/great to see him in an atypical comedy role for a change. The film could have been cut down by at least 15 minutes,because it's a little too long at 132 minutes--but,surprisingly,it's rarely boring,and really fun and crazy---other than that, it's still worth a watch.

[–] Yorick-6 11 years ago

Agreed - great film! I do wonder how much was lost in translation though. There's an amusing pun at one point where a character get's "dollar" confused with with the Chinese word to arrive ("dow la"). My Chinese isn't great so I'm sure I missed a lot of stuff and will have to see it again. Pity there aren't more Chinese movies as good as this. Hell, there aren't that many Western movies as good as this.

[–] GrumpyOrang 11 years ago

Tang was not confused about what "dollar" means, he was playing stupid. A master of "acting stupid" and "feigning ignorance".

It's very rare to see a mandarin film with such fast and witty dialogue delivered in such a humorous way that manages to be highly entertaining and highly meaningful at the same time with many layers of metaphor. It speaks to every Chinese person and reflects the hypocrisies of the culture, of feigned relationships with one another and of the ridiculousness of it all. Every aspect of the ugliness of the Chinese culture was explored, and Jiang managed to do so in an extremely entertaining way without being banned by the Communist government. As he said in the film, he managed to "make money while standing". Bravo.

[–] activista 11 years ago

@Yorick

There are a lot of good (and great) Chinese movies out there, but it's like with any kind of movie from a different culture---you have to wade through the bad to find the good---heck, that's true with American flicks,too.