28 Walk Outs At TIFF North American Premiere

I'm not surprised at all critics are creaming themselves over this. Critics love pretentious, boring films. They're so afraid to be the critic who didn't like the slow, boring foreign film that's so devoid of any emotion, characters or dialogue that it MUST be high art.

As for Cannes, I always take everything from there with a grain of salt. They of course always have some masterpieces they get behind, but they love a lot of pretentious duds as well. If you look back at the list of Palme D'or winners or Best Director list there's a lot of forgettable films. I mean who's still talking about "Babel" or Gus Van Sant's "Elephant" anymore?

Because too many Cannes judges and too many professional film critics are mesmerized by pretentious filmmaking and character studies with no real story and no real conflicts but gorgeous photography. And, it's not the actors' fault. They did their job. The problem is, the story and characters were just too slow, too confusing and too undramatic.

I don't fault the director for refusing to do a period action drama with little or no action, where the main character decides not to kill. The message is fine, and even morally laudable. However, can't you insert a little dramatic dialogue or real conflict. Can't you insert at least some explanations for the characters' motivations? For example, in one scene a man and a woman are in a room (there may also be a child in the room), but the whole scene is pretentiously shot behind a billowing see-through curtain and nothing much is going on! Please put the camera inside the room with the actors!!! And, please forward the plot a little bit with some meaningful dialogue or action, even if it's only a romantic look between the man and the woman.

Someone compared the director's work here with Stanley Kubrick, but even in Kubrick's slowest and most beautifully photographed movies, like BARRY LYNDON, there's some drama, some conflict. C'mon, people!

I also think the Cannes judges and critics were also influenced by the movie's message against violence. The reviews seem impressed, for example, with the fact that the movie doesn't insert wall-to-wall fighting and martial arts derring do. But, who cares about any of the action that is in the movie if you can't care about one of the main characters, or the conflict(s) between them?

The thing is, that movie seems to have been despised by its own "target audience" too...
I quote a post from a Singaporean viewer, here at iMDB : "This is one the the movies which has the highest re-fund rates in Mainland china and highest rate of people leaving the theater halfway.".
So this is *not* a matter of references.... :)

Considering Hou Hsiao-hsien is considered a master of Asian cinema, you should probably hold your breath on him never getting work again.

Haha I agree 100%. When the goats showed up I was like "finally some characters with personality!".

They're OK. They're shot in closeup, so it's tough to tell who's winning and who's losing. There's a lot of energy in the fight scenes but there aren't many of them.

Asian films are appealing to me for their almost typically slow pacing. I absorb a little more of the atmosphere and become a little more anticipating.

But it's not for everyone and perhaps people thought they were going to see some sort of exploding Wuxia flick or something big and action packed like Red Cliff or Crouching Tiger? It'd be like finding themselves at a proper wine-tasting party when they were expecting a rager. If they had zero interest in Chinese culture and politics going in they certainly aren't going to stick around.

What story?

So what? Spectacular photography and a unique soundtrack do not a real movie make.

I've seen plenty of Asian movies, even slow ones. And, I LOVE Ozu, the Japanese director who makes slow movies about death and marriage. But, his characters and plots, and direction and editing, are far more interesting than this.

To make a period film about a Chinese female assassin and her Buddhist mentor/kidnapper, and to eschew any really exciting action scenes whatsoever, is just perverse, if not purposely annoying. I like the fact that the director loves long takes and shooting characters from a distance, but so did John Ford and other directors far more interesting, and probably even far more talented, than this guy.