FEBRUARY 2007 - MOVIE REVIEWS
Indie Films, Cinematic Gems & Acclaimed Directors
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| | Yi Yi (A One and a Two)
Edward Yang (Taiwan) – Criterion Collection
Criterion have just released Edward Yang’s masterwork in a beautiful high-definition package that comes complete with commentary and interviews with Yang as well as an essay on Taiwanese cinema from film historian Tony Rayns. Yang’s story focuses on what at first appears to be a hum-drum upper-middle class Taipei family. However as the film progresses Yang subtly reveals the inner-life of each character, most tellingly burrowing beneath the detached veneer of NJ, the household’s IT executive father-figure, uncovering his longing for an early lost love and his ultimate inability to go along with the petty hypocrisies of the business world. Yang is considered perhaps the finest of the New Taiwanese Cinema directors and his greatest strength is the team of ensemble actors he has nurtured over the past twenty years, many of which give standout performances here. Highly recommended. Click on the image to buy now!
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| | 49 Up
Michael Apted (UK) – First Run Releases
In 1964 the BBC commissioned a telefilm focused on a group of randomly selected British 7 year olds. Seven Up was based on the Jesuit maxim “Give me the child until he is seven and I will show you the man”. Michael Apted worked as a research assistant on that first film in 1964, and since then at 7 year intervals he has revisited his subjects with a view towards understanding how their lives have changed. Those who have followed the series will enter the cinema with a certain amount of trepidation as the documentaries have revealed nothing so much as the fragility of life and the often cruel embellishments of age. This episode sees the subjects firmly entrenched in middle age, many of them more leery of life in general and what they often view as Apted’s increasingly intrusive project in particular. Click on the image to buy now!
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| | Raise the Red Lantern
Zimou Zhang – (ERA) Hong Kong
Widely regarded as one of the finest Asian movies of the 90s, Raise the Red Lantern has till now only been available in DVD editions which suffered from terrible picture quality and laughable subtitle translations - “groovy” instead of “gloomy” anyone? Asian studio ERA has finally released an edition that does justice to this claustrophobic tale of a young woman who becomes the “fourth wife” of a feudal Chinese Nobleman – sharing the household with her three predecessors and vying with them for the affections of their master. Zimou has had great commercial success with his more recent action based Hero, here the action is quieter and internalized but just as commanding. Click on the image to buy now!
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