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hinese this is another installment in the long delayed series of reviews i had planned for the films i saw at the toronto international film festival in september 2009 i hope to write several more of these in a much more timely manner than i have so far but i make no promises alas life is busy and writing this stuff doesn t pay the second day of the festival began with xiaolu guo s she a chinese which is based on guo s own novel guo introduced the film as a coming of age film or a film about youth she asked what is coming of age in our globalized world it is likely that question is becoming more difficult to answer how does a young individual discover who they are in a world that has become more accessible both through access to transportation as well as through technology the internet film literature etc which in a way makes the world much larger today s youth perhaps feel even smaller in a world that appears much bigger of course our modern youth do not really have any other time to compare their time to so how aware of this changed world are they nevertheless their methods of navigating through the 21st century are different than those of previous generations connected to this question of youth is guo s assertion that the film is not about national identity to this i then wonder why is the film titled she a chinese this title suggests questions and or themes of nationality be they on national identity multiculturalism and other cultural studies as well as issues of gender the film follows li mei huang lu who is born in a small chinese village and eventually leaves for the big city then on to london england it is a global journey where we initially want to think about the film as being only about a chinese girl but it eschews the still too common western approach which shows china through the lens of western orientalism china as the foreign and exotic it becomes more a study of displacement and wandering where both china and england can seem both foreign and familiar guo herself was born in a small chinese village but has lived in london for years now she is of mixed culture and heritage an example of the multicultural existence familiar to an ever growing number of people guo aware of how many western and chinese films alike have portrayed china through this oriental lens tries to focus on individuals and cross national barriers creating a multi national image of the world national identity might not be at the root of the film but it is still a part of the film and a subject worth examining the film presents three different cultures through its principle characters li mei and spikey china mr hunt england and rachid india the film does a pretty good job to present these characters as individuals rather than cultural stereotypes while showing how some of their cultural differences create tensions between them even more interesting to me than the cultural issues are the gender issues within the film li mei s track record with men throughout the film is hardly stellar every man she has a relationship with takes advantage of her and proves unreliable leaving her alone to fend for herself after being sexually assaulted by a truck driver in her home town li mei heads for the city begins helping and working in a brothel and eventually becomes the girlfriend to spikey wei yi bo a criminal thug ironically spikey seems to be the nicest man to li mei though he tries to pay her after having sex with her perhaps a misguided act of sincerity on this bumbling criminal s part but spikey s machismo gangster lifestyle is hardly a safe dependable one his demise leaves li mei on her own again though thanks to spikey s criminal activities financially set when spikey and li mei meet a poor quality excerpt with spikey s money she travels to england and falls in with the elderly widower mr hunt geoffrey hutchings this seemingly kind old man helps li mei for a while but eventually his own attraction to her pretty youthful body becomes problematic mr hunt displays a rather oriental tension of attraction and repulsion to the beautiful young foreigner here both sexual and cultural tensions drive the two apart for they can neither satisfy each other sexually nor fully understand each other culturally as is true of all the relationships in the film there is a general failure to really communicate most of the time the relationships are sexual and if a sexual relationship is all there is then the failure of that relationship is seemingly guaranteed li mei s indian boyfriend rachid chris ryman also takes sexual advantage of her through buying her clothes he thinks make her look sexy to just pressuring her into sex after using her for a while rachid abandons her claiming to be going back to india this is likely motivate by the news that li mei is pregnant this storyline becomes a somewhat conventional statement of men s failure to commit to a relationship choosing instead to simply use women for sex and then dump them when the men no longer have a convenient use for those women this abuse of women by men seems a more common theme of the film than the cultural themes showing how men s mistreatment of women to not be nationally or culturally exclusive men just mistreat women while li mei is rather resourceful and finds a way of surviving she is also rather ignorant and irresponsible often expecting those men to provide her with the material pleasures she wants she is often selfish assuming that she can use men to get the things that she wants the abuse between the sexes is less than commendable and in the end all the characters seem to hardly have fulfilling lives the motives of these characters influenced by the ever more material world and belief in self centered preservation and immediate pleasure leaves everyone lacking she a chinese raises some interesting questions and tries to tackle multiple themes in a way that is both supportive of its main character li mei and distant from that character the film does not idealize her her flaws are apparent and i found myself both sympathetic to her while being completely exasperated by some of her behavior huang lu s performance captures that balance of drawing our sympathy and frustration very successfully in the end i felt more distant from her and uncertain as to whether i liked her at all in some cases she brought her troubles upon herself in others she is genuinely a victim the themes of the film are interesting ones but in the end i felt too distanced and annoyed with what i was seeing to feel much optimism for li mei s future as one who likes to think that society still contains decency and goodness this film seemed a somewhat flat declaration that we just can t win and we don t know where we re going anymore director xiaolu guo labels chinese cinema critical studies directors film reviews tiff posted by jon at monday may 10 2010 0 comments saturday may 01 2010 short film for massive attack s saturday come slow just wanted to remind everyone that massive attack s new album heligoland is out and it is fantastic really it is a great piece of work though some reviewers have been less enthusiastic about it pining away for the glory days of mezzanine and protection hypnotic mysterious brooding groovy and every other adjective you wish of a massive attack album not as dark and menacing as mezzanine but smoother with some sounds that remind me of portishead s third which makes sense since adrien utley contributes on heligoland like third heligoland has less trip hop though splitting the atom channels that pretty well i think so some die hard fans might seem grumpy i guess that is the problem with some alleged die hard fan they want them to just keep churning out the same disc rather than move around expand and explore for me i m more often very excited to hear a band move in new directions and try new things even if that means they come up a bit short sometimes but i don t think heligoland came up short at all for me the album is just fabulous anyway what i would also like to draw your attention to is the great short film by adam broomberg and oliver chanarin for their song saturday come slow it features former guantanamo bay detainee ruhal ahmed who was interrogated using music at painfully high volume ahmed reflects on his experience in gitmo and on his reintegration into society the effects on the body due to high volume music are also discussed all combined it is a fascinating short that contributes nicely to the discussion of torture and harsh interrogation that has already been addressed by good films like standard operating procedure and taxi to the dark side i have been wondering how music artists feel about their music being used in harsh interrogation and torture i doubt the military bothered to ask them if it was okay to use their stuff guess they just assumed that everyone would be on board with their patriotic efforts to protect freedom maybe that s too snarky of me to say but i doubt the military thought about it much since some troops in iraq also got pumped up for the day by cranking wagner s ride of the valkyries like kilgore s boys in apocalypse now did anyone tell the military that kilgore wasn t the character to emulate in that film after spending some time studying harsh interrogation and torture i find little that s noble or patriotic about what has gone on in gitmo abu ghraib and elsewhere labels film music music videos posted by jon at saturday may 01 2010 0 comments saturday december 19 2009 tiff antichrist preface i had the weighty responsibility to represent bo ast at the toronto international film festival this year i like to think it s because i m the only boast writer whose opinion actually matters but the reality is i m the only one frivolous enough and void of real responsibility to throw down the money to attend as a disclaimer spoilers are likely to happen which isn t really a big deal since it s film studies duty to rid film watching of any surprises or entertainment w atching movies should never be just for fun right i m also aware that the festival is now some months in the past and these film s may not exactly be breaking news but sometimes it s good to wait a while let things p roc es s read some other people s thoughts and then write about the film in the case of lars von trier s antichrist watching this film is not fun if fun ever crossed your mind while watching this film i d recommend you order yourself a personal exorcism von trier is no stranger to painful stories putting his characters and actors through the most horrible experiences and or pushing you far outside your comfort zone but antichrist goes beyond anything i ve seen von trier do befo re and honestly beyond anything i ve ever seen in a film which i guess says something about my viewing habits so this was new territory for me and i tend to think i or anyone shouldn t be there at least not for very long and not very often in the post screening q a lead actor willem dafoe expl ained that von trier wrote the screenplay while in a severe depression it became quite a personal film for von trier who was according to dafoe in a delicate state during the whole filmmaking process his core crew members there to help keep him stabilized i m not sure ho w good a job they did since the personal fracture and depressive anxiety assaulting von trier s psyche seems to have spawned a brutally violent perverse and justifiably objectionable finished film then again lars von trier enjoys making offensive films he means to provoke upset and unsettle the viewer he succeeds here better than he ever has before so what is antichrist doing aside from being ridiculously graphic and explicit and rather misogynistic hopefully a lot of things otherwise i really wasted my time and the well being of my everlasting soul i ll try expressing what i took away from antichrist while saying i don t c laim to have gotten all aspects of the film nor do i agree with a lot of the message antichrist contains many standard von trier subjects and themes a central female character played by charlotte gainsbourg and only named she in the credits children also still interest him like in his adaptation of medea though to different effect this time nature both human and environmental is investigated issues of control and domination which von trier has always struggled with and yo u see quite nicely studied in the five obstructions then th ere s psychology and religion with primary attention on the female sex and the story of adam eve all this and more comprises a film less interested in telling a story preferring to wax hyper met aphorical symbolic philosophical existential psychological all while slowly destroying both his characters and his audience it s rather obvious after the first minute of the film that sex is a central issue more specifically this is about carnal aggressive violent sex in the story of adam eve the partaking of the fruit has often been interpreted as symbolic of the first sexual act eve tempts adam into having sex which brings about their fall from innocence and expulsion from the garden of eden mankind s nature is then corrupt since after being tempted by the devil masquerading as a serpent eve tempted adam and ad am gave in to temptation he and she besides the child the film s only characters represent adam and eve and the bulk of the film unfolds after they return to their cabin in the woods they call eden that the y return to eden to try dealing with their grief bears its own significance are we sometimes trying to get back to the garden what do we think that will accomplish for lars von trier it accomplishes nothing good the opening scene shows he and she in severe carnal embrace to such intensity that they fail to notice their kid has woken up and climbed out of his crib the child then comes to their bedroom door and sees his parents having sex he then climbs onto the table opens the window and falls out to his death all this m akes me wonder if this is how von trier sees sex and the fall simply a cruel carnal and corrup ting act that destroys as much as it creates if mankind began with such a violent act what does that say of our nature are we indeed evil controlled by the devil and what does that say about eve who was the first tempted and unfortunately has taken a severe beating throughout history labeled at the primary cause of the fall of man we seem to forget adam s own roll in the whole thing but von trier hasn t the husband s cold sterile psychological approach to the death of their child is troubling and keeps us distanced from and annoyed at him that he then succumbs to the violent sexual tendencies his wife is exhibiting shows his own capacity for cruel vile behavior and he is ultimately the one committing murder considered by most to be the greater if not greate st sin not she in the end i think antichrist finds mankind rather evil and that the sexes will eventually destroy each other i saw the movie and ...