Wednesday 30 November 2011

He liu - The River

1997 by Ming Liang Tsai - Chinese movie from Taiwan

This is a much acclaimed movie, one which came out during the golden age of Taiwanese art cinema. However, let me be honest and speak out that, it is painfully slow and is on the verge of making one bohred. In fact, I watched it first time, day before yesterday night and I felt asleep. Tried to watch the last 20 minutes yesterday, before my office hours, and I was quite impressed by some of that imagery. So I tried to watch it once again.

A young man, his father and mother, who are all quite lonely in their lives. The young man hurts his neck during a bike accident.

The plot is quite simple and so is the movie. But if one can manage to keep yourself engaged with the very slow pace and eventless procedures of the movie, it is impossible to not feel the pain of the young man. You will start feeling the pain of this young man, which is inevitable. Frankly, it took a second watch for me to appreciate it, though.

But towards the end of the second watch, I couldn't help salute this director to make such a blunt and realistic cinema. It is really a painful movie to watch. There are things for which life does not have any solutions and the young man in this movie just has to suffer.

Absolutely a master piece work in cinematography. There is a scene of homo sexuality towards the end which is stunning. What a brilliant shot it is, even if it is quite shocking.

A real brilliant movie, but I am afraid most people might not watch this completely because of its pure art house style and the dragging slow pace. Better to watch it during day time.