just watch it!

A Major Disappointment

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

In the rugged hills of developing China contrasts, changes and contradictions are rife. Such are fodder for the satirical wit of writer/director Xiaolu Guo. No one, save for the natural world - thank goodness, escapes her jests. Her story unfolds in a Twain-like manner. In a flash of light a mysterious object appears in the countryside. Many interpret this event in their own selfish ways and attempt to turn competing visions into cash or advantage. Guo gets closer to the truth about modern day China than the presumptive, authoritative and vague official reports and so called "news" that emanate from China today. As expected with a film budget that is smaller than most, there are some awkward moments and the film could do better with more depth, yet Guo's story is intriguing, alluring and whimsical. I especially like (and won't give away too much) the colorful, warm and empathetic ending which is analogous to what life really arises to.

I saw this film as part of the Ghent filmfestival 2011. The announcement reminded me vaguely of All Your Dead Ones (Carlos Moreno, 2011), where local politicians take advantage of a mysterious phenomenon in their village, and use it for their own purposes. In other words, satire is intentional. This seems the case in this film too. Several dignitaries make their appearance, being their pompous selves. Bystanders like us cannot take them too seriously. We can only wait for their house of cards to collapse in the end. Contrary to aforementioned All Your Dead Ones, the basic idea is not exploited fully here, rather the opposite. I can imagine, however, that the underlying book did a better job (assuming here).All in all, the 110 minutes that this film takes, are not well spent. The idea is nice, but it deserves a much better script. In spite of all the effort put in landscapes, props and mass scenes, there is not enough interesting material to keep our attention span all the time. And as far as casting and acting is concerned, satire fails here big time with a majority of personages that are not believable, due to over-acting or being too one-dimensional. The only thing I could do when leaving the theater was scoring a 1 (lowest) for the audience award. Needless to say that I was disappointed and had expected something different from the given ingredients.