rosenbaum is fine, i just stopped caring
― JEFF 22 (Matt P), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:33 (ten years ago) link
he retired
― Chinese Taipei (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:34 (ten years ago) link
oh yeah
― JEFF 22 (Matt P), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:35 (ten years ago) link
supreme film critic but i seldom read him now because.......it's on a blog
― Chinese Taipei (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:35 (ten years ago) link
his reader archive (along with camper and to some degree kehr) was my most important formative influence wrt film as a teenager
― Chinese Taipei (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:36 (ten years ago) link
he's the only film critic I'd say I trust. had my david thompson phase but now I regard him as more a very talkative fellow fan
― check yr poptimism (imago), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:37 (ten years ago) link
my mavenhood is limited to a very few topics, at least within an ILX context. probably only cricket
― check yr poptimism (imago), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:44 (ten years ago) link
and pizza
― check yr poptimism (imago), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:47 (ten years ago) link
you have a good work ethicyou could be a chinese contemporary cinema maven in maybe a fortnight of reasonably dedicated study
― Chinese Taipei (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:49 (ten years ago) link
i will be posting a trite opinion about the importance of 'springtime in a small town' on the 21st of october and i fully expect it to be given short shrift
― Chinese Taipei (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:50 (ten years ago) link
haha it's a thought
really though I have to be maven of my writing. I will however pledge to only watch contemporary Chinese movies for the next 6 months (at home - I want to see Gravity)
― check yr poptimism (imago), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:50 (ten years ago) link
good - we could use some contrary challopsing in the gravity thread
― 乒乓, Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:52 (ten years ago) link
oh I plan to like it
― check yr poptimism (imago), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:53 (ten years ago) link
oh wait that's clearly a sign that there's alREADY been some *crazy challopsing* well this is ILX ffs of course, I'd be sad if there wasn't
― check yr poptimism (imago), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:57 (ten years ago) link
no... i was playing it straight. the only challopsing has been by the croup and he hasn't even seen it yet
― 乒乓, Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:58 (ten years ago) link
sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssspoilerssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
very interesting, schlump!
yeah, the guy in the intro - dahai. i didn't think to reexamine the opening after knowing the denouement of his segment, but: a heavy static of the potential overlays that first scene. a truck of tomato cartons, overturned - he has plucked but one - sitting on his motorcycle, unsure of what to do. meanwhile the other guy arrives, takes measure, wends his way through, is on his way again. i don't want to draw out the obvious symbolism here but, classmates with the coal mine boss, two lives weighted differently, one ascendant, the other...flat. the story portrayed in the first segment rang the most true to me, even if its irruption into violence felt the most fantastical, wish-fulfillment out of the stories. from here i'm just gonna bullet point some stuff that i took note of while watching;
― 乒乓, Thursday, 10 October 2013 00:33 (ten years ago) link
apparently this movie has been cleared for release in the mainland. i'm surprised, but given the current culture of anti-corruption, maybe the party thinks it's good for people to ruminate on these matters.
― 乒乓, Thursday, 10 October 2013 00:34 (ten years ago) link
Sort've talked about Jia Zhangke yesterday with Han Jie, though more about Hello, Mr. Tree. Still need to see this after missing it at the film festival, bleh.
― etc, Thursday, 10 October 2013 00:37 (ten years ago) link
Just wanted to say, that I'm very much looking forward to seeing this film whenever that will be (probably next spring), that I'll be watching Platform on youtube as well and thanks for the link, and that A Touch of Zen is awesome, especially the final part. That is all.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 10 October 2013 01:05 (ten years ago) link
― 乒乓, Wednesday, October 9, 2013 8:34 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark
dargis' review reminded me of the scene in the hostess club where all the girls are wearing sexy halloween red army costumes - again, surprised that this is being released domestically!
― 乒乓, Thursday, 10 October 2013 20:00 (ten years ago) link
this is prob my movie of the year
― socki (s1ocki), Thursday, 10 October 2013 20:14 (ten years ago) link
http://25.media.tumblr.com/6fc7d1815d988297321249b7187fc8c8/tumblr_muubfyn7zf1ryzchqo1_r1_500.png
apparently jia loves putting john woo on small screens in his movies!
― 乒乓, Friday, 18 October 2013 02:06 (ten years ago) link
at first I wasn't sure if the violent conclusions to each story really worked, but thinking back, having this pattern in the back of my head for most of the movie really gave the it this powerful sense of dread and I found the fatalism of it all really moving at times
― original bgm, Friday, 18 October 2013 04:06 (ten years ago) link
http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/18/q-a-jia-zhangke-on-his-new-film-a-touch-of-sin/?_r=0
― 乒乓, Saturday, 19 October 2013 14:19 (ten years ago) link
Actually I had been preparing to make a martial arts film since 2007, a real martial arts film. It doesn’t have an English title yet. In Chinese it’s called “In the Qing Dynasty” (在清朝). It deals with the period from 1895 to 1905. The reason I wanted to film this period is because this is when China’s transformation began. And that transformation has continued up to now. It hasn’t stopped.
interesting - WKW covered a time period right after this in the grandmaster. the grandmaster can be seen as a critique of china's creation myth, i think, and it's interesting to see jia explicitly say the same about his movie.
― 乒乓, Saturday, 19 October 2013 14:23 (ten years ago) link
i've been thinking about the scene with dahai at the post office - it's really quite perfect. dahai is exposed as a naïf, who has bought into the party propaganda that justice will be dispensed swiftly and certainly from 中南海 (the equivalent of the capitol building in DC, i think.) so he just tells the postal clerk, send it there! and while it's not surprising that she rebuffs him, i kind of feel that if dahai had been, say, the factory owner, the postal clerk would have known how to send the letter, would have found a way.
― 乒乓, Saturday, 19 October 2013 14:28 (ten years ago) link
will work 4 karag4rg invite
― cozen, Saturday, 19 October 2013 14:35 (ten years ago) link
i guess what i want to say is that, with chinese nationalism being what it is, it wouldn't exactly be ludicrous to expect that every postal clerk in the country would know how to send a letter to 中南海. it's a little bit like how every post office in america will accept letters to santa claus, with a wink.
― 乒乓, Saturday, 19 October 2013 15:21 (ten years ago) link
― 乒乓, Saturday, October 19, 2013 10:28 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
interesting
― socki (s1ocki), Saturday, 19 October 2013 17:04 (ten years ago) link
http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/q-a-jia-zhangke-on-his-new-film-a-touch-of-sin-part-2/?_r=0
Q.You’ll be at the New York Film Festival at the end of September. Are you looking forward to it?A.It has a big Chinatown, and I’m looking forward to going there. The first thing is always to find a Chinatown. Then you can have a great Chinese meal. [laughs]
A.It has a big Chinatown, and I’m looking forward to going there. The first thing is always to find a Chinatown. Then you can have a great Chinese meal. [laughs]
HEll Yeah
― 乒乓, Monday, 21 October 2013 12:44 (ten years ago) link
i did a little bit more digging and so yeah, snakes in chinese are a pretty standard trope for seductresses. or at least can be. i'm not familiar enough with wuxia films to know how jia is playing off that symbolism. see also the shot where the camera pans to the cloth w/ the tiger print, and you hear the tiger roar.
― 乒乓, Monday, 21 October 2013 12:48 (ten years ago) link
Really unexpected move by Jia (though I had been tipped even just skimming reviews) ... still 'documentary' elements aren't *entirely* absent I thought, just in comparison to what he'd been doing.
I knew this was episodic going in, but not sure if they were gonna overlap; so I was glad when we reached the end of Dahai's spree. For a bit.
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Monday, 11 November 2013 15:57 (ten years ago) link
For several months it has been pegged as being set to receive a (domestic) theatrical release in November, but still a more specific date has still not been set.
Now reports are emerging that the Chinese authorities have banned local media from reporting on the film or reviewing the picture, which claimed the best screenplay award at Cannes, where it played in competition.
http://variety.com/2013/film/news/silence-surrounds-jia-zhangkes-sin-1200853839/
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 19 November 2013 16:18 (ten years ago) link
i can see blue valentine 10+ times in manhattan today, and touch of sin once, at 1.40 in the afternoon.
― caek, Thursday, 21 November 2013 21:02 (ten years ago) link
yes and it's the last day, which is why i follow what's exiting theaters with great paranoia.
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 21 November 2013 21:15 (ten years ago) link
http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/06/taiwan-may-miss-out-on-jia-zhangkes-a-touch-of-sin/?_r=0
Everything seems fishy
― 乒乓, Friday, 6 December 2013 12:21 (ten years ago) link
what's fishy about the taiwan situation? i think it's, 1) a case of it just not being that big of a movie compared to what else is on the quota list and the quota longlist. there must be some goofy romantic comedies on the list but also drug war,《毒战》 and the grandmaster/《一代宗师》). 2) maybe a little bit about responding to cultural sector grumbling about mainland cultural influence. the last two years that mainland films won golden horse awards, let the bullets fly/《让子弹飞》 in 2011 and beijing blues/《神探亨特张》 in 2012, there was lots of handwringing, if that's the right word, about mainland films winning taiwanese awards and the brutish machinery of the mainland film industry overrunning taiwan.
even if it doesn't screen, i don't think it's a huge deal. on the other hand, it's never ever ever getting a legit mainland release. i feel like xi jinping or someone else near the top had a moment with this film something like deng xiaoping seeing unrequited love/《苦练》 for the first time.
― dylannn, Tuesday, 10 December 2013 11:12 (ten years ago) link
Wasn't talking about the quota, I was referring to the fact that Jia writes that he can't go for "personal, insurmountable reasons" right around the same time that it's looking like the permission to release A Touch of Sin in the mainland is being revoked
Come on man, that stinks
Your points 1) and 2) are diametrically opposed, if Taiwan really was concerned about mainland brute clout cultural hegemony surely they'd shortlist smaller, more independent productions like A Touch of Sin over lamestream trash like American Dreams in China and Back to 1942
But the quota isn't set with regards to concerns about commercial appeal, the whole process is done through a lottery, if it was about commercial appeal films like Lost in Thailand and So Young would have already received widespread Taiwan releases
Drug War and the Grandmaster have already been released in Taiwan this year, bro
― 乒乓, Tuesday, 10 December 2013 12:29 (ten years ago) link
right, the fact that he suddenly can't go is strange. is your feeling that jia is a smart operator that plays the game just as much as is necessary to keep making pictures (pulling his documentary from melbourne, for example) or that he's got no choice?
and i see what you're saying about taiwan. i guess i'd like to slim my argument down to just saying that a touch of sin might be on the radar of the nytimes but isn't a huge deal to taiwanese cinemagoers compared to other bigger films coming from the mainland.
― dylannn, Tuesday, 10 December 2013 22:59 (ten years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/LPcuSwz.jpg
― 乒乓, Thursday, 19 December 2013 13:29 (ten years ago) link
-- seeing wang baoqiang who i can't help but associate with his xu sanduo forrest gump soldier role/going to thailand being in love with fan bingbing and making her scallion cakes role/shilling for instant noodles and cold medication every commercial break on cctv wasting those motherfuckers on the road was a good shock.
― dylannn, Wednesday, 29 January 2014 10:07 (ten years ago) link
i think the first chapter with dahai battling the maserati coal boss in shanxi (spending the last two months in shanxi made that chapter hit even harder) was clearly directly riffing on lin chong in 《heroes of the marsh》/《all men are brothers》/《the water margin》/, 《水浒传》-- the part of the opera that dahai catches is the part where lin chong is FORCED to kill gao qiu's two thugs... which is what 《水浒传》 is all about: righteous men forced to resort to violence against those in charge because the rules of brotherhood and 江湖 ----The concept of Jianghu can be traced to the 14th century novel Water Margin, in which a band of noble outlaws, who mounted regular sorties in an attempt to right the wrongs of corrupt officials, retreated to their hideout. These bandits were called the Chivalrous men of the Green Forests or 绿林好汉, the "green forest" (绿林, lǜlín) was the antecedent to Jianghu.---- also the lin chong story and other water margin stories aren't just about fighting injustice but about being humiliated (gao qiu's son is trying to fuck lin chong's wife -- dahai is beaten in front of a crowd and given that nickname etc) and the lin chong story hinges on a weapon too.... and it sort of directs the rest of the film toward that novel in particular where good men are forced into violence
whether justified attacks on corrupt leaders that have violated a sort of cosmic REMEMBER THE WATER MARGIN BOYS CAME OUT OF STARS natural righteousness that's destroying the natural world and humans togetherand just chaotic fucked up violence which is also well represented in wuxia literature and the water margin in particular and even the righteous violence can't be controlled and you have a lot of righteous characters inflicting a lot of collateral damage in their quest for justice.
― dylannn, Wednesday, 29 January 2014 10:31 (ten years ago) link
i took a lot of pleasure in watching wang baoqiang shoot people down
― dylannn, Wednesday, 29 January 2014 10:32 (ten years ago) link
I'm actually shocked to find out that Wang Baoqiang is an accomplished actor who's been involved in many big name projects rather than just a farmer plucked from a village
He looks so weedy
― 龜, Wednesday, 29 January 2014 10:34 (ten years ago) link
Never read the Water Margin, am really intrigued by yer post now
I've been reading about lots of land disputes in China that follow the same exact pattern of the shanxi story
Rural land, as we know, is collectively owned by the farmers of the village & use-rights can only be created if the villagers vote on it
The village convinces the farmers that allowing the land to be developed will be beneficial to all, profits will be distributed to all the villagers, jobs will be created and given to the villagers
Magically, all the profit that comes in somehow is retained by the village leaders & the farmers maybe get a carton of cigarettes + black lung
― 龜, Wednesday, 29 January 2014 10:39 (ten years ago) link
omg only just found out that Suikoden is the Japanese translation of "Water Margin", old Playstation RPG makes sense now
― rock nobster (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 29 January 2014 10:41 (ten years ago) link
wang baoqiang is the star of this i think. best performance in the film: puffing lit the cigarettes in the kitchen and paying obeisance to ghosts... raising his pistol to the sky while the village sets off fireworks... the interactions with his son and wife... the ice cold robbery scene....
― dylannn, Wednesday, 29 January 2014 11:05 (ten years ago) link
having seen this now, it's crazy that it was ever even rumored to have a mainland release. a lot of the chinese lang reviews from mainland viewers seem to see it as a direct attack on the party/govt even if they sometimes use slightly euphemistic terms to refer to that direct criticism.... obv that obsession with china (r.i.p. ct hsia) thing--focusing on any work of art produced by a chinese artist as being totally 100% about china and unrelatable to the greater experience of mankind whatever--is not the most interesting way to look at it.
they note in particular the use of the city wall, the yellow plains, eternal symbols of 5000000 years of history blah blah blah and how chinese history seems to be trapped in a cycle of moral decay->violence.
plus how if you view it as a retelling of the water margin... and more than any of the other 4 classics the water margin figured big in communist party romantic views of itself (mao loved it and it must have made good reading while they were hiding out in the caves yanan imagining they were liangshan heroes revolting against a failing empire and its corrupt bureaucracy) and in, like, actual party policy (discussion of the book and its lessons about fighting capitulationists within the party among other lessons were important during the cultural revolution). ...i think the the water margin parallels are obvious and it has an important history of being used to sort of obliquely attack corrupt leadership and affirm the correctness of revolt.
― dylannn, Thursday, 30 January 2014 12:46 (ten years ago) link
http://25.media.tumblr.com/dd86b174efac3f893be3ca3cf76be4d4/tumblr_n0rfecSG6F1r6ivyno1_500.jpg
― caek, Monday, 10 February 2014 14:55 (ten years ago) link
i enjoyed this, but had a hard time reconciling some of the 'genre' elements with jia's more usual 'realistic' mode
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 25 February 2014 13:01 (ten years ago) link
i thought it was just ok
― 龜, Saturday, 13 October 2018 12:23 (five years ago) link
STILL LIFE getting a long-overdue Blu-ray release on December 1st: https://t.co/QDSt0wbJPn— Josh Martin (@MajorHints) October 30, 2020
― On average, this critic grades 8.3 points lower than other critics (Eric H.), Friday, 30 October 2020 01:49 (three years ago) link
I like that post from morbs from two years ago, it's painful to think we will never hear from him in the film threads again
― Dan S, Friday, 30 October 2020 02:11 (three years ago) link
All of Jia’s films are worth watching imo. Ash Is Purest White is the one I love the most, but also A Touch of Sin. Still Life was interesting to me, I didn't really get it at the time and want to see it again. Platform, Unknown Pleasures, The World - all great
― Dan S, Friday, 30 October 2020 02:13 (three years ago) link
I've seen five of his films and heard him speak at a retrospective. My favourite was The World, maybe it had a slightly more hopeful air than the others.
― Halfway there but for you, Friday, 30 October 2020 03:23 (three years ago) link
Our new poster for Jia Zhangke's SWIMMING OUT TILL THE SEA TURNS BLUE. Opens in theaters May 28. Exclusive trailer premiere @hyperallergic. https://t.co/eoheERX6B2 pic.twitter.com/ucK21B0CKq— Cinema Guild (@CinemaGuild) April 27, 2021
― calzino, Tuesday, 4 May 2021 19:15 (three years ago) link
<3
― intern at pepe le pew research (Simon H.), Tuesday, 4 May 2021 22:39 (three years ago) link
Watched A Touch Of Sin tonight and am stilll thinking about it and trying to articulate something more than "it's a grind house version of Ascension. Liked it, did not love it but am willing to change my mind. Mountains May Depart is still the masterpiece.
― Elvis Telecom, Sunday, 24 December 2023 08:06 (six months ago) link