Date: 18 December 2010Time: 12:30pm
Location: GV Europa
Kaki: YT
Rating: 3 stars
Language: Chinese
Synopsis:
Ten year-old Xiang faces a lonely future after his father dies. Just when he thinks he's going to spend his life in the orphanage, his estranged mother shows up. And his life changes forever... A loveless mother, a hateful stepfather, a chilly home. Where's Xiang heading to? He finds comfort in drawing and his work reveals his longing for care and affection. Life is full of hope again when he meets the old school janitor who doesn't show his kindness easily and a portly man who has crazy ideas and is haunted with nightmares of his brother. A scary truth is about to be unmasked. Will Xiang be able to depict his own image in the fourth portrait?
Review:
The whole movie is a rather lackadisical movie, self indulgent in the filming (not that it's not nice, it's just indulgent), with the director seemingly more concerned with showing off his skills in filmography, then he is in telling a story. Of course, this is the perogative of an art film and maybe he will even win some awards, since it was fairly well filmed. However, I just get the sense that the movie is trying too hard, and I am not as drawn into the life or story of the "Xiang", as I am staring at the movie as a product in itself and musing to myself throughout the movie, "I wonder if this is what it takes for the director to be a success at the Golden Horse Awards, or Cannes, or Sundance or something.
In any case, even though I had placed the movie synopsis up, it's actually all wrong. :P But I lifted it off the GV website (which ironically, would have misled me, since I watched the movie at GV)... Something along this line would have been more apt:
Ten year-old Xiang faces a lonely future after his father dies. Just when he thinks he's going to spend his life in the orphanage, he meets the old school janitor, a man who despite his gruff exterior, is the only person who cares for Xiang.
That is, until his estranged mother shows up. He is forced to join and intrude into a new family as a stranger - A mother who doesn't love him, a stepfather who resents him and a new stepbrother.
Where's Xiang heading to and where is his real home? Drawing portrait after portrait as his life moves on, his artworks becomes an open book, revealing his grief, his longing for love and for the need to belong.
To add to his troubles, his efforts to settle into his new life is impeded by nightmares of his missing brother. Are his dreams a manifestation of his need to find love, or is his brother trying to tell him something?
With a new found friend, Xiang attempts to find out the truth behind his dreams... Will Xiang be able to depict his own image in the fourth portrait when he finds out the truth, or will the truth kill him?
4 comments:
The borrowed synopsis makes the movie sound like a Harry Potter thing without England and the magic. Eitherway I find the plot a bit flat, somewhat reminding me of Ester, a character of Asa Larsson's book, Black Path. It would take an incredible story telling talent to make that plot fly.
Spill, is the janitor his real father and he is a bastard son?
SyncopatedID
you two crack me up.
@Synco Hahah... NO.. his real dad really died, and the janitor is a man who "identifies" with Xiang as his parents both passed away when he was really young.
@StormBunny nah.. no magic involved, maybe just some ghouls who cannot rest in peace... I wouldn't waste money renting this movie.. haha.
:-) I doubt this movie will ever get to this side of the planet, but even it it does, I'll make sure not to watch it. Then again, there hasn't been much shown on the movies worthy of being watched. Strongly advise you against "The Tourist". Angelina Jolie does "her usual" and the plot is really flat.
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