Oscar's Cinema Journal 2005

It doesn't sound very appealing to me -- static shots, stilted relationships, lectures on history and culture, people babbling in unmatched tongues, travelogues of places one's already been -- and I don't know about Malkovitch (sometimes I love him and sometimes I hate him) but it would probably be fun to see Irene Pappas, Catherine Deneuve, and Stefania Sandrinelli in the same picture. Your description would be helpful for any viewer -- symbolism, literary allusions -- but I still don't quite get why you like it so much. In your enthusiasm, you may have overlooked explaining what you think makes it so good.

I haven't come across words like "lectures" and "static" in a few reviews of Un Filme Falado that I've read. The coments you paraphrase probably come from a reviewer from my "must avoid" list. The film brings forth very timely and provocative commentary on contemporary issues, although I'd agree that one learns quite a bit about certain historical events, and how history and legend are intertwined. This is presented colloquially via conversations involving Rosa and a variety of characters, including her daughter, not in the form of dry lectures.
You seem unusually predisposed against the film. Given our three year "track record", I'd bet that you're likely to find that a film I love is worth 92 minutes of your time. Watch it, mon ami!

Thursday June 23rd

Buongiorno, Notte (Italy, 2003) on PAL dvd (UK)
http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/show...1431#post11431

Same Rage, Same Spring (Italy, 2003)
This documentary directed by Stefano Incerti tries to cover too much material for its 66 minutes. It's a biography of Marco Bellocchio, a survey of his major themes (Family, Catholicism, Leftist politics) with too-brief clips of many films he's directed, a history of politics of the left in Italy since WWII, and a bit about the making of Buongiorno, Notte. None of these topics gets its due treatment. For instance, there's absolutely no discussion about how Notte mixes fact and fiction, or the process of adaptation from novel to film.

I was just trying to prod you into presenting a more complete review of the film that would explain its value more than just describe its contents. My phrases were not from reviewers, though I admit I consulted the Voice review by Dennis Lim which was quite admiring and didn't use these phrases; they were just my extrapolations from his and your descriptions. As you know I enormously respect and admire your dedication to the movies and find much in common with you as a person, but we can't always like the same film. However of course if I come across this one, I'll rent it.

Sometimes one's very enthusiasm gets in the way of recommending a movie to others, since to convince people one needs a cool head. Since you said right away "Just rent it!" it was clear that you were in that importunate mode, which sad to say can have a negative effect. I had a friend who did that all the time. She would practically order her friends to read a certain book. Sometimes she might even send out copies. After a while I stopped taking her seriously. Her importunate approach was annoying. She did nothing to recommend a book by insisting that one had to read it. Why? ONe must describe the book or the film in a way that is so appealing that other people want to read or see it and feel they are discovering its merits for themselves not as a result of badgering.

Sorry the Bellocchio doc isn't up to snuff. I liked Buongiorno, notte quite a lot and might enjoy a good discussion of it.

*Most critics showed admiration towards Un Filme Falado and most films directed by Manoel de Oliveira. He has a new one out called The Fifth Empire. I hope we get a chance to watch it soon. I liked Falado at least as much as any of the ten or so of Oliveira I've had the pleasure of watching. I think I've demonstrated I have a "cool head" and a discriminating eye, to the point of seeming dry and neutral. I can't help but feel very enthusiastic in my support of Falado, although I recognize it's not for everyone.
*I posted on some films I watched at the 9th Brazilian Film Festival in previous entries, including the short The Chess of Colors which was picked as Best Short by the audience, and the feature The Owner of the Story, which was picked as Best Film by both the audience and critics. The jury selected that film's star Marieta Severo as Best Actress but gave the Best Film award to Time Doesn't Stop, a biopic of Cazuza, a pop star who died of AIDS at the age of 32. If you read my comments regarding The Owner of the Story, you know I liked it very much and still do but, ironically, I've come to realize since my post that the film is more than a bit predictable because the protagonist's husband is too close to ideal for her to seriously consider divorcing him. The film needs a bit more of an "edge" to truly shine.

Friday June 24th

The Tunnel (Germany, 2001) at the Cosford Cinema
Widescreen but made-for-TV feature directed with great skill by Roland Richter is finally being released theatrically in the US after winning a number of audience awards at film festivals. A proven crowd-pleaser, also evidenced by the fact that 80% of IMdb voters rate it "8" or higher. It's a story about the most remarkable of all the attemped escapes via tunnel from communist East Germany. The most prominent characters include swimming champion Harry Melchior, who spent four years in jail prior to his escape to the west and dreams of liberating his sister; engineer Mathis who managed to escape but left behind his pregnant wife, and a plucky girl named Lotte who wants to help her boyfriend escape. The Tunnel is a triumph of old-fashioned storytelling, a movie-movie full of suspense and intrigue which finds a perfect balance between the logistics of secretely building a long tunnel into East Germany and the human angle involving a large number of personalities. The Tunnel could have been made two decades ago, there's nothing ground-breaking about its technique or its approach to the subject. But it's very exciting and moving and feels shorter than its 157 minutes. I know of at least two similarly themed movies, the made-for-TV Berlin Tunnel 21 and Robert Siodmark's Escape from East Berlin, but I haven't seen them.

It's All True (USA, 1993) on dvd
Two-part documentary. The first 33 minutes relate the story of the making of a documentary on Latin America directed by Orson Welles and commissioned by the US government as part of the anti-Nazi "Good Neighbor Policy", and the unmaking of it by the new cast of execs at RKO studios, who pulled the plug on the project, and the dictatorial government of President Vargas. Welles was supposed to make an amiable, touristy doc on the Carnival and he shot plenty of Carnival footage but found that the roots of the samba where in the favelas, amongst its poor, mostly black, voodoo-practicing inhabitants. He also turned his attention towards political activism on the part of fishermen from the Northeast and more specifically, four fishermen's 1000-mile journey by raft from their village to Rio to dramatize their plight. The second part of It's All True is called Four Men On a Raft, a recreation of that journey. The footage of this segment was found complete in a warehouse, missing only Welles's planned narration. Directors Richard Wilson, Myron Meisel and Bill Krohn wisely opted to eschew narration and add a musical score heavy on Brazilian drumming to the silent footage. The images filmed by Welles are characteristically gorgeous in terms of composition and camera angles; the footage has been restored to pristine form. He has documented the daily life of the jangadeiros, their extreme courage and dignity, and the perilous nature of the navigation feat that won them the admiration of all Brazilians.

Quote:

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*Most critics showed admiration towards Un Filme Falado and most films directed by Manoel de Oliveira.

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I can see that the film did do well critically. I can't argue with you about Um filme falado when I haven't even seen it. I only said that it doesn't sound as if I'd like it. It sounds dry, and Rosenbaum, whom you quote, says that though it has a Bunuelean stinger in its tale, it seems naive and archaic at first. And that's all he says about it. Your suggestion that I may have to see ten of his films to get to the point of appreciating this one is also off-putting, don't you think? Rosenbaum -- I listen to him -- says of the 20 films Oliviera has made since he turned 70 "some of them [are] masterpieces and some just mannerist curiosities." Am I expected to watch those too?

I don't want to be a party-pooper, only to show that even films that you are wildly enthusiastic about are not guaranteed to appeal to me, no matter how much I admire your taste. I notice that recently when Rosenbaum said a film was "worthless," he explained that he meant for him. He found Mr. and Mrs. Smith was "worthless." But it wasn't "worthless" for me. It was "worth seeing," or "had a redeeming facet." Anyway most of the way through it was fun. Isn't it terrible that given a choice, I might opt for Mr. and Mrs. Smith rather than "Um filme falado"? But such is undoubtedly the case. Unless I were with you, in which case I might get talked into seeing the Portuguese geezer's film. I notice the IMDb viewers' comments are distinctly mixed, and many very negative. I think it looks like you may have gone a bit overboard on this one, and a lot of people even in the film buff communitity might not go with you, despite the "generally favorable" reviws (MetaCritic: 75% critics; 7.5 viewers). I will definitely reserve judgment. If I can find it, I'll watch it, but I have to admit to being very sceptical.

My website reviews still down; hopefully to be restored next week.

Good luck restoring your website, CK. Don't get how you figure I'm suggesting you "may have to see ten of his films to get to the point of appreciating" Um Filme Falado. To clarify, I've seen a bunch and liked them and none is better than Falado. I'll add to that: I am a huge fan of his Abraham's Valley, also starring Leonor Silveira, and found Falado easier to "access" and perhaps more relevant (though not necessaily "better" than the newer picture). I'd be the first to recognize these are subjective opinions and that it'd be entirely possible for you to hate the shit out of it. I wouldn't bet on that though.
My quote of Rosenbaum is limited strictly to the wonderful way he describes the ending, which says nothing about whether he liked it or not. I couldn't find a better way to characterize the ending without "spoiling" it.
My decision not to watch Smith is entirely based on my hating every second of its trailer. Slick, sarcastic and bombastic.

Saturday June 25th

My Summer of Love (UK, 2004) at Regal SoBe

Pawel Pawlikowski tossed out the subplots from the novel by Helen Cross to focus on the intense friendship between two girls in West Yorkshire, Scotland. We first witness Mona (Natalie Press) wandering around the countryside on an engine-less Honda bike and having a joyless fling with a married man. She's restless, bored and lonely. Mona lives with her ex-con brother Phil above their late mother's pub. He's come out of jail "born-again", with plans to turn the pub into a meeting hall for evangelicals and make a believer out of Mona. She's a lot more interested in Tamsin (Emily Blunt), a brunette home from boarding school for the summer. Both girls are isolated and grieving the death of a close relative, but that's where the simmilarities end. Unlike Mona, Tamsin is rich, sophisticated, cultured, and deceitful.

My Summer of Love has a naturalistic look, with its shallow focus and somewhat grainy film stock. The camera moves hesitantly, at one point peering reticently behind rocks when the girls share a kiss. It reminded me of the films of Lynn Ramsey. Content-wise, the film is strongly reminiscent of Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures in its ability to allow the viewer entry into the self-contained, hermetic universe created by Mona and Tamsin. It's a fascinating place to visit. Pawlikowski, Press and Blunt have created depictions of female adolescence full of whimsy, mystery and menace.

That's a good response. I won't bug you any more about Um Filme Falado. If I find it I'll watch it.

Especially when we love a movie we want to dec lare it absolutely great, for everyone, no exceptions. I think if we know something about film as you certainlyl do and write astute descriptions and evaluations of them as you certainly do, we aren't just giving an opinion that's no better than the guy who goes to a movie because it's showing when he gets to the cineplex and two days later can't remember what it was called. But nonetheless we can never determine another person's reaction.

I agree, we can never predict how anyone will react to any movie. BTW, I'm wondering if you've written anything about Buongiorno, Notte. You seem to have liked it more than I did. I'd enjoy reading your take on it.

Sunday June 26th

To Have and Have Not (USA, 1944) on dvd
This movie is an obvious response to the success of Casablanca and at least one critic, Dave Kehr, thinks it's a better movie. Both star Bogie as an smart-alecky, self-serving American keeping his nobility and generosity hidden while ecking a living in an exotic, Vichy-controlled location. The plots of both films have him taking risks to help Free-France activists escape. Both spend a great deal of screen time in a musical bars where a well-known pianist commands attention. Both films show Bogie involved romantically, the 19 year-old Lauren Bacall in her screen debut is Ingrid Bergman's match. Both films include lines of dialogue that heve become legendary ("You know how to whistle, don't you? Just put your lips together and blow" wrote Faulkner for Bacall). To Have and Have Not was directed by Howard Hawks, a great director who excelled in several movie genres and inarguably a better director than Casablanca's Michael Curtiz. But I'll take Casablanca over To Have and Have Not. Two reasons having to do mostly with plot: To Have doesn't have a Victor Laszlo, an admirable, handsome rival for Bogie. There's never any doubt he and Bacall will end up happy together. I prefer Casablanca's bittersweet resolution. Oh, and Bogie and Bacall "never had Paris" (though in real life they reportedly had many years of marital bliss).

The Patsy (USA, 1928) on TCM
Marion Davies's notorious lover William Randolph Hearst forced her into signing and acting in stuffy costume dramas, but King Vidor recognized her talents were exclusively comedic. Vidor cast her in romantic comedies like Show People and The Patsy in which Davies displays her considerable charm and talent for mimicry and pantomime. She is delightful here as a vivacious girl in love with her spoiled sister's boyfriend who has to contend with a domineering, nagging mom who disapproves of her.

Good comparison of To Have and Have Not and Casablanca.

No, I haven't gotten around to writing anything at all so far on Buongiorno, notte. It's complicated to write about, given the Italian political history of the Red Brigades and Aldo Moro, which people here wouldn't remember much about. I found a good summary of the events online here:
http://www.uwgb.edu/galta/333/moro.htm
I saw it without subtitles, and it isn't showing here, so I passed on it. But I did enjoy it for its special feel, its intimacy, etc. Sorry you didn't like it. I haven't written anything about Wong Kar Wai's 2046 either, another film I saw only on DVD, but I will do that one I expect when it comes out in this country, which I saw is not too far off now.

My website movie reviews are supposed to get restored some time today.

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
No, I haven't gotten around to writing anything at all so far on Buongiorno, notte. Sorry you didn't like it.
I liked it. What I wrote is: "you seem to have liked it more than I did" because I remember you wrote elsewhere that you liked it "a lot". I posted my specific comments on the film's thread and provided a link to it. See above.

Monday June 27

Howl's Moving Castle (Japan, 2004) at Sunset Place Regal
Watched the dubbed version, can't wait to watch it again in original Japanese. http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/show...1483#post11483

Five Easy Pieces (USA, 1970) on dvd
Bob Rafelson's film starring Jack Nicholson was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars but it lost them all to Patton. The New York Film Critics Circle weren't so foolish. Basically a remarkable character study intimately attuned to its time and place. Nicholson's Robert Eroica Duprea is a man who has turned his back on his upper crust relatives and his past as a classical pianist and transformed himself into an oil rig worker with a decidedly working class lifestyle. Almost by accident, he learns his father's had two stokes and decides to visit for the first time in three years. No matter where he is or who he chooses to be, Duprea's sense of isolation and alienation is ever present. Amazing performances by Nicholson and Karen Black as his sweet and clingy girlfriend. Ace cinematography by Laszlo Kovacs. See it often.

I have pretty much decided not to see Howl's Living Castle. The person I go to movies with most often doesn't want to see it. Another friend invited me tonight, but I passed. Japanese friends have said it's not Miyazaki at his best, that it may be done by his workshop more than by him, and that the story's silly. I didn't even like the previous one that was supposed to be so great. So, not for me.

Okay, let me go over what you wrote about Buongiorno, notte.

Quote:

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The film barely makes this clear, as a matter of fact, there is scant exposition of the political context and little analysis beyond laying bare the naivette of the Brigadistas, their almost psychotic break from political/social reality.

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This seems to me the wrong approach. First of all, the film is not judgmental; it just dramatizes the kidnapping of Aldo Moro from the inside. You seem to be expecting a lot of analysis or exposition, which simply isn't there. It doesn't seek to "lay bare" anything but to take us into an extraordinary experience all Italy witnessed from the outside, but this time from the inside. It's a bit like if we were to see September 11th presented entirely from the point of view of the 13 or so men who hijacked the planes. My feeling when I saw this movie was that it was very sensitive and original in its approach, but that it wouldn't work well in this country. Surely many Italians might hate it, but they would know the background and not require exposition of events that at least anyone over forty would have an incestuous familiarity with.

Otherwise, since you say this is "An extremely good drama, well devised, constructed and edited," there's not much to disagree with except that you find it comes up short, despite this glowing set of adjectives. You and trevor seem both to have used the rather dry phrase "good drama" but trevoer calls it "the best modern Italian film I've seen for quite a while." You are displeased at the various extraneous, perhaps confusing, background clips; are unmoved by the loud rock music with many especially Italians have praised and which I would consider essential to the dreamlike intensity of the experience the movie takes us into; and you didn't like the Pope's "hissy fit." I'm not sure whether this is because you don't think popes have hissy fits or because this particular hissy fit didn't seem believable to you here. I would grant you that this is not a perfect movie and not every moment is equally convincing or even integral; but: see below.

I can only say that the experience that the movie provides seems to me an extremely original and absorbing one, and I gave myself up to it, not expecting necessarily to understand anything but rather just to feel things, to be absorbed into an experience. In that way Buongiorno, notte is quite remarkable. As an exposition of either the whole Aldo Moro incident, of the Red Brigades, or of what you call the "psychotic break", i.e., the usual hysteria of entremists confined in an insane situation of their own devising, I don't think it works, except maybe later, in retrospect, not on first viewing. What it does and does in an unusual degree and in a quite original style is take us into another world outside our own imagination or understanding.

I guess this means you liked it but I liked it more; I don't know. I only like it more by not applying the rational methods you have applied. I simply suspended them. It's an arbitrary gesture on my part, but seemed quite appropriate for this movie.

Five Easy Pieces is one of the early Seventies movies that holds up really, really well as a classic, and it shows you what Jack Nicholson had as an actor before he became wild Jack, the comedy king. It was also produced by the only guy I knew from college who went on to do something significant in Hollywood, Richard Wechsler. We were in the same fraternity and he knew he was destined to go into films and he was someone special, from the first moment I met him.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Chris Knipp
I have pretty much decided not to see Howl's Living Castle. I didn't even like the previous one that was supposed to be so great. So, not for me.

Makes sense. Actually, I'll venture to say that if you didn't like Spirited Away, perhaps you should steer clear of anime in general.

Buongiorno, notte. you say this is "An extremely good drama, well devised, constructed and edited,"

Trevor826 wrote that. Basically I recommend the film because of the depiction of the female brigadista's moral dilemma and Aldo Moro's coming to terms with the realization that he is going to be killed. Other than that, the idea the film reinforces repeatedly in several conversations between brigadistas is their naive expectation that most working-class Italians and practically all PCI (Italian Comm. Party) members would support the kidnapping of Moro which would force the government to release the political prisoners. One scene in particular dramatizes this, when the kidnappers are horrified by a TV broadcast of a huge PCI rally denouncing the kidnapping. Several scenes not taking place inside the apartment, and not included in the source novel "Il Prigioniero[/i], are the weakest, in my opinion of course, as is the sketchy characterization of Chiara's comrades.

Tuesday June 28th

Batman Begins at Sunset Place Regal
http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/show...1492#post11492

Europa '51 (Italy, 1952) on TCM
I became extremely interested in this film written and directed by Roberto Rossellini after watching several clips from it on Martin Scorsese's brilliant My Voyage to Italy. This doc is the best introduction to Italian Neo-realism one can imagine. A dubbed version of Europa '51 was shown last night on TCM. I know it's not the ideal version but it's the only one available and Ingrid Bergman dubs herself. Bergman, who was married at the time to Rossellini, plays an Italian American married to a corporate executive and mother to a spoiled, dependent 12 year old boy. Her frivolous bourgeoise existence is interrupted by her son's death, which causes her extreme guilt. After a period of depression, she draws closer to a communist cousin and becomes conscious of the suffering of others. She begins to devote all her energy, time and resources to help the poor, including drunks, prostitutes and petty thieves. After a while, her family including her husband, her priest and her doctor begin to think of her behavior as a sign of mental illness. This film is a must-see. I hope the original, Italian-language version becomes available on dvd someday.

The Diary of an Unknown Soldier (UK, 1959) on PAL dvd
The Forgotten Faces (UK, 1961)

Is there a filmmaker in the world that deserves to be called a "political director" more than 69 year old Peter Watkins? There's Pontecorvo of course, but he hasn't managed to make a film of any consequence since 1979, and that American institution called Frederick Wiseman. Watkins got his skills refined working as an assistant director on BBC documentaries and these early shorts show him to have reached artistic maturity quite rapidly. Watkins' specialty seems to be to make movies that look like cinema verite, they look like footage of actual events when they are in fact recreations of events using non-actors and unknown actors.
Unknown Soldier shows the experience of a British soldier in World War I, with particular attention to the myriad sensations experienced by the soldier, while providing a voice-over to give us access to his thoughts as he prepares for battle.
The Forgotten Faces are those of Hungarians of different types united by their desire to free themselves of Soviet oppression during the fall of 1956. 20,000 Hungarians died in the aftermath of a democratic revolution that succeeded for four days. The Forgotten Faces is particularly influenced by Eisenstein, in its use of quick-cut editing techniques and montages of facial close-ups.

*I do steer clear of anime in general. I got my fill of it in the late Eighties.

*I know I was getting your and trevor's comments on Buongiorno, notte confused a bit. In some ways they seemed to overlap, but you might disagree.

*I'm sorry you didn't respond to the movie as a whole. You seem to be isolating parts of it. Certainly in a full and detailed discussion one would have to do that. There are many issues to discuss. Ultimately one must be analytical. But in a brief discussion aimed at describing how one rates the movie, for me it should be primarily treated as a unified cinematic experience, not a rational one, but an emotional one, though also one which has Chiara as our intermediary, because she has doubts, so she is neither quite with us nor quite with the kidnappers. It is just the feeling of being there in that apartment, the feeling of Moro being just inside the room where he's held, the world being outside... That's where the film works for me, and for the film's ideal audience. And Maya Sansa is great. I'm sure you grant that.

I can't speak for you but I think the real reason the American critics are lukewarm about Buongiorno, notte is not any of the specific reasons they give but simply the fact that they don't bring enough emotional focus to a viewing of the work, because it's not about an event that they can relate to as the Italian audience can. That doesn't rule out individuals responding powerfully to it as I seem to do, but it does suggest as I have thought all along that this is not a movie that translates well for an American audience in particular.

It seems to me that despite the various specific points you have mentioned, such as the communist rally condemning the kidnapping and the moral doubt of Chiara, the overall approach of Bellocchio is to treat the kidnapping as an irrational event, not one that can be analyzed by the kidnapper. And since we are seeing it from their point of view, it cannot be analyzed by us either. This certainly gibes with the way the majority of Italians view the events, but it treats the brigadisti as if they are irrational, whereas from their point of view they had arguments for everything that they were doing. So paradoxically despite taking the brigadisti so seriously and getting deeply into their point of view, in a real sense Bellocchio regards them as crazy animals. He wants to have it both ways; hence his focus on Chiara as the central character. But this doesn't bother me; on the contrary it's why the movie works so well.

Anyway you seem to question the movie on many points whereas I tend to take it as it is, as a powerful experience. But if you break it down and analyze it, you aren't taking it that way, so it doesn't really work as well for you as it does for me.

That's quite fair. Looks like we both understand where our opinions converge and where our individual approaches differ. I'll assume you are right about American crits being "lukewarm" about it, as I have not read any reviews of Buongiorno. I like the picture enough to wish Wellspring Media, which owns the rights, releases it in US theatres.

Wed. June 29th

Punishment Park (USA, 1971) on PAL dvd (French)
Peter Watkins's most controversial faux-documentary is an American production, shot in California, and withdrawn from distribution after a four-day run at a small theatre in Manhattan. The Village Voice gave it a glowing review and Rolling Stone named it one of the Top 10 films of 1971. Mainstream press reviews called it "paranoid, leftist propaganda" or words to that effect, although often they recognized its technical brilliance. Punishment Park is closer to fiction than anything Watkins has done, but the style of it is pure documentary. My attempt to describe the plot:
There's massive protest following Nixon's bombing campaign on Cambodia. Nixon activates the McCorran Act authorizing the Feds to detain persons judged to be "a risk to national security". In a Californian desert, not far from tents where a civilian tribunal are passing sentence on Group 638, the members of Group 637 find themselves in a "punishment park". They've chosen to participate in a "game" as an alternative to confinement in a penitentiary. They've been promised liberty if they evade pursuing officers and reach an American flag posted 52 miles away across the mountains, within three days. Not long into the "game", the group splits into three factions depending on their different reactions to the ordeal.
Meanwhile, in the tribunal tent, Group 638 members endeavor in vain to argue their case for resisting the war in Vietnam.
The film that we watch is supposed to be shot by British and German TV crews who are being allowed by the government to cover these events. Every single second of Punishment Park feels like news footage, the acting is absolutely superb. Punishment Park may have felt like a relic if viewed last decade, but in 2005, it's as timely as it ever was. A vital, political horror film.

Purple Butterfly (China, 2003) on dvd.
Suzhou River, writer/director Lou Ye's last film, is a monumental achievement. I was conscious not to impose such high expectations on Purple Butterfly but I cannot help but feel disappointed by it. Butterfly is definitely worth watching for its cinematic daring and its depiction of Japan's occupation of China during the late 20s and 30s, but it disappoints as a narrative film. I admire Lou Ye's long athmospheric scenes and minimal use of dialogue. The problem is that the visuals often fail to carry the narrative, or take the place of dialogue. For the first, silent nine minutes, we know nothing about the young man and woman seen strolling together. At minute ten, we see Ziyi Zhang crying as a train leaves the station with the young man. She visits her brother and we learn her name is Cynthia and that the young man (Itami) is returning to Japan. How Itami feels about Cynthia, which figures prominently upon their reunification 9 years later, never registers. Then Cynthia's brother is killed by a pro-Japanese suicide bomber, and we are introduced to an entirely new mixed couple. But we still know nothing about Itami and little about Cynthia. The film eventually settles into a confrontation between Itami as head of Japanese intelligence and Cynthia as member of the resistance group Purple Butterfly in 1937 Shanghai, but the character of Itami remains too shrouded in mystery to care deeply about the resolution. By then though, we are sufficiently engaged by the plot (which eventually involves a number of characters on both sides) to make it watchable. Particularly so if you enjoy images for their own sake; most notably for me, scenes of couples observed up close by a camera that goes in and out of focus.