Suzhou River

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Movies in a Long While, but overlooked!
Review: Having followed Mainland Chinese cinema for sometime, I was very eager to view "Suzhou River." I finally did see it, renting it through one of the local Chinese video stores in the area. After the first viewing, I was completely blown away! I was totally mesmerized by the story, the setting, and the characters. If only America could produce such quality movies!

The main plotline revolves around a videographer, a motorcycle courier, and two different young women (who could possibly be the same person). That's all I'll say without revealing any more information...

Many have dubbed this a "Chinese Vertigo," but I feel this in incorrect. The two movies do share some similarities, but they are still different. "Suzhou River" is not exactly like Hitchcock's "Vertigo"; it contains so much more, and for me had much of a greater emotional impact. (Of course being able to understand Mandarin Chinese does help.)

The acting is superb and the story, great. It is very believable as in this could possibly happen in real life. Especially magnificent is the radiant Zhou Xun's performance. An artistically well done film with interesting story telling and Wong Kar-Wai style cinematography that is a must see. It's a shame that people have missed out and overlooked this complex and moving gem of a movie.

Certainly, one of the best movies in the long time, and so much better than almost everything Hollywood is producing these days. Please go out and buy it. You will not be let down.

Rating:
Summary: Full Marks
Review: I can't comment on the subtitle accuracy of the DVD version of this movie. However, I will say that the movie is very nice. It's artistic and well done. The movie has good plot timing, clever camera technique, and good acting. The "fairy tale" nature is well directed, too.

The storyline is very similar to Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, and some believe it's more of a rip than an individual masterpiece. But, there are plenty of individual aspects for the fact that it's set in China. So, while there's a resemblance, the movie is unique.

I saw Suzhou river before Vertigo. Of course Vertigo's a classic. But I now own both.

Rating:
Summary: Nice Cinematography, Predictable and Dissatisfying Story
Review: I had high expectations for this movie based on a recommendation I had obtained from a friend, long ago, and from the glowing reviews present here. I really liked this film, starting out. It had good cinemamotography, an interesting first person-perspective/narration, gritty, urban, dirty Shanghai, as it is in reality.

However, the movie has some glaring problems. First of all, it seems to suffer from a common syndrome I've seen among modern Asian films: simplistic and immature characters that trap themselves in sickly, strange fantasies, probably out of personal defects and a desire to escape their dull lives. I guess this isn't actually that far from reality, for a lot of people, I guess it just gets drab and depressing seeing these types of recurring situations. I'll re-visit this point in a second--first, let me say, that I thought the story was going to have some element of mystery, or be more intriguing than it was..but..nope. That's pretty much it. I don't want to spoil anything, but you'll know what I mean if you see it. So, I guess, this makes sense to an extent, because it is a story being told by a narrator with a shaky camera, giving the film a pseudo-documentary feel to it, but at the end it still feels rather unsatisfying.

But why is it so unsatisfying, as the story progresses? That brings me back to my first point. Apparently this is supposed to be some kind of love story? You are supposed to feel sympathy, for some reason? If this is the effect the director was going for, I can only remark that this is a testament to the gullibility and naivity of his audience. (Warning, spoilers ahead) The courier, Mardar, looks about 30, and semi-dates a girl who looks like she's about 16, is all over him, to a pathetic extent, and then he kidnaps her as part of a ransom plot, so understandably, she's a bit pissed off and jumps from a bridge. Ok, I feel a lot of sympathy for the girl. She got a raw deal.

Then, we cut back to the narrator dating this stripper-mermaid girl, MeiMei, who, from our perspective, mostly just videotapes her, watches her, and makes out with her, oh, and she also just leaves for days without telling him anything. Doesn't sound like the most stable relationship, right? So I guess the apex that we're supposed to marvel at is when Mardar sees MeiMei, thinking that she is really his girl, Moudan (so many names beginning with M..), who he has since vowed to find, feeling the guilt for kidnapping her and wanting to show that he really loves her, evidently. MeiMei doesn't believe him, but she gets infatuated with his story--but the worst part is, she NEVER actually believes his story or really cares about it! She just thinks the whole thing is a ruse because Mardar wants her so badly! Revealing her true character, she runs off with Mardar without telling the narrator, showing her degree of vanity and self-absorbance. Mardar, at least has his heart in the right place to some extent, as he later tells the narrator that MeiMei is not the girl he is looking for and continues his search. Later, he finds Moudan, who miraculously (yeah right), really did fall into a big river, drunk, as a ploy to lead a different life, hoping he would find her. Then, they both get drunk and somehow die. The police contact the narrator, he contacts MeiMei. And get this--she is not so sad about the fact that her other lover is dead, as much as the fact that he really WAS telling the truth, therefore, disproving her theory that he made up the whole story because he wanted her so badly. Boo hoo! How sick. Then she goes back to the narrator and suddenly disappears, telling her to find him if he loves her. And...he's supposed to actually want to find her? What? As if you'd want to find a self-absorbed girl who cheated on you because she thought someone else made up an elegant story to appeal to her vanity, who then challeges you to find her if you really love her? Sympathy, love? Huh? More like a dissatisfying ending and an egocentric [person].

Ideally, I would see this movie as well-done social commentary on the escapist and selfish tendencies of people, fueled by melodrama and an unhappiness with themselves, as well as dated and unreasonable gender expectations (which, understandably, are still quite prevalent in the world, much less in a 3rd world country). Somehow, I don't think that's what the director was going for. But a love story? Hardly.

Rating:
Summary: Nice Cinematography, Predictable and Dissatisfying Story
Review: I had high expectations for this movie based on a recommendation I had obtained from a friend, long ago, and from the glowing reviews present here. I really liked this film, starting out. It had good cinemamotography, an interesting first person-perspective/narration, gritty, urban, dirty Shanghai, as it is in reality.

However, the movie has some glaring problems. First of all, it seems to suffer from a common syndrome I've seen among modern Asian films: simplistic and immature characters that trap themselves in sickly, strange fantasies, probably out of personal defects and a desire to escape their dull lives. I guess this isn't actually that far from reality, for a lot of people, I guess it just gets drab and depressing seeing these types of recurring situations. I'll re-visit this point in a second--first, let me say, that I thought the story was going to have some element of mystery, or be more intriguing than it was..but..nope. That's pretty much it. I don't want to spoil anything, but you'll know what I mean if you see it. So, I guess, this makes sense to an extent, because it is a story being told by a narrator with a shaky camera, giving the film a pseudo-documentary feel to it, but at the end it still feels rather unsatisfying.

But why is it so unsatisfying, as the story progresses? That brings me back to my first point. Apparently this is supposed to be some kind of love story? You are supposed to feel sympathy, for some reason? If this is the effect the director was going for, I can only remark that this is a testament to the gullibility and naivity of his audience. (Warning, spoilers ahead) The courier, Mardar, looks about 30, and semi-dates a girl who looks like she's about 16, is all over him, to a pathetic extent, and then he kidnaps her as part of a ransom plot, so understandably, she's a bit pissed off and jumps from a bridge. Ok, I feel a lot of sympathy for the girl. She got a raw deal.

Then, we cut back to the narrator dating this stripper-mermaid girl, MeiMei, who, from our perspective, mostly just videotapes her, watches her, and makes out with her, oh, and she also just leaves for days without telling him anything. Doesn't sound like the most stable relationship, right? So I guess the apex that we're supposed to marvel at is when Mardar sees MeiMei, thinking that she is really his girl, Moudan (so many names beginning with M..), who he has since vowed to find, feeling the guilt for kidnapping her and wanting to show that he really loves her, evidently. MeiMei doesn't believe him, but she gets infatuated with his story--but the worst part is, she NEVER actually believes his story or really cares about it! She just thinks the whole thing is a ruse because Mardar wants her so badly! Revealing her true character, she runs off with Mardar without telling the narrator, showing her degree of vanity and self-absorbance. Mardar, at least has his heart in the right place to some extent, as he later tells the narrator that MeiMei is not the girl he is looking for and continues his search. Later, he finds Moudan, who miraculously (yeah right), really did fall into a big river, drunk, as a ploy to lead a different life, hoping he would find her. Then, they both get drunk and somehow die. The police contact the narrator, he contacts MeiMei. And get this--she is not so sad about the fact that her other lover is dead, as much as the fact that he really WAS telling the truth, therefore, disproving her theory that he made up the whole story because he wanted her so badly. Boo hoo! How sick. Then she goes back to the narrator and suddenly disappears, telling her to find him if he loves her. And...he's supposed to actually want to find her? What? As if you'd want to find a self-absorbed girl who cheated on you because she thought someone else made up an elegant story to appeal to her vanity, who then challeges you to find her if you really love her? Sympathy, love? Huh? More like a dissatisfying ending and an egocentric [person].

Ideally, I would see this movie as well-done social commentary on the escapist and selfish tendencies of people, fueled by melodrama and an unhappiness with themselves, as well as dated and unreasonable gender expectations (which, understandably, are still quite prevalent in the world, much less in a 3rd world country). Somehow, I don't think that's what the director was going for. But a love story? Hardly.

Rating:
Summary: Find me if you love me
Review: I love this movie. I've seen it so many times. It's a strange movie. The first few times I watched it I got caught up in the story of Mardar and Moudan because it's such a wonderful story. But the movie isn't really about Mardar and Moudan. The movie is all about Meimei. The story of Mardar and Moudan enchanted me just as it did Meimei. It fooled me; it tricked me, just as it did Meimei. That's what is so awesome about this film. Meimei wasn't just in love with Mardar. She was in love with his love for Moudan. And she was in love with his love story.

"Find me if you love me."

Rating:
Summary: Suzhou River
Review: I saw this at the 2000 SF International Film Festival. It's an interesting film-a Chinese Vertigo, basically. The one thing I really disliked was that several of the main plot devices were based on situations that were EXTREMELY hard to swallow . I loved the imagery, though. It has a really gritty, modern edge to it that is pretty unusual for Chinese film. I definitly recommend this one, I'm buying it myself. The bad (ie:improbable) parts are bad enough (ie:improbable enough) to be enjoyed.

Rating:
Summary: Great movie!
Review: Saw it on Sundance so I can't comment on the DVD quality. Did get the Vertigo connection pretty quick though, but almost subliminally (the best way), first through some of the music in scenes that had parallel actions to V. (Don't want to be too specific & be a spoiler.) I think this movie works extremely well on many levels & also on its own, although you could say look there's some Godard or some Truffaut or some Edgar Ulmer, etc, but what's the point of that? It's just a measure of the viewer's pedantic/academic orientation, not of the director's goals. Also knocking an older work as being "less approachable" is reducing the world to a quasi-fashion (fascist) statement. Themes repeat with variations through art & culture & time. Listen to Mozart, Haydn, Brahms. Read Jung. Watch movies.

Rating:
Summary: Oen of the most beautiful love story
Review: There's no doubt this is one of the most beautiful love story I've ever seen in movies.
If you still believe in true love, go get this DVD.
But, I have to warn you. If you don't love your girl friend that deeply, you'd better not watch this movie with her.
Otherwise, she might leave you.
Don't ask me why. Just go watch it.

Rating:
Summary: a dreamy gem for hopeless romantics
Review: This film gets compared a lot to Wong Kar-Wai's Chungking Express. Admittedly, the parallels are there but Suzhou River has a more doomed, fatalistic tone than Wong's film.

Suzhou River really gets under your skin if you become captivated by the fascinating relationship between two people that seems to be determined by fate.

The director creates a captivating mood and atmosphere and that is what really draws you in -- as does the heartbreaking performances of the two leads.

This is a really underrated film that deserves more attention and wider distribution. If you're a fan of Hong Kong films in the same style as Wong Kar-Wai then chances are you'll probably really like this movie as well.

Rating:
Summary: Don't expect subtitles.
Review: While this appears to be a beautifully filmed story, I had a bit of trouble following the plot. This could be, in part, due to the fact that 60% of the DVD lacked subtitles. I don't pretend to understand Mandarin, but I'm fairly certain that most of the narration was left untranslated. Most translations seemed to be merely sentence fragments. Who subtitled this? A first-year student in Speaking Chinese 101?
I admit that I only sat through the first fifteen minutes of the film, but without subtitles, how could I be expected to endure more?