11-21-2012, 08:38 PM
This was to be Zhang Yimou's big crossover with Christian Bale in the lead. It got a lot of prestigious award nominations, but tanked at the box office. Turns out America doesn't really want to watch a 2+ hour film about the rape of Nanjing. I certainly didn't. But it was a significant Chollywood flick this year, so I figured I should see it through.
I was bitching about netflix lacking subtitles and this version has none. Although Bale and some of the other characters speak English in parts, there are long dialog scenes in either Chinese or Japanese. It sort of works without subs as you get a sense of Bale's confusion, as well as the parts where he's understanding stuff that's not in English. There's narration in Mandarin which completely fails.
It's a brutal story. Nanjing is in ruins, littered with bodies in smoking rubble. The Japanese are cold-blooded brutal rapists with carbines and bayonets. Bale is a cad, who ends up impersonating a priest to save his own skin, and gets stuck with a bunch of refugees: school girls at the church and prostitutes. The Japanese surround the church. They only know about the schoolgirls and are saving them for a horrible victory party which is thankfully implied and not shown. It was looking like it was going that direction and I'm grateful it didn't. It's one of those Chinese tragedies that starts at a really low point, and then descends even more. A major bummer from the first frame. Chinese tragedies are so painfully depressing.
But Zhang does manage some transcendent moments. He does wonders with the light from the stained glass windows, brightening moments of grace and hope, where the rest of the film is dingy yellow, like a faded postcard from the era. Bale shines, although his character turn-around is a bit much. It's good to see him tackle something that requires some serious dramatic chops again instead of a cool bat costume.
No sword fights although the early war scenes are quite good. There's almost a bollywood number from the prostitutes in a weird vision that one of the characters has, but it's terribly terribly sad.
I think I need to watch a rom com next.
I was bitching about netflix lacking subtitles and this version has none. Although Bale and some of the other characters speak English in parts, there are long dialog scenes in either Chinese or Japanese. It sort of works without subs as you get a sense of Bale's confusion, as well as the parts where he's understanding stuff that's not in English. There's narration in Mandarin which completely fails.
It's a brutal story. Nanjing is in ruins, littered with bodies in smoking rubble. The Japanese are cold-blooded brutal rapists with carbines and bayonets. Bale is a cad, who ends up impersonating a priest to save his own skin, and gets stuck with a bunch of refugees: school girls at the church and prostitutes. The Japanese surround the church. They only know about the schoolgirls and are saving them for a horrible victory party which is thankfully implied and not shown. It was looking like it was going that direction and I'm grateful it didn't. It's one of those Chinese tragedies that starts at a really low point, and then descends even more. A major bummer from the first frame. Chinese tragedies are so painfully depressing.
But Zhang does manage some transcendent moments. He does wonders with the light from the stained glass windows, brightening moments of grace and hope, where the rest of the film is dingy yellow, like a faded postcard from the era. Bale shines, although his character turn-around is a bit much. It's good to see him tackle something that requires some serious dramatic chops again instead of a cool bat costume.
No sword fights although the early war scenes are quite good. There's almost a bollywood number from the prostitutes in a weird vision that one of the characters has, but it's terribly terribly sad.
I think I need to watch a rom com next.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse