03-04-2019, 12:04 AM
This was China's submission for foreign film for the Oscars the year Into the Badlands debuted. It stars Daniel Wu. I remember going to that premiere/cast party with Greg, and mentioning it to the CEO of AMC, and him getting super excited about that. Made me look smart in that global sort of way. But it had no impact on ItB. Of course, only sinacinemaphiles saw it. It's based on the true story of a comic artist who drew a comic about her battle with lymphoma. It's a very odd film, a rom com that jumps into hallucinatory fantasies (some surprisingly good CGi driven ones in the earlier part of the film) and then gets super sad, just as you'd expect a film with 'tumor' in the title to be. Daniel is good as the stiff Doc that the protag crushes on. The protag, played by one of the most powerful leading ladies in Chinese film now, Bai Baihe, is shallow and self-centered, annoying until she gets close to death, and then it's hard not to feel for her as she breaks down. I wanted to be moved more. I wanted to get that release cry. But no, didn't happen. There were some very poignant scenes but I'm just not crying at the moment, as much as I'd like to. I'm a bit worried that I'll break down unexpectedly at some really inappropriate time.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
