Two contemporary films at the Chinese Film Festival

Previously, we wrote about two period films included in the Chinese Film Festival (Sept. 5-9 at SM Cinemas):Feng Xiaogang's war drama "Back to 1942" and Wong Kar-wai's martial arts poetry "The Grandmaster". We will now take a look at two films in the festival that have a contemporary setting. 

First is "Full Circle" (2012, 105 mins), directed by Zhang Yang. 

Last year, there was a film in Cine Europa that almost had an entire cast of octogenarians - "Mid-August Lunch" from Italy. For this year, it's the Chinese Film Festival's turn with "Full Circle", a film that concerns itself solely with senior people who are left to the care of a nursing home. This is actually the feel-good film of the festival (and had there been an Audience Choice award, this movie could have very well bagged it), by turns sad and funny, bitter and sweet. It imparts some very important life lessons, especially those relating between parents and children. Some may complain how the film gears towards sentimentality, instead of facing the grim realities of old age (as what Michael Haneke's "Amour" has exceptionally shown;and before him, Vittorio de Sica with "Umberto D."). But come to think of it, to elucidate what one of the major characters practically points out, now that they're on their twilight years, instead of having to die alone and lonely, why not choose to live what remains of their lives joyously together? It does make sense, right? Also, one can't deny the affection and gracefulness with which the director handles his subject and characters (considering that years before, he made this rather uncomfortable addiction drama, "Quitting"). Particularly noteworthy is the film's second half, where it becomes a strikingly-photographed road movie of sorts. As the seniors head towards the city to participate in a costume skit contest, the trip itself becomes a very liberating and fulfilling experience for the old people. Cliché as this may sound, more than the destination itself, it's the road leading to it that truly counts. Life's indeed a journey - more so for the senior folks who have already seen it all. 

Next is "Caught in the Web" (2012, 122 mins) by Chen Kaige.

Chen Kaige, just like Tian Zhuangzhuang and Zhang Yimou, belongs to the so-called Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers, having made such acclaimed works like "Yellow Earth", "Life on a String" and the Cannes-winner "Farewell, My Concubine". It's for that reason that "Caught in the Web" was one of my eagerly-anticipated films in the fest. And it didn't disappoint. One has to see the film to realize how topical and complex it really is. What starts out as a seemingly simple act of recording on camera a misconduct (refusal to give one's seat to an elderly on a passenger bus) branches into a rather labyrinthine examination of the conduct, principles and ethics that govern people's lives in contemporary society. From the seemingly simple premise of the virtual absence of privacy in the age of social media, the film proceeds to deftly tackle such moral quandaries as betrayal, opportunism, greed, ambition, materialism, and the value of trust, friendship and public opinion in this day and age of globalised online community. Chen's and Tang Da-Nian's screenplay works like an intriguing mix of corporate/newsroom thriller, Ibsenian "Wild Ducks" and Dickensian satire on the human condition. And with the kind of penultimate tragedy that punctuates this complex morality tale, "Caught in the Web" nearly envelopes itself with a Camus-like existentialism. Watching the film, I was thinking of a similarly caught-on-cam incident that happened here sometime back, the one that involved a young woman verbally abusing a security guard assigned at a passenger train station. The incident likewise became a hot topic in the social media, with the poor girl standing trial in the court of public opinion. Situating that true-life "media sensation" in the film's context, it once again becomes a telling fact that not every news that is being fed to us through the papers, television or any other form of mass/social media is what it appears to be. We may have no idea of what's really going on behind it. 

("Caught in the Web" (top) and "Full Circle" (below):Two contemporary films at the Chinese Film Festival.)