Movie "Nuan" attracted my attention not because it received the Grand Prix of Tokyo International Film Festival of 2004, or because its director, Mr. Hao Jianqi's poetic style of movie making and stunning ability of story telling; I brought the DVD due to a very simple reason, its leading actor, Guo Xiaodong who played the role of Lin Jinhe. I have watched several of Guo Xiaodong's movies and TV dramas, of which "Colonel's Daughter" is the one that touched my soul and heart, and brought Guo to the front view of my star watching. I was hoping "Nuan" would bring me a new appreciation of his acting skill while unwrapping the DVD, and I was fully intoxicated by the beauty of this movie.
The movie started with Jinhe, the narrator, after a brief visit, leaving the small village where he spent his childhood, and had not returned for ten years. At the end of the two-way bamboo bridge outside of the village, Jinhe ran into Nuan, the girl whom he loved when he was a teenager, and promised to come back to marry when he was leaving for a college in a big city. Accompanied by Jinhe's soul searching narration, the movie interlocks the happy and dreamy teenage years of Nuan and Jinhe with Nuan's mundane life in her current home, and leads us through a visual and emotional trip of "warm" love, "cold" waiting, cruel dream-breaking, and alleviating forgiveness. Guo Xiaodong vividly portrayed Jinhe as an honest and timid teenage country boy although he was actually 10 years older than the role he played. As a native Chinese speaker, I had the privilege to experience and enjoy the narration that did not carry too much change of tunes and volume, but sounded like a gentle creek of emotion flowing out of Jinhe's heart. Guo Xiaodong's narration comes from his deep understanding and identifying with Jinhe's life and dilemma for he himself was once a happy, honest and dreamy country boy. Director Huo Jianqi generously extended the display of the bluish mountains, tranquilizing creeks, waiving reeds, swimming ducks, all of which allow the audience to appreciate the idyllic rural life, reflect their own bittersweet life experiences evoked by the soothing play of bamboo flute; and to certain extends, search their soul for kind and forgiveness.
I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, and I was totally mesmerized by Guo Xiaodong's brilliant performance. I wholeheartedly recommend it to these who want to see the true character and virtue of Chinese man displayed by both the role and in person of Mr. Guo Xiaodong. Guo Xiaodong is going to be the next big hit in both Chinese and international film industry, and I open my arm to welcome the coming of the "Phoenix from East".
"Nuan" is the first movie Guo Xiaodong made that achieved international reorganization. His later works include "Peach Blossom" (2003), "Summer Palace" (2004), "The Warlords" (2007), "The Power and Beauty' (2007), "Missing" (2007). His TV dramas include "The Era of New Marriage" (2006), "Colonel's Daughter"(2005).
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An Inconvenient Truth is an undoubted good documentary. Everybody who addicted in documentaries knows that.
I was just about to see the film before the class. And the class-movie-showing did me a favor. After the class-movie-showing, I still choose to download the film and see it again. I’m an addicted documentary fan, and I enjoy finding things behind details in the movie. One of my dreams is becoming an excellent documentary director, although I know it’s not easy to achieve, especially in China’s current society.
I’ve seen many documentaries directed by directors from various countries and live in disparate ages. In my mind, documentary is an art history. Can you imagine that different periods of history can be carved by this kind of film in an art way? It’s amazing. It let one who lives in the years or don’t both have the chance to experience and to feel.
And it’s the first feelings I’ve got in my documentary watching.
As the numbers increasing, the thoughts develop. Documentary not only can tell people things, but also can drive people’s mind. The thought made me fear at first when I realized that. You know many things are not in the shapes just like they appear. There is so much complicated truth behind the images and hide in the corners where we can’t see. Films we see are steered by many secret hands. It’s too ruthless. It’s also so obvious. But people just don’t know. They believe in what they see in the film, they believe in the media which we, the media people, handle as tools to serve for some others. Some purpose is objective and positive, but some is not.
I want to compare An Inconvenient Truth with Triumph of the Will, a documentary by a famous Germany woman director, Leni Riefenstahl. The original intention that the two directors hold to shoot the films is different. Triumph of the Will is an absolute tool the Nazi use to destroy people’s own consciousness. So one wants to break people’s minds and finally lead to wars. And the other is simpler, drive people’s mind and get the power he wants. The common point between the two is to control.
Something people do not want to believe is that the mass media is just a tool to control, to influence, and to balance, although it’s not often wants to achieve a too private or too bad goal. What should we think as a media people? How properly a film director use his film to influence audience, I think it depends on the responsibility the director let himself to have. A responsible director won’t betray his heart and lead his audience to sufferings. Actually, every director should hold his spirit. Film is not the salve of economy.
In An Inconvenient Truth, the American vice president Gore as an environmentalist speeches a lot around the world to alert people to care for our earth. Many examples and sentences he use to illustrate his mind is really persuasive and believable. The one in the beginning impressed me most.
What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that ain’t so. - Mark Twain.
The same point, just as I concerned. A sentence and an image can be explained in different meanings, and the audience’s own mind and experience give it a way to go. While it’s another amazing feature which film has that I am infatuated with.
Back to the film, as I said before, it’s an undoubted great documentary. Because it successfully in driving the audience’s mind. And it really makes a difference in the environment protection in some areas. Some families begin to concern the environment protection conscientiously.
The appetite for power is well decorated by the film art. And the most special feature belongs to this documentary that other films don’t have is a combination of art and truth. So it’s not hard to understand why it called An Inconvenient Truth. The truth is inconvenient. And so it does, in a sense. (like all of it, no dislike)