美国记者对十三钗的评论# Movie - 无限影话
r*s
1 楼
Main points:
(1) 十三钗 is not as good as Lu Chuan's Nanjing Nanjing!
(2) If Warner Bros. had made a film with this plot back in 1942, it would
have made effective anti-Japanese propaganda and probably absorbing drama in
the bargain. 十三钗 just plays like hokum。
source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/flowers-of-war-film-review-christian-bale-272125
It's something you'd think only the crassest of Hollywood producers would
come up with — injecting sex appeal into an event as ghastly at the Nanjing
massacre — but it's an element central to The Flowers of War, a contrived
and unpersuasive look at an oft-dramatized historical moment. One of the
first Chinese-financed features to topline a major American star (
Inseparable, with Kevin Spacey, debuted at Pusan in October), Zhang Yimou's
elaborately produced drama automatically will draw attention due to the
presence of Christian Bale atop the cast but has the misfortune of coming so
close on the heels of a truly outstanding film with the same setting, Lu
Chuan's City of Life and Death. After a Dec. 16 commercial launch on home
turf, Wrekin Hill has set one-week runs beginning Dec. 23 in New York, Los
Angeles and San Francisco, with a wider release to follow next year. But
commercial prospects, at least in North America, look very limited.
Based on a historical novel by high-profile Chinese writer Yan Geling, which
will be published in the U.S. next year, and scripted by Liu Heng, whose
collaboration with the director extends back to Ju Dou, Flowers is a
conscious bid to make the horrors of the Nanjing story dramatically
accessible to a wider audience by placing a politically unaligned American
in the middle of a desperate group of local civilians comprised of convent
schoolgirls and courtesans.
Offering little historical background, other than to state that more than
200,000 people were slaughtered during and after the Japanese invasion of
China's then-capital (City put the figure at over 300,000, reflecting
ongoing controversy over the extent of the casualties), the action begins in
the city's rubble after its fall on Dec. 13, 1937. In a position of tenuous
safety are the female students at Winchester Cathedral, which sits behind
walls and offers places to hide from the victorious Japanese soldiers who
are rampaging without restraint.
Taking refuge there as well is lone wolf American John Miller (Bale), who
with his bushy beard resembles a '60s hippie and in his manner of speaking
sounds both silly and anachronistic (he makes repeated use of “whatever”).
His description by one of the Chinese as a “jerk” could not be more apt,
as Miller starts raiding the sanctuary's wine stash, demands nonexistent
money and behaves selfishly in every instance. There could be various
motives behind portraying the white guy in the story as a money-grubbing,
unintelligent and uncouth mercenary but, of course, the ideologically
uncommitted Yank in foreign climes is a standard movie character, with
Bogart's Rick in Casablanca as the most memorable standard-bearer. Let's
just say Bale's Miller doesn't quite measure up to that standard.
It's clear from the outset that Miller needs to start at such a low point so
that he'll have an impressive dramatic arc to forge, from self-centered sot
to noble knight. Unfortunately, neither the script nor the actor provide
the character with any backstory, real or invented; he expresses shock at
the suffering he witnesses, but where has he been for the past few weeks?
The character brings no viewpoint or power of observation to anything and
morally is just an empty vessel, waiting to be filled.
Scaling the walls to find some protection of their own are 13 fancy ladies
from a local brothel. Decked as if ready to do a chorus number from Flower
Drum Song, the loud, boisterous gals push the cowed teenage students aside
and make themselves right at home. For his part, Miller can't believe his
good fortune and takes an immediate interest in the haughtiest of them all,
the gorgeous Yu Mo (expressive newcomer Ni Ni), who also has by far the best
English. Reassuring Miller that the Japanese “won't touch Westerners,” Mo
withholds any favors for the moment, promising the eager fellow, “If you
help us, I will help you in ways that you can't imagine. All of us will.”
Miller's inadvertent transformation from miscreant to saint of sorts begins
when he dons priestly robes for fun and thus deters intruding Japanese
soldiers who run into the church shouting, “We've got virgins!” Seeing the
advantages of the pose, Miller continues to wear the vestments, shaves his
beard and grows into the personage of “Father John.”
A “good” Japanese officer later apologizes for his men's waywardness and
supplies protection for a while. But he eventually requests that the convent
girls sing at a “party” for Japanese officers, which everyone knows will
result in rape and worse, triggering an exceptional climactic act of self-
sacrifice on the part of the heretofore superficial, materialistic
prostitutes, with the heroic participation of Miller.
An undeniable emotional and moral potency lies behind the way these good-
time lowlifes rise to the occasion to perform one great selfless act when
called upon to do so. But too much about the circumstances and the manner in
which the ruse is pulled off is unrealistic and unbelievable, from both a
real-world and cinematic point of view, to make the payoff credible or as
powerful as it means to be.
Although some scenes venture out into the corpse-strewn city streets to
provide an idea of the ongoing barbarity and horror, most of the picture is
confined to the church and immediate surroundings. One of the young girls,
Shu (Zhang Xinyi), provides perspective through narration, and a couple of
other interesting characters emerge, including a smart, bespectacled boy,
George (Huang Tianyuan), who looks after his pubescent female colleagues,
and Mr. Meng (Cao Kefan), a collaborationist with an uncertain lease on life.
Once the gears are set in motion for the big finale, there's too much
dawdling over the details, which has the double negative effect of slowing
dramatic momentum and accentuating the far-fetched nature of the plot. When
Miller, who has unaccounted-for skills as a hairdresser and makeup artist,
finishes work on Mo, he's told, in the film's most unfortunate lapse into
modern parlance, that the rest of the girls “all want you to give them a
makeover!”
If Warner Bros. had made a film with this plot back in 1942, it would have
made effective anti-Japanese propaganda and probably absorbing drama in the
bargain. Today it just plays like hokum.
(1) 十三钗 is not as good as Lu Chuan's Nanjing Nanjing!
(2) If Warner Bros. had made a film with this plot back in 1942, it would
have made effective anti-Japanese propaganda and probably absorbing drama in
the bargain. 十三钗 just plays like hokum。
source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/flowers-of-war-film-review-christian-bale-272125
It's something you'd think only the crassest of Hollywood producers would
come up with — injecting sex appeal into an event as ghastly at the Nanjing
massacre — but it's an element central to The Flowers of War, a contrived
and unpersuasive look at an oft-dramatized historical moment. One of the
first Chinese-financed features to topline a major American star (
Inseparable, with Kevin Spacey, debuted at Pusan in October), Zhang Yimou's
elaborately produced drama automatically will draw attention due to the
presence of Christian Bale atop the cast but has the misfortune of coming so
close on the heels of a truly outstanding film with the same setting, Lu
Chuan's City of Life and Death. After a Dec. 16 commercial launch on home
turf, Wrekin Hill has set one-week runs beginning Dec. 23 in New York, Los
Angeles and San Francisco, with a wider release to follow next year. But
commercial prospects, at least in North America, look very limited.
Based on a historical novel by high-profile Chinese writer Yan Geling, which
will be published in the U.S. next year, and scripted by Liu Heng, whose
collaboration with the director extends back to Ju Dou, Flowers is a
conscious bid to make the horrors of the Nanjing story dramatically
accessible to a wider audience by placing a politically unaligned American
in the middle of a desperate group of local civilians comprised of convent
schoolgirls and courtesans.
Offering little historical background, other than to state that more than
200,000 people were slaughtered during and after the Japanese invasion of
China's then-capital (City put the figure at over 300,000, reflecting
ongoing controversy over the extent of the casualties), the action begins in
the city's rubble after its fall on Dec. 13, 1937. In a position of tenuous
safety are the female students at Winchester Cathedral, which sits behind
walls and offers places to hide from the victorious Japanese soldiers who
are rampaging without restraint.
Taking refuge there as well is lone wolf American John Miller (Bale), who
with his bushy beard resembles a '60s hippie and in his manner of speaking
sounds both silly and anachronistic (he makes repeated use of “whatever”).
His description by one of the Chinese as a “jerk” could not be more apt,
as Miller starts raiding the sanctuary's wine stash, demands nonexistent
money and behaves selfishly in every instance. There could be various
motives behind portraying the white guy in the story as a money-grubbing,
unintelligent and uncouth mercenary but, of course, the ideologically
uncommitted Yank in foreign climes is a standard movie character, with
Bogart's Rick in Casablanca as the most memorable standard-bearer. Let's
just say Bale's Miller doesn't quite measure up to that standard.
It's clear from the outset that Miller needs to start at such a low point so
that he'll have an impressive dramatic arc to forge, from self-centered sot
to noble knight. Unfortunately, neither the script nor the actor provide
the character with any backstory, real or invented; he expresses shock at
the suffering he witnesses, but where has he been for the past few weeks?
The character brings no viewpoint or power of observation to anything and
morally is just an empty vessel, waiting to be filled.
Scaling the walls to find some protection of their own are 13 fancy ladies
from a local brothel. Decked as if ready to do a chorus number from Flower
Drum Song, the loud, boisterous gals push the cowed teenage students aside
and make themselves right at home. For his part, Miller can't believe his
good fortune and takes an immediate interest in the haughtiest of them all,
the gorgeous Yu Mo (expressive newcomer Ni Ni), who also has by far the best
English. Reassuring Miller that the Japanese “won't touch Westerners,” Mo
withholds any favors for the moment, promising the eager fellow, “If you
help us, I will help you in ways that you can't imagine. All of us will.”
Miller's inadvertent transformation from miscreant to saint of sorts begins
when he dons priestly robes for fun and thus deters intruding Japanese
soldiers who run into the church shouting, “We've got virgins!” Seeing the
advantages of the pose, Miller continues to wear the vestments, shaves his
beard and grows into the personage of “Father John.”
A “good” Japanese officer later apologizes for his men's waywardness and
supplies protection for a while. But he eventually requests that the convent
girls sing at a “party” for Japanese officers, which everyone knows will
result in rape and worse, triggering an exceptional climactic act of self-
sacrifice on the part of the heretofore superficial, materialistic
prostitutes, with the heroic participation of Miller.
An undeniable emotional and moral potency lies behind the way these good-
time lowlifes rise to the occasion to perform one great selfless act when
called upon to do so. But too much about the circumstances and the manner in
which the ruse is pulled off is unrealistic and unbelievable, from both a
real-world and cinematic point of view, to make the payoff credible or as
powerful as it means to be.
Although some scenes venture out into the corpse-strewn city streets to
provide an idea of the ongoing barbarity and horror, most of the picture is
confined to the church and immediate surroundings. One of the young girls,
Shu (Zhang Xinyi), provides perspective through narration, and a couple of
other interesting characters emerge, including a smart, bespectacled boy,
George (Huang Tianyuan), who looks after his pubescent female colleagues,
and Mr. Meng (Cao Kefan), a collaborationist with an uncertain lease on life.
Once the gears are set in motion for the big finale, there's too much
dawdling over the details, which has the double negative effect of slowing
dramatic momentum and accentuating the far-fetched nature of the plot. When
Miller, who has unaccounted-for skills as a hairdresser and makeup artist,
finishes work on Mo, he's told, in the film's most unfortunate lapse into
modern parlance, that the rest of the girls “all want you to give them a
makeover!”
If Warner Bros. had made a film with this plot back in 1942, it would have
made effective anti-Japanese propaganda and probably absorbing drama in the
bargain. Today it just plays like hokum.
