We begin this day's set of reviews with the first Category III movie I've seen in ages. Hng Kong categorizes their movies in a diferent way compared to the Philippines; instead of PG or R-13, Hong Kong uses categories I to III (including some sub categorizations) to rate their films. III is the highest, and in G Affairs, it shows.
The beginning of G Affairs is a whirlwind of absurdity linked tgether in a single shot: classical music violent sex, and a severed head. These things sound like an arthouse director's wet dream, and G Affairs doesn't stop reminding us how arty it is for the remainder of its running time. That said, it's a fascinating film; a withering critique of post-handover Hong Kong disguised as a murder mystery.
The film connects multiple stories of people with tantalizing connections to each other: there is the prostitute without her front teeth, the dirty cop no better than a gangster (played by Chapman To!) The student who in her search for comfort becomes involved with her high school teacher, and an autistic savant.
G Affairs (the "G" means many things, including sounding like the chinese word for prostitute) is bleak and unrelenting, showing how much Hong Kong has changed since the 1997 handover that transformed its destiny forever. "The cleaner the surface, the grimier the inside," one character says and it is quite evident throughout the film; the subtext is staring you right in the face. The two mothers signifying two systems, the child looking to an abusive partner for comfort, the headless corpse of a country with no one to speak up for itself - all signs of a place, an ideal, rotting from the inside out.
Yet the film ends in ambiguity, perhaps one last chance for hope, or one final leap into a dark abyss. The scene is then punctuated by the shot of a lone tourist looking up at the sky, mirroring a scene earlier in the film of a new immigrant to Hong Kong, looking up in the sky at endless possibilities.
Very loosely based on Cixin Liu's novel of the same name, The Wandering Earth is barely an adaptation and more of its own thing. Regardess of its adaptational status, it is one of the most striking science fiction films outside of Hollywood I've ever seen, and a towering achievement in Chinese science fiction.
Borrowing the premise of the original novella, The Wandering Earth skirts the politics and debate of the original material, opting for a fun mishmash of blockbusters like The Day Ater Tomorrow, Armageddon, Sunshine and many others. Due to the impending death of the sun, the nations of eaerth band together to place giant fusion thrusters all over the earth to knock it out of orbit and set a course for Alpha Centauri 4.2 light years away. It's a 2500 year journey, and one that takes up considerable resources and manpower. However, 17 years into the journey, the planet encounters a disaster that threatens to wipe out all humanity for good.
It's fun, high concept stuff, though you can just stop thinking about it and let it take you on a wild ride. The film stuffs itself with melodrama and action and makes you care, even a little bit, bout our motley crew of characters.
There's also much to be said about the film's perspective. The film is consciously non-Hollywood and Americans sshow up for only a few brief scenes. Here's a blockbuster film where the narrative is centered on someone else for a change. There's a scene where a Russian cosmonaut and a Chinese astronaut cooperate for the fate of mankind. A half-European identifies as Chinese. An Asian city (make that three Asian cities) and not Los Angeles or New York, become the cities that will decide the fate of humanity. The Philippines even makes a little cameo, with Tagalog speakers making a short appearance.
This isn't just China making a blockbuster film, this is China asserting its cultural identity through its films. In the future, the US won't be the only one making large scale multimillion dollar hits; even now China and India are fast catching up with their own epics. With this film, China makes their case as a powerhouse of mainstream blockbuster cinema, and they're not going away anytime soon.
The Heisei era is coming to an end later this year, and with it, an era of superheroes (and heroism) that has inspired Japanese children of all ages.
The last installment of the Kamen Rider Heisei Generations series concludes with the crossover of its two most current series, Build and Zi-O. The protagonists of both series find themselves in a strange world where people seem t recognize them. They run across Ataru, a Kamen Rider superfan who tells them they exist in this world as characters in kids' shows and Shingo a cute little boy with a mysterious past and a secret connection to someone else.
It may not be the most action packed Kamen Rider film, but Heisei Generations Forever is one of its more heratfelt, a love letter to the series as a whole. To the outsider, the idea of latex-suited bugmen on motorcylces sounds a little siily, but to many men and women who grew up with this stuff (myself included) they stand for something a whole lot more: a hero they can look up to, a call to be a hero in their own personal way.
Of course, the series pays tribute to its most popular series, Kamen Rider Den-O, as well as its very first series Kamen Rider Kuuga. Lead actors from previous series make voice cameos, and its all low key compared to crossover shows of the past, but it is for some reason, more deeply felt. This is literally the end of an era, and this feels like a final sendoff for dear friends.
It's been more than 18 years since the first episode of Kuuga made it to tv screens; the series, in a way has reached a new stage in its life (and yes, I know that Showa-era riders exist). What will happen in the next age or heroes, no one really knows. I hope the series keeps chugging along and inspires a whole new generation of kids.
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