大象席地而坐
Ohjaus:
Hu BoKäsikirjoitus:
Hu BoKuvaus:
Chao FanSävellys:
Hua LunNäyttelijät:
Yu Zhang, Yuchang Peng, Uvin Wang, Congxi Li, Chaobei Wang, Yanguozhang Zhao, Yanmanzi Zhu, Danyi Li, Ning WangJuonikuvaukset(1)
In the northern Chinese city of Manzhouli, they say there is an elephant that simply sits and ignores the world. Manzhouli becomes an obsession for the protagonists of this film, a longed-for escape from the downward spiral in which they find themselves. Among them is schoolboy Bu, on the run after pushing Shuai down the stairs, who was bullying him previously. Bu’s classmate Ling has run away from her mother and fallen for the charms of her teacher. Shuai’s older brother Cheng feels responsible for the suicide of a friend. And finally, along with many other characters whose fates are inextricably bound together, there’s Mr. Wang, a sprightly pensioner whose son wants to offload him onto a home. In virtuoso visual compositions, the film tells the story of one single suspenseful day from dawn to dusk, when the train to Manzhouli is set to depart. (Berlinale)
(lisää)Videot (2)
Arvostelut (1)
An intoxicating masterpiece depicting the world as a cruel and unjust place through the poetically intertwined stories of four characters whose lives are shaken by a series of fateful events. All of the protagonists (a seventeen-year-old girl experiencing bitter moments with her mother, her classmate who accidentally throws another classmate down the stairs, coincidentally the brother of a billiard owner who witnesses the suicide of his best friend, and an old man who is a burden on his family) share the same passive indifference and resignation. They actively express themselves only in critical moments of danger. Even so, their activities usually have (self) destructive consequences. The film, which accompanies the aura of this film, whose debuting director killed himself after it was completed, can also be perceived in this respect as the key to understanding a person who is considering suicide, which does not mean that motifs such as hope or redemption do not have a place in it. In any case, Hu Bo was a great talent, shooting his film in a series of long and incredibly thoughtfully composed shots with complex dialogues and sophisticated continuity. The excellently-cast civilian actors have absolutely precise and perfectly believable performances. The four-hour length is a bit of an obstacle at first glance. Nevertheless, the consistently-flowing and slowly told work attracts interest from the first to the last minute, and over time it becomes more interesting and constantly reveals new information and new twists, gradually escalating to a perfectly constructed finale full of empathy and mutual understanding.
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