After falling flat on his face at attempting to make a Western film (the awful Killing me Softly), Chen Kaige has decided to try something in between a Hollywood film and a Chinese film, or to paraphrase many a Chinese leader, "Hollywood with Chinese Characteristics". It is a total success or a total sell out, depending on what you are looking for.
The plot will be very familiar to anyone who watches Hollywood films or American made-for-t.v. movies. A child musical prodigy from a poor family comes to the big city with his father to try find a teacher, gain recognition and be selected for a prestigious music recital; obstacles come up along the way, etc. What is different about this film, of course, is that it does not take place in America. It is set in China with Chinese characters speaking Chinese. This film is competently made and will work for the people it is made for - Westerners who like films with a Hollywood structure and an arty veneer (the Asian aspect of the film being the arty veneer) and the Westernised urban elite in China. Others, however - anyone who hates Asian films that ape Hollywood or admirers of social realism - will probably hate it and mark it as the point where Chen Kaige totally sold out.
The plot will be very familiar to anyone who watches Hollywood films or American made-for-t.v. movies. A child musical prodigy from a poor family comes to the big city with his father to try find a teacher, gain recognition and be selected for a prestigious music recital; obstacles come up along the way, etc. What is different about this film, of course, is that it does not take place in America. It is set in China with Chinese characters speaking Chinese. This film is competently made and will work for the people it is made for - Westerners who like films with a Hollywood structure and an arty veneer (the Asian aspect of the film being the arty veneer) and the Westernised urban elite in China. Others, however - anyone who hates Asian films that ape Hollywood or admirers of social realism - will probably hate it and mark it as the point where Chen Kaige totally sold out.