Well, 29 francs, which is the equivalent of $4. I knew little about the film except that it was a bleak erotic Wayne Wang film. And it was all of those things. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood to see Pretty Woman Meets Leaving Las Vegas/Showgirls, I don't know. I was underwhelmed by the sex, the dialogue, even the loneliness--I've had better of all of those. The one scene I did actually find right-on was...
POSSIBLE SPOILER: ...the one where they finally have sex in the end. It comes just after he talks about how it is going to be, how great HE is going to be. But the reality is that he isn't super-lover; she isn't wet, he spits on his hand to get inside her, she is just starting to get into it when he comes. How many women can relate to that? I certainly can. I don't think the scene was at all about her retreating into herself and pretending not to enjoy it--it was about the fact that he was a great lover only in his own mind. And when he turns her over and forces himself on her after that, no one can claim she is simply "pretending" not to enjoy it. She's being raped, for God's sake!
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I'll have to rent Smoke again to regain my taste for Wayne Wang films.
POSSIBLE SPOILER: ...the one where they finally have sex in the end. It comes just after he talks about how it is going to be, how great HE is going to be. But the reality is that he isn't super-lover; she isn't wet, he spits on his hand to get inside her, she is just starting to get into it when he comes. How many women can relate to that? I certainly can. I don't think the scene was at all about her retreating into herself and pretending not to enjoy it--it was about the fact that he was a great lover only in his own mind. And when he turns her over and forces himself on her after that, no one can claim she is simply "pretending" not to enjoy it. She's being raped, for God's sake!
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I'll have to rent Smoke again to regain my taste for Wayne Wang films.