TEMPTRESS
MOON (Feng Yue) Directed by Chen Kaige, Written by Shue Kei based on a story by Chen Kaige and Wang Anyi, Starring Leslie Cheung, Gong Li. Kevin Lin, He Saifei, Zhang Shi, Lin Lianqun, Xie Tian
BREAKING THE WAVES
Written and Directed by Lars Von Trier, Starring Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgard, Katrin Cartlidge, Jean-Marc Barr, Adrian Rawlins.
BLUESY: What a day. What a couple of films. My head is spinning. I feel almost like I can't breathe. The weight of both of those films was incredible.
TRAP: I know. Both very powerful films in their own very different way, and both with the sort of heart-stopping endings that leave you stunned.
Bluesy: I don't know that they're really so different. What I liked most about both Temptress Moon and Breaking the Waves was that in both cases there was a very distinctive, global sort of story to tell. Yes they dealt with very different things. Temptress Moon was about power struggles between the sexes and Breaking the Waves dealt with the conflicts of religion and faith, yet they both took a very definite stance and told the tale in such individualism and conviction. I really felt like I just sat down for 4 1/2 hours and had in depth conversations with two very smart guys about things all of us think about and wonder from time to time.
Trap: And yet at the same time both were exceedingly well-told stories built around fascinating and complex characters. In each one we see a woman - the always brilliant Gong Li in the first, and talented newcomer Emily Watson in the second, who for very different reasons finds herself at odds with the society she's been born into.
Bluesy: Yeah, wasn't that Emily Watson amazing. She looked like the spitting image of Janis Joplin, didn't she? It was weird, I didn't picture Janis Joplin as the Joan of Arc type.
Trap: She didn't look like Janis Joplin to me.
Bluesy: Well, you were still reeling from Gong Li sashaying around in a sarong. In any case, I thought the performances by both these women to be among the best I've seen all year. Then again, you don't often get such incredibly well rounded characters like this in films. Gong Li played the ruler of the house that's supposed to be a puppet figure and instead, casts out all the concubines on her first day on the job. Emily Watson portrayed a woman many think is "simple" or insane, but who turns out to be a real life saint. These are roles I'd bet any actress would give her entire wardrobe up for. Yet, I find it so interesting that both women had their downfall come to them because they fell in love with men. They were really both very feministic films told by men... though I'd bet anything that they're going to get a lot of flack for it and have people say the opposite.
Trap: I think it was a cheongsam not a sarong, but that's neither here nor there. Certainly people are going to carp at the fact that it's the characters assertiveness that ultimately brings about their downfall, but that hardly diminishes them as strong figures in their own way. After all, you have to take into account the limitations of the time and place in which they live. On this score, Breaking the Waves may be more problematic for some people because it takes place closer to the present day in a society that is at least superficially more recognizable to American audiences. Temptress Moon on the other hand is a lush, period melodrama set in a milieu even Chinese audiences may find exotic.
Bluesy: I think the whole point of these films is to get audiences thinking about issues that are very real today in our society. Sure things have changed in China since the 1920's... and we haven't heard "Lighter Shade of Pale" or "Crocodile Rock" used in a soundtrack since the 70's, when Breaking the Waves was set (the producer noted one of the reasons he set it at this time, was so that he could use the songs from his youth). But just the mere fact that Temptress Moon is, at this day, banned in China and that we have Virgin Mary sightings on the 6 o'clock news should tell you that these are themes and issues that are very real right now. We need MORE films like these that make people leave the theatre thinking and talking about them.
Temptress Moon is indeed a lush period piece, like the director's previous film Farewell My Concubine. But the whole idea of the struggles Pang Ruyi (Gong Li) has with Zhongliang (Cheung)... she the leader of an enormous household and he, a man who starts off ruined by a woman (his sister, played with perfection by Yu Xiuyi) and who makes it his business to control and destroy all women for falling in love with him, is something that not only makes for great fiction... you could see happening now. I mean, do you really think that men and women aren't just as screwed up now and don't end up playing the same games because of it? If that were the case, divorce lawyers and shrinks all over would be mortgaging their homes.
That's what I liked best about Temptress Moon. Aside from it being incredibly beautiful to watch, it was accurate and honest in showing how women are on the short end of the stick in the game. It isn't their own assertiveness that brings their downfall... it's society's assertiveness, or rather overbearance over these women who chose to be in control of their destinies AND be in love with a man.
Trap: Not so different, I suppose, from a modern-day businesswoman who has to project an tough-as-nails image at all times or risk getting eaten alive. I take your point that these are stories that are relevant to the way women are treated today, but it is the fact that they are about a specific place and time that give them their special power. It also means that if one attempts to judge them strictly by the standards of contemporary politically correct morality, one runs the risk of missing their point. As a guy, I can certainly appreciate the sort of tightrope a male director attempting to address feminist issues has to walk.
Take for instance, Bess, in Breaking the Waves. It's easy to misinterpret her. A frail, childlike woman prone to helplessness and fits of hysteria who sacrifices everything for the man she loves. She hardly fits the profile of a feminist heroine -- particularly considering the nature of that sacrifice. When her husband is paralyzed in an accident after only a few weeks of marriage and asks her to take a lover so that she can tell him about the sex he can no longer experience, she throws herself into the task with a peculiar single-mindedness, thinking that by sheer force of will her sacrifice can cure him. Sounds like some kind of kinky male fantasy, right? Strangely enough, though, her dedication to her husband takes on an air of something approaching nobility - especially when you consider the community in which she lives, a tight-knit, rigidly Calvinist village on Scotland's desolate west coast, whose inhabitants live their lives according to a grim calculus of sin and punishment every bit as harsh and unforgiving as the stormy grey seas that surround them; and where a funeral consists of the minister tersely consigning the soul of the departed to hell.
In Von Trier's hands this potentially salacious material takes on the air of a folktale. Having seen other films by him, such as Element of Crime or Zentropa, which combined black humor, convoluted storytelling, and stylistic experimentation that - especially in the case of Zentropa - often overwhelmed the film's narrative and dramatic points, I was stunned by this film's directness and raw sincerity. As in his tv serial, The Kingdom (a dark spoof of hospital dramas somewhat reminiscent of Twin Peaks), he eschews the technical gimmickry of his earlier films and shoots almost entirely with a hand-held camera and available light. In addition, he used super 35mm, transferred it to video, then transferred it back to film, giving it the bleached-out, sepia-toned look of an old, faded photograph, which only enhances the film's timeless quality.
Bluesy: I really don't think I missed their point. I believe I got it. And I really appreciated the fact that both these films took a strong stance, didn't back away from it... but at the same time didn't ram it down my throat. Rather they smeared it around with their creative use of the medium (I mean, those bizarre slow motion, painted nature shots Trier used for the chapter divisions stopped my breath and made me want to practically leap into the frame... just so long as I could jump back out as soon as the narrative re-started, with those incredibly evil religious zealots. I can't wait to see what the church makes of this movie).
I do think people should be warned, neither of these pictures is a "feel good movie." In fact, you're almost guaranteed to be disturbed by either film's end. I suspect, if you were anything but upset by the films, their respective directors would be very, VERY upset. I'm of the mindset that you needn't walk out of a film happy to be satisfied by it. But I also realize that not everyone can really take such downers as these present. It's up to the viewers, but for my money... go see both of these films, but be sure to bring a friend and be prepared for lengthy political discussions afterwards.
Trap: Well, I can guarantee you're not going to walk out of the theatre humming after seeing either of these films, but you are going to leave with some pretty serious food for thought.
Bluesy: So let me just get this straight, we both liked these films... a lot?
Trap: You got it.
Bluesy: Whew, I'm so relieved. Say you're pretty enlightened for a guy.
Trap: And I can cook, too.
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