MSPIFF 2009, Part Two (Conclusion)
1. "Getting Home". A middle-aged man is having a fine time getting thoroughly drunk with an old friend of his, when the friend suddenly and unexpectedly dies. Our protagonist knows that his friend was a firm believer in the notion that when someone dies they need to be buried at or near their home, or they'll become a wandering ghost. So our "hero", who has no vehicle of his own, has to get his friend's body halfway across the vast expanse of China on his own... sometimes carrying him on his back, sometimes as a passenger on a bus ("Really! He's just sleeping!"), or through whatever other creative means he can come up with.
Anyone old enough to remember "Weekend At Bernie's" (1989) might already be thinking of that decided non-classic, but "Getting Home" is definitely not made of the same stuff as that cheesy piece of Hollywood shlock. This is first and foremost a surprisingly touching story about friendship, and the extent a man will go to in order to keep a promise to a deceased friend. It's also a fascinating travelogue of rural China, a look at areas and types of people that never make the news (no Beijing or Hong Kong here) but that form as much of the nation's character as those large cities, as well as an examination of how the old values haven't always survived completely intact into the modern age. But before you get any misconceptions here, let me add that it IS also extremely funny in a much quieter, more subtle way than you'd get from an American take on the same story... that is, if an American studio ever DID decide to film this story.
Director Zhang Yang is best known for a film from a few years back called "Shower", and aside from that film's very urban setting, it shares a good deal of the quiet humor and subtle character insight that "Getting Home" contains. That may be a bit obscure as a reference to a lot of readers, but it would be a real challenge coming up with a mainstream release to which it can be compared. The film is so subtle, in fact, that it's only after the fact that you realize how surprisingly ambitious it is. Thankfully, it never draws any attention to that as you're watching it.
The Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival has long been one of the Twin Cities' premiere showcases for films the likes of which would probably never play anywhere else in the area if they didn't get a showcase here, but which are well worth seeking out. "Getting Home" is one of this year's best examples.
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2. "Tokyo Sonata". A Japanese businessman loses his management job in the very first scene of "Tokyo Sonata", and the film seems clearly to become the story of how he continues to seek employment while not telling his family about his having been fired. The decidedly non-comic subject is approached with an astonishing degree of humor, too... particularly involving the man's downsized business associate who has developed an amazing array of methods to make it look like he's still thriving (such as programming his cell phone to ring five times an hour so he can constantly be interrupted by "business" calls). But having grown to think of the film as a comedy, the viewer will be taken rather aback by the dark shift in tone as the man is humiliated in job interviews by snide, superior bosses and begins to take out his frustrations on his family (who,of course, know nothing about why he is acting this way).
Furthermore, as the film goes on you gradually come to realize that this is a story about the ENTIRE family, as each member (including the man's wife and two sons) each gets their individual storylines in which their ambitions and goals are blocked and frustrated, as a result of which the family begins drifing apart and disintegrating. Sharp viewers will eventually realize that this isn't merely the story of a family, either... it's the story of a nation, and by extension the story of a lot of nations around the world, and how we relate to each other, or, increasingly, don't.
Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation to Akira Kurosawa) has a reputation as being a modern master of horror films (none of which I have seen), but "Tokyo Sonata" shows a sure, steady grasp of human nature and relationships that is far beyond most specialists in that genre. It is, however, just as emotionally intense and harrowing as the best horror movies, in its own way. And what might be the most surprising about it is how a movie with such an extremely wide range of emotional tone from comedy to drama can still be so coherent and of one piece. This Kurosawa clearly has just as much of a mastery and control over his story as did the maker of "Seven Samurai" and "Ikiru".
And for those who might think the film I've just described is TOO emotionally intense to make for comfortable viewing... well, in a way that's true. It isn't reassuring every moment of the way. But ultimately it is a very hopeful story, with some important lessions about how our connections and commitments to each other can carry us through the most difficult of times. Let's hope that, as both families and nations, we can all learn those lessons and put them into practice.
Anyone old enough to remember "Weekend At Bernie's" (1989) might already be thinking of that decided non-classic, but "Getting Home" is definitely not made of the same stuff as that cheesy piece of Hollywood shlock. This is first and foremost a surprisingly touching story about friendship, and the extent a man will go to in order to keep a promise to a deceased friend. It's also a fascinating travelogue of rural China, a look at areas and types of people that never make the news (no Beijing or Hong Kong here) but that form as much of the nation's character as those large cities, as well as an examination of how the old values haven't always survived completely intact into the modern age. But before you get any misconceptions here, let me add that it IS also extremely funny in a much quieter, more subtle way than you'd get from an American take on the same story... that is, if an American studio ever DID decide to film this story.
Director Zhang Yang is best known for a film from a few years back called "Shower", and aside from that film's very urban setting, it shares a good deal of the quiet humor and subtle character insight that "Getting Home" contains. That may be a bit obscure as a reference to a lot of readers, but it would be a real challenge coming up with a mainstream release to which it can be compared. The film is so subtle, in fact, that it's only after the fact that you realize how surprisingly ambitious it is. Thankfully, it never draws any attention to that as you're watching it.
The Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival has long been one of the Twin Cities' premiere showcases for films the likes of which would probably never play anywhere else in the area if they didn't get a showcase here, but which are well worth seeking out. "Getting Home" is one of this year's best examples.
**********************************************************************************
2. "Tokyo Sonata". A Japanese businessman loses his management job in the very first scene of "Tokyo Sonata", and the film seems clearly to become the story of how he continues to seek employment while not telling his family about his having been fired. The decidedly non-comic subject is approached with an astonishing degree of humor, too... particularly involving the man's downsized business associate who has developed an amazing array of methods to make it look like he's still thriving (such as programming his cell phone to ring five times an hour so he can constantly be interrupted by "business" calls). But having grown to think of the film as a comedy, the viewer will be taken rather aback by the dark shift in tone as the man is humiliated in job interviews by snide, superior bosses and begins to take out his frustrations on his family (who,of course, know nothing about why he is acting this way).
Furthermore, as the film goes on you gradually come to realize that this is a story about the ENTIRE family, as each member (including the man's wife and two sons) each gets their individual storylines in which their ambitions and goals are blocked and frustrated, as a result of which the family begins drifing apart and disintegrating. Sharp viewers will eventually realize that this isn't merely the story of a family, either... it's the story of a nation, and by extension the story of a lot of nations around the world, and how we relate to each other, or, increasingly, don't.
Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation to Akira Kurosawa) has a reputation as being a modern master of horror films (none of which I have seen), but "Tokyo Sonata" shows a sure, steady grasp of human nature and relationships that is far beyond most specialists in that genre. It is, however, just as emotionally intense and harrowing as the best horror movies, in its own way. And what might be the most surprising about it is how a movie with such an extremely wide range of emotional tone from comedy to drama can still be so coherent and of one piece. This Kurosawa clearly has just as much of a mastery and control over his story as did the maker of "Seven Samurai" and "Ikiru".
And for those who might think the film I've just described is TOO emotionally intense to make for comfortable viewing... well, in a way that's true. It isn't reassuring every moment of the way. But ultimately it is a very hopeful story, with some important lessions about how our connections and commitments to each other can carry us through the most difficult of times. Let's hope that, as both families and nations, we can all learn those lessons and put them into practice.
posted by Joe Bunce at
8:34 AM
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