I have very mixed feelings towards the actor Shu Qi. I cannot say that I really like her, but I am definitely fascinated by her. Her style of performance in most of the films is quite similar. The numerous drunk scenes easily remind one of “Millennium Manbo” (2001) by Hsiao-Hsien Hou. Her characteristic smiles shine through in each of the films she has starred in. If Maggie Cheung embodies the classic beauty, Shu Qi radiates the urban spirit. She also has this seductively innocent look of a child that makes one hard not to sympathize with. I do like her.
The film “A Beautiful Life” is a pretty banal romance with lots of hard-to-believe plots and too-perfect-to-be-real characters, but I still cried over it. Even as an ultimate and thorough pessimist, I still would like to believe those life-changing accidents, coincidences and decisions, because life is full of surprises, good or bad. If you find them hard to believe, it’s probably that you haven’t lived long enough or you are just being lucky not having to experience the unfathomable depth of life. Yes, there can be tragedies like those in the film, and yes, there can be true love and a happy but never easy ending like that.
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I have been avoiding this film due to its Kung fu theme, but Wong Kar-wai never disappoints. Even a Kung fu film becomes so art-house in his hands with his characteristic aesthetics and his all-time favorite crew (Tony Leung, Chang Chen, Ziyi Zhang, etc) The Kung fu scenes are artistic and to the point, the dialogues are minimal but each sentence is classic, the love story between the two main characters is restrained but holds up the whole film, the background spans about 15 years through numerous historical events but changes barely noticeably. It’s a film not about Kung fu after all, but about human relations, between husband and wife, teachers and students, father and daughter, lovers, opponents, oneself and the world. Tony Leung is impeccable, Ziyi Zhang is perfect with every pose of Kung fu just as she did 13 years ago in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Their partnership naturally reminds one of their collaboration 9 years ago in 2046. It seems they never aged but they have, and an era will be gone.
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May 2024
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