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[REVIEW
> SO CLOSE TO PARADISE]
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| 04/17/2001 |
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Set
in the urban/industrial background of Wushan, a city in central
China, filmmaker Wang Xaioshuai exercises high restrain and
skill in bringing his story and characters to life and in portraying
the disillusionment in urbanization and modernization. |
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Reviewed By Quentin Lee
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| "So Close to Paradise" is essentially a
three-person drama about two best friends and a girl,
which inevitably involves a love triangle. Set in the
urban/industrial background of Wushan, a city in central
China, filmmaker Wang Xaioshuai exercises high restrain
and skill in bringing his story and characters to life
and in portraying the disillusionment in urbanization
and modernization. |
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| Set after the recent economic reforms when China opened
its door to the outside world, two young farm workers,
Dong Zi (Shi Yu) and Gao Ping (Guo Tao), leave their village
to seek their fortunes in Wushan. While Dong Zi works
as a coolie at the dock, Gao Ping gets by through petty
crime as a confidence trickster. As he is cheated in a
scam, Gao Ping asks Dong Zi to help him kidnap a girl,
Ruan Hong (Wang Tong), who knows the man who cheated Gao
Ping and who works in a grungy nightclub as a singer/hostess.
After kidnapping and raping Ruan, Gao Ping gets involved
with Ruan and they become lovers. The more innocent and
less sophisticated Dong Zi also has a crush on Ruan. Not
long, Gao Ping becomes embroiled in misunderstandings
and gangster brawls which lead to Gao Ping's downward
spiral to his eventual demise. |
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| Setting aside the noirish plot line, the
heart of the film lies in the ambivalent and moving friendship
between Gao Ping and Dong Zi. While Dong Zi has a boyish
and innocent charm, Gao Ping seems older and more sophisticated.
Even though they fall for the same girl, their friendship
somewhat pulls through to the end which is both tragic
and uplifting at the same time. |
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| Under the direction of Wang, Both Shi Yu
and Guo Tao, who play Dong Zi and Gao Ping respectively,
delivered terrific performances which make their relationship
and drama moving without being sentimental. Although the
movie is slow at parts, itıs definitely worth the time
to sit through for the moving emotional pay off at the
end. |
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| The visual style of the film, with its heavy
use of hand-held camera, resembles that of Wong Ka Waiıs
films and of recent French realist films. As the visual
composition is sometimes brilliant, what I admire about
Wang is that never in one moment does he trade style for
story. Wang sticks to the heart of the story, which is
human relationship and drama, and he keenly carves his
style along with it, unlike Wong Ka Wai whose style sometimes
overpowers the drama and his characters. |
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Donıt expect too much fun when you go to watch "So Close
to Paradise." But what you can expect is a decent film
about a trio of underclass characters whom we may not
get to meet in real life, a setting that a few of us have
traveled to, and lives that we, of the bourgeois existence,
donıt get to live. .jpg)
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Now
in theatrical release
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Festivals
& Awards
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Un Certain Regard Prize
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Cannes Film Festival 1999
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| Director
Wang Xiaoshuai |
| Wang Xiaoshuai was born in Shanghai, 1996. He is
generaly considered to be the most gifted of China's "Sixth
Generation" directors, and supporters of his work include
Quentin Tarantino and Atom Egoyan. He studied art and graduated
from Beijing Film Academy in 1988. He became an assistant director
at the Fujiang Film Studio. He was instrumental in putting together
the film MAMA, the directing of which was eventually credited
to Zhang Yuan. |
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Wang
Xiaoshuai's Filmography
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| "So Close to Paradise" (1998) |
| "Frozen" (1997) |
| "The Days" (1994) |
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