FEAST OF VILLAINS (Pan Jianlin, A+)

This is my comment in Bioscope webboard:
http://www.bioscopemagazine.com/smf/index.php?topic=1462.60

FILMS SEEN ON 29 SEP 2008

1.FEAST OF VILLAINS (2008, Pan Jianlin, China, A+)

Guilty pleasure. I love the main actor very much. This film seems to tell its story very straightforwardly or in a very simple way, but somehow its story makes more impact on me than the stories of artier films such as SHANGHAI DREAMS (2005, Wang Xiaoshuai, A+/A).


2.CITIZEN JULING (2008, Ing K, Manit Sriwanichpoom, Kraisak Choonhavan, Thailand, documentary, 222 min, A+)

Though I don’t like a few things in the film, I still give it A+, because there are still many things I like in the film. I find that one of the things I enjoy in the film is a little bit like what I enjoy in a murder mystery film—watching and listening to many people’s testimonies and trying to figure out if they are telling the truth, telling lies, or half truth and half lies. However, there is a big difference, because I may never find out if each of the villagers told the truth or lied, while a murder mystery film always tells us the truth in the end.


3.NERAKHOON (THE BETRAYAL) (2008, Ellen Kuras + Thavisouk Phrasavath, USA, documentary, A+/A)

I like the content of this film very much, though I think some parts of the film are too stylish.


Reply to Merveillesxx

SPOILERS ALERT

--I’m very glad that you like LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. One of the things I like very much in the film is that the film makes the hero and the heroine “morally gray” than “innocent”. The heroine seems to have killed many innocent victims in the past, and the hero also helps her kill an innocent victim. The heroine argues that she kills people because she has to do it, but the film doesn’t fully support her claim, because the film shows us that a vampire can always commit suicide, instead of keeping on killing innocent people. I like it very much that the film presents a vampire character (the middle-age woman) who prefers to commit suicide than to kill innocent people. By presenting a suicidal vampire in the film, the film reminds us that we always have a choice to commit suicide. Some people always hurt other people and claim that they have to hurt other people in order to survive, but I think they should just commit sucide. In conclusion, one of the things I like in LET THE RIGHT ONE IN is its moral ambiguity.