The Great Buddha+

Realism, sensibility, erotism, love, humor, irony and mistery in a balanced way. This movie is a great inspiration for who wants to know how to tell a story with a good narrative, simplicity and interesting characters. A real good surprise in black and white from Taiwan.

This is just a so-so film, pretentiously made like what Federico Fellini did long time ago in black and white. The storyline was not that interesting, struggling local lowlives vs the local rich and powerful. There're a two deadbeats, a buddha manufacturer, and a bunch of go-betweens. The main dialog in this extremely localized Taiwanese film used the Chinese southern Fu-Kien Province dialect widely spoken in Taiwan, but the high ratio of using the localized obscene curse often related to everybody's mother being raped or violated was so high, it almost covered and appeared in most of the dialog.

The Chinese title of this film was using the pronouncing tone of "Plus", i.e. POO-LA-S(ending sound of S) as "+". There were two murders in this film(didn't feel like a spoiler at all), one witnessed by the two main deadbeats, one was not witnessed but highly suspicious committed by the same person who did the first one. The "+" after "The Great Buddha" title hinted there's something more about this Buddha or in it; it's a plus, buy one get one free. The obscure mix-up similar pronunciations of the Latino "Puta" as well as "Buddha" was the high point of the creativity of the screenplay dialog.

But alas, here's the illogic kick:

A Dead Body is a Dead Weight, there' no way to be handled by just one guy to dispose it, albeit it needed to be lifted and raised so high over the Buddha's neck opening single handed without help, even a normally strong and young guy couldn't do it, not a weak past prime middle aged baldy alcoholic, especially just finished a fornication.

The "Buddha" manufactured in this film is a symbol of absurdity and the phony faith of the Buddhism in Taiwan. It's just a money-making religion, some monks used the Buddha to make a living, some politicians used this almost always Sitting Guy to fool and gain the votes. The Buddhism is so shamelessly commercialized in Taiwan, China and the South-east Asia.

You need patience to watch to the end, 'cause the tempo of this film is so slow and so predictable. The Narrative voice also made this film a not quite serious one, just with an overly used way to help telling a not-so-interesting story. This narration way is also widely used in Korean movies.

This is not entirely a black and white film. Because the world of wealthy people is colorful. A social realistic drama wrapped in black humor, very close to Taiwanese society. Director Huang Xinyao's catchphrase is not only amusing, but also cleverly neutralizes the almost non-existent dark depression in the story. Social class differentiation, wealth gap, and the external flaws of religious politics and economics are all extremely satirical. A great ending was filmed. The black and white tone and the life of the wealthy are colorful, seemingly throwing the problem towards a desperate class division. However, the tone of the storyteller, combined with the jokes of hearsay and the empty emotions of life, cleverly leaks out the money and sex of the old driver driving on the road, completing the theme of black humor to nihilistic literature and art. Talking and laughing can be both relaxed and enjoyable, but for some reason, there is always a sour Wu Nianzhen that makes people want to cry.

The idea of the way of telling is novel, but not limited to the novelty itself. From the playful bystander perspective to the uncontrollable subjective emotion release, this film can be said that it is a perfect example of a narration assisted narration. Along with the pioneering, not rough photography, and valuable original score, a series of technical additions not only adds to the richness of the story, but also makes the mood of the film more touching.

You never know what secret is hiding under someone's skin. The black humor of the place is interesting to present the local style, but also the bleak reality of sarcasm. Crime and punishment are casually spread out in many aspects, and events are comprehensively described in terms of trivial details. It's ironic, and at the same time appropriately sentimental.