withthefairies

A beautiful though melancholy film covering the hopes and destinies of several people in contemporary China. Marriages and parenthood are strained and sometimes broken by the tremendous pressures on ordinary people's lives. Business failure and the menace of underworld moneylenders, the burdens of importunate parents, love rivalries, divorce and not least job precarity all threaten to crush the spirit. Despite all this people are trying to behave decently towards each other and battle their way towards a worthwhile future for themselves and loved ones. The actors offer sensitive portrayals of their characters.

Loved it, but hard to explain why. I think this is the only melodrama I've ever truly enjoyed and don't understand how they did it! It was over-acted in a way that somehow works delightfully; it felt like the cast and director knew just what they were doing. Great sets and costumes and unobtrusive computer effects that brought the postwar 1940s to life. I especially enjoyed Alejandra Onieva as the red lipsticked bombshell Carolina Villanueva; Natalia Rodríguez as the stylish, hard-as-nails Natalia Fábregas; and Antonio Durán 'Morris' as the sneering Detective Varela, but the whole cast were great.

This was wonderful. Gradually growing tension, garnished with comic touches, and played to perfection by the two male leads.

A smooth and successful young actor is to fly from his Berlin home to Britain to audition for a superhero movie. His only frustration at that point is getting hold of the script. His taxi to the airport arrives too soon, so he sends it off and thinks to fill in time with a drink at the local bar. There he encounters another inhabitant of his block of flats. He treats their discussion with tactful reserve, as a fleeting encounter with an unimportant man. But the conversation proves quite sticky. His frustrations grow, tension deepens.

Almost the entire film takes place in the bar, giving it the feel of a stage play. And almost all the dialogue is between the two men, though there are important scenes involving his wife and the woman who owns the bar.

The backdrop is gentrification, with the two protagonists representing a clash between the old and the new. Looming over all is the shadow of the past: the Stalinist regime in Eastern Germany.

I would be happy to watch this again.