L'arrivo di Wang

Wannnnnnnngggggggg!!! For a budget film which probably cost no more than the price of a latte to make,weve got to give it a little slack.First off it is an engrossing watch,yes the CGI is below standard (price of a latte remember)yes its confined to a single holding room for most of the time,but hell!! it IS thought provoking,it is clever and I must say I couldn't wait to find out what was the end scenario.No its not a mega blockbuster where film fans flock only to be let down by all the hype,its a film which will disappear into the corridors of time ,hardly seen by anyone and that is the sad truth.I gave it a chance,I watched,I enjoyed.Open your mind and let it in,there a far,far worse movie experiences out there than The Arrival of Wang! Weve all seen them.Yes its got flaws,yes its pretty hard watching at times,but stick with it, there are also some great moments as well.It is a great film as it does keep you guessing,the trick is to just remember its a film and my mind was entertained by a budget film,thats why I marked it a solid 8!The end line should be up there with the classic final film quotes!! Its a masterpiece. The question is:Does Wang come in peace? Or does he come to leave earth in pieces? You'll have to watch yourself....................

As this film opens protagonist Gaia is working on translating a film from Mandarin into Italian when she is interrupted by a phone call. She is wanted for an emergency translation job for which she is offered two thousand euros for a few hours work. It soon becomes obvious that this won't be a usual job; she must wear a blindfold while travelling and the job is to be done in the dark so she can't see the man she is translating. The questions, and answers, seem a little strange... at appears the individual, Mr Wang, was picked up in a woman's house two weeks after she chased him away and the authorities want to know why he returned, where he stayed in those two weeks and most strangely why he is speaking Chinese. Later the lights are turned on and the last of those questions makes more sense... Gaia may have got herself into something much deeper than she expected.

When I picked up this DVD for 50p I had no real idea what it would be like but was intrigued by the idea of an Italian sci-fi movie... I wasn't disappointed when I watched it. It opened pretty well and only got better when we got to the interview room. Even though most of the film took place in this room it was tense and there was a great sense of mystery... is Mr Wang telling the truth, who are the people asking the questions and where did Mr Wang come from. If possible I'd recommend watching this knowing as little beforehand as possible, which is why I've kept descriptions vague, as it will improve the twists, which aren't too obvious. There are some disturbing moments as the interview first gets intense then involves torture. Some plot holes are a little hard to ignore, most obviously we just have to accept that this agency has to get in an outside translator to introduce a character who is morally offended by what is going on. The small cast does a solid job, most notably Francesca Cuttica, who plays Gaia and Ennio Fantastichini as Curti, the man asking the questions. Overall I'd definitely recommend this to sci-fi fans looking for something different.

Therefor I am not going to spoil the story for you. I'm not even going to touch the subject of genre (you can read that here on IMDb if you really want to though). But I will tell you this: If you are an avid fan of cinema and specifically of Korean cinema, than you might remember a movie that had a similar theme, but handled the whole thing better. That is not to say that this is a bad movie. Quite the opposite, this is quite good and has its moments.

The actors are good, the effects are good too (for a low budget movie). The story is kinda predictable, the dialogue is good too (especially the last sentence that our female protagonist hears is terrific). The mentioned sentence was something the filmmakers had to fight for (producers didn't seem to like it, but believe me, it worked with the Frightfest audience!).

I have never heard of The Arrival of Wang. The first I heard of it was on Film4 during the Frightfest season which they were having. Being quite the horror buff, I decided to give it a look on our very own IMDb only to find one review and zero description! It was clear to me that no one had seen it. However, seeing something without knowing nothing about it was an idea that sounded very appealing to me so I watched it without knowing nothing about it and what I got was a well done, low-budget and low-key thriller that offered something a little bit unique, but which is quite flawed.

I won't go too much into the plot because knowing nothing about it is something that I found quite intriguing. You put yourself right in the main character's shoes, so you feel as confused and alienated as she does. She's a translator who gets a mysterious call to go and do some translating. That's really all you need to know about it. What unfolds is some compelling dialogue and bad CGI. If I told you that most of the film plays out in one room, then you'd be understandably turned off. However, you shouldn't be. I was never bored in The Arrival of Wang thanks to the unique premise and well-handled screenplay. As long as you keep open minded, you're sure to find something to enjoy. It's also quite thought-provoking.

It's not all about talking though. There is also some well-executed scenes of thrills and tension which I shan't spoil for you. It's just a shame that this aspect wasn't used more because it added some much needed spice to the film. I felt like the whole thing ended too quickly and more could've been done. However, it's better to be too short than too long, right? There are also some seriously bad effects that are worth a mention. I know it's a low budget film, but they really shouldn't have included ambitious set-pieces if they knew that they couldn't pull them off. They could've at least tried to execute them with a bit of imagination and with as little CGI as possible.

However, The Arrival of Wang is a film worth seeing. I've seen much worse mainstream films and at least it's never boring. It offers something different and it always had me interested. The final line of dialogue also hit me quite hard. It's a great ending which leaves you with something to ponder about. Some of the plot can be quite predictable, however I found it difficult to pin point how the film was going to end and it didn't disappoint. In short, if you get the chance to see The Arrival of Wang please do. You also get a special feeling of belonging to a very small cult of people who have actually seen it. I imagine only six people have seen it so far, so you could be the seventh!

THE ARRIVAL OF WANG is a little-known, low-budget Italian sci-fi movie about a female translator, fluent in Mandarin, who finds herself undertaking the most unusual job of her career when contacted by a mysterious government branch. It starts off promisingly, provoking a sense of mystery and foreboding with its 'dark room' premise, but sadly it gets more and more ridiculous as the story progresses.

The main problem I had with the production is its reliance on CGI effects which look fairly ridiculous. A key twist early on had me bursting into laughter rather than being frightened as the female lead was. This transforms it into nothing more than an extended episode of THE OUTER LIMITS (circa 1990s), one which feels dragged out in places. Little happens, and when it's all over you wonder how they managed to fill the running time out.

There are some decent scenes and elements here, including a torture sequence or two which prove to be fairly hard-hitting, but I did find the story falling apart as the finishing line approached. The twist ending is anything but surprising, while the acting is little to write home about. It is a shame, because I believe with tighter realism and more focus on the human aspects of the tale this could have been great rather than average.