George_Huang

What kind of story would attract the acclaimed South Korean director Lee Chang-Dong's support and serving as a producer? (So far he has only served as a producer of two films. He was even only an executive producer of his own work "Secret Sunshine." I have to also mention that the film's French producer Laurent Lavolé was the guest who I honorably hosted in the Taipei Film Festival in 2008.) "A Brand New Life" is such a simple but moving film from the new French Korean filmmaker Ounie Lecomte. Based on her personal experience as a child, she sincerely shares this poignant but very inspiring childhood memories to the audience around the world.

Jinhee was taken out on a trip by her father. Her father bought a wide range of gifts, they ate lots of delicious food, and he even gave her a big cake, but it all turned to a different direction once they set their feet into a children's monastery shelter. It turned out that Jinhee's life will never be the same ever since. This has a similar premise as the famous fairy tale "The Little Princess" by the British writer Frances Hodgson Burnett. Though we think that there would be another harsh supervisor and several kids who try to bully her here through Jinhee's eyes, fortunately, the reality is not entirely so tragic.

The supervisor seems harsh, but in fact, she has a loving heart under her icy face; the crippled sister, who's the oldest among the children, sadly took her fate after the unsuccessful struggle; Sookhee is already an older child than most, she seems capricious at first, but she's very sympathetic underneath. She and Jinhee soon to become inseparable friends. But they still have total different perspectives toward the future. Sookhee, who has watched many of the adopted children left, wish that she would find a good home before she becomes too old, so she tried her best to promote herself once she gets the chance. But Jinhee, who's still waiting for her father to fulfill his promise and come back to pick her up, but the wait seems to be increasingly long and increasingly remote.

Lecomte showed her great talent in this film she wrote and directed for the first time. She presented the very personal story in a very modest and earthy way, but it's even more effective and moving than letting the sentiments taking over. Take the part where Jinhee and Sookhee secretly took care of a dying bird after they found it as an example, it simply conveys the profound meaning of the fine line between life and death. Kin Sae Ron, who was casted as Jinhee, successfully performed as the crucial key to make the film work, whether it's the look when being helpless, or the fake smile when she has learned to be sophisticated, they are all hard to make the audience not be moved.

After Sookhee was gone, Jinhee, who had hope once again in her heart, had lost someone she could rely on. In the meantime, she learned that her father and the family had moved to somewhere no one knows from the headmaster of the monastery. It was the first time in her life that she felt all alone and was left in helplessness and despair. but she eventually learned to face the difficulties of life with strengths. She quickly got a new hope that might become a turning point in her life with her adorable looks. When on her way towards the unknown destination, the warmth when leaning on her father's back on the back seat of the bike suddenly appeared in her heart, but it may only be deeply buried in the memory as the song she sang from her heart.

It was delightful to see the revival of Taiwanese Cinema in these couple of years, but I have to say regretfully that there weren't many which still left me strong aftertastes a few months later. The problem is that I can't recall if there was any sincerity in the storytelling. Mostly, they felt like products which tended to arouse the sympathy of the audience through demonstrating the tragedies in the present society. They probably needed to be known, but the intentional purpose itself sadly made the products feel cheesy. I really hate to judge films from my own country, especially as a heavy movie buff, but I feel that I should express how I truly feel instead of only telling the good sides.

However, this debut by the new filmmaker Hou Chi-Jan feels a lot different. The producer Zoë Chun-Jung Chen, the screenwriters Hou and Kelly Yuan-Ling Yang are all first-timers. Only the film editor Liao Ching-Song and the sound engineer Tu Du-Che are the veterans from the Taiwanese Cinema New Wave in the 80's. So this is a nearly new-blood creativity that I was happy to see, and it was even beyond my expectations.

The story is about a girl meets a boy on a ship to the satellite island of Taiwan called Jin- Men(means Golden Gate literally), but it's not just a love story as it appears to be. When something strange happens, the girl was left along with the boy and an Indian who comes out of nowhere in the ship. As she feels like being stuck in a nightmare, the boy confirmed it. So what happened beforehand or will happen afterward start to be revealed interactively.

Easily, the mysterious and tense scene in the ship reminded me of David Lynch, and it makes perfect sense since this is a story intensively related to dreams. The sudden cuts and distant shots also reminded me of the new Palme d'Or Thai director Weerasethakul. Thankfully, it's not a rough imitating which it could easily turn out to be, but an idea that borrowed from the skills and still kept the filmmakers' creativity. Most of all, I was very glad to feel the earnestness I could hardly get from the new films of my own country. Even it has no big scales like a few other big hits do, it simply surpasses them with this important fact.

Dreams have always been something filmmakers are fascinated about but not really often seen in Taiwanese films. After being highly noted by the realism built up by veterans such as Edward Yang and Hou Hsiou-Hsien, who notably is the executive producer of the film, that inherited the Italian masters like De Sica and Rossellini, I believe it's about time to transfer the homage to the other equally divine Italian masters like Fellini and Antonioni and show the world the diversity of Taiwanese Cinema. It's neither the best Taiwanese film nor a perfect film having said that, but it's surely a huge first step.

Inception, simply as its idea, is what dreams are made of. Nolan's undeniably masterful mind triumphs once again and reaches the high expectations and even beyond. It's his most complicated and arguably best work to date. Maybe many people would find this dream theme very uninteresting, but looking back at the film history, many brilliant classics are all tightly related to dreams.

Cobb is a brilliant criminal in dreams. But in his subconscious, there's always a woman who is his biggest weakness that gets in his tasks. Even his closest partner Arthur doesn't know this secret which no one knows. Until one day, this huge client Saito came to them and offered him a reward beyond any price, he finally had to face his deepest fear in his subconscious gradually. Ariadne, a genius dream architect, is the one who turned on this turning point. But Cobb has to complete an extremely difficult mission. This time it's not extortion. It's inception.

During seeing the film, many films which might inspired it or similar to it popped up in my mind. Talking about dreams, David Lynch is best known for being the master of the territory, I believe anyone who has seen "Mulholland Drive" may find the dream sequence in the first half is simply unforgettable. Alejandro Amenábar's "Open Your Eyes" has the same idea. Spike Jonze's "Being John Malkovich" has got the same excitement of entering and taking over someone else's mind. The plot of peeping into the private world of a tycoon seems to be a homage to Orson Welles's "Citizen Kane." But what didn't occur to me was the unknown woman who made the leading role fall for in Hitchcock's "Vertigo." There're also parts with strong Hitchcock atmosphere in the yet another great score Hans Zimmer handed out. Instead, the Wachowski Brothers's (or should be called brother and sister now) "The Matrix" which may remind many people of only has a similar style on the surface.

The unstable and haunting essence of memories has shown in Nolan's "Memento," "Insomnia," "Batman Begins," and "The Prestige." This time he took a further step and made his character confront the memories he can't face but can neither get rid of through the plot setting. This is what makes the film so haunting and has a heart that touches the audience besides of being a well-deserved entertaining summer blockbuster. This has always been Nolan's advantage and gift as both a British and an American.

In fact, there are three actors who were not Nolan's first candidates. Arthur, who was played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, favored James Franco. Ariadne, who was played by Ellen Page, favored Evan Rachel Wood. And Mal, who was played by Marion Cotillard, had Aishwarya Rai in Nolan's mind. But this final ensemble is even more outshining, especially the unstoppably brilliant Cotillard who wasn't limited by the limited role at all.

Just like the fairy tales we knew in childhood such as "Rip van Winkle," "Urashima Tarō," and the unmissable "Alice in Wonderland," Nolan continued our longings for dream that have never stopped. The tangled mystery of truth and fiction, its reflection of the reality, and its magic of curing minds. This was why the maestros, such as Fellini, Antonioni, Buñuel and Resnais etc., always had favored it. Nolan inherited the will of these great filmmakers and took dreams to another different level through films.