Funérailles de star

Years ago my high school economics teacher held up a tin toy car with wooden wheels. It was the typical Japanese product of its day. "Beware of people who can do this," he told us. The class did not understand his words until he turned the car over to reveal that it had been made from a Schlitz beer can. The rest of Japanese ingenuity and production is history.

The movie Da wan (Big Shot's Funeral) carries a similar message. Though they may be behind, the Chinese can catch on quickly, particularly to the world of Madison Avenue as illustrated by this hilarious movie where hype and commercialism run amok. This movie reminds me of the 50's si/fi novel "Space Merchants" (Gravy Planet) by Pohl and Kornbluth in which an ad agency gets the exclusive rights to advertise products on the planet Venus. The unconscionable excess on both Venus and in China say much about us as consumers who would rather be entertained than informed.

Sutherland, always good, is excellent here. I am confident the low rating for this film is because of its subtitles, but they are not a bother and are part of the humor.

I feel that this movie was successful on many levels, not least of which being the natural movement in and out of Chinese and English - a tribute to the bi-lingual and bi-cultural understanding of the writers and actors. As a native speaker of both English and Mandarin, I never felt the dialogue to be stilted and, I felt it was well written in both languages. In fact, the writers and crew really brought to life the cultural clashes of when East meets West in more obvious and subtle ways to count. It would take a careful viewing with some very culturally fluent Chinese viewers to pick out many of the inside jokes.

Da Wan also succeeds in weaving together many different comedic forms. Not only is there clever use of slapstick and physical comedy, the film wittily integrates satire, irony, farce and a very Chinese brand of buddy comedy. Here, You Ge shines as straight man to Da Ying. Likewise Rosamund Kwan brings a real subtlety to her role as a Chinese American falling slowly for You Ge's Chinese, Chinese character. Though the movie doesn't hit you over the head with this, it is yet another way in which the movie subtly brings in an East meets West conflict.

The only part I find overtly questionable is the ending - at points, it feels contrived, though I still feel that it is competently executed. Perhaps just a bit too conventional for a movie that I feel otherwise seems fresh and uncliched.

The film is not without its flaws. The aforementioned ending is an example.

Also, Donald Sutherland's role near the end leaves something to be desired.

The character doesn't quite behave believably. However, overall, I would highly recommend this film. Clever, witty and culturally intelligent, it's surprisingly good.

I don't know how anyone can fail to see - this satire is hip and wicked to the bone. Not at all a mainstream Chinese production you would expect!

The closest comparison for this baby would be to _Diva_, but for its viciously funny stab at dot-com money madness, there's no equal.

Within all the whirling satire, Donald Sutherland held down the movie's emotional anchor admirably. He made the movie more than just an average comedy. And the way director Feng used him showed me that China today can make films as sophisticated as any in the world. He made Zhang Yimou and Ang Lee look utterly out-of-date and irrelevent.

"Big Shot's Funeral" doesn't quite add up. First, if you dislike subtitles, look elsewhere, because 80% of the film is in Mandarin. Unfortunately, with Donald Sutherland featured on the DVD jacket, you could easily be mislead into thinking this was not a foreign film. The idea of a "sponsored funeral" is a good one, but unfortunately is beaten to death for 100 minutes, which is way too long for a one joke movie. I can't say I didn't laugh, but it was a real chore to keep up with the rapidly changing subtitles. Definitely has very limited re-watch value, and because of the language barrier, loses something in the translation. - MERK

Puzzled?

Do you like to be puzzled? Do you like movies having a surprise ending?

Then it is a must to watch " Big Shot's Funeral" - a film about the difficult matter of making films. Sounds serious- but it isn't, in fact it is pretty funny.

Film within a Film

A documentary cameraman Yo-Yo(Ge You)is hired to document the way a fabulously successful director Don Tyler (Donald Sutherland) is remaking Bertulucci's movie "The Last Emperor". During the process of work the director feels more and more uninspired, if not disillusioned.

When understanding comes without Language

Lucy (Rosamund Kwan), his personal assistant tries hard to keep him going, but in a strange way Yo-Yo having no command of English touches him and arouses his interest. Due to a misunderstanding ( Lucy is trying to mediate between the two men) Tyler catches the idea that in China even a funeral is a comical event and asks Yo-Yo to arrange something like that for him just in case of his death.

To Be or Not to Be

When the director goes into coma, Yo-Yo starts immediately to arrange the whole thing. He approaches King ( Ying Da), a blond Chinese concert promoter, to make up the event as a gigantic media spectacle. How to finance such a comedy funeral? No big deal - product placement will help. When all space is sold - Tyler recovers, which clearly means that Yo-Yo is in big trouble and the film has to come to an end. The puzzle is solved in a surprising way - go and find out yourself.

As You Like It

For sure you won't regret going to the movies although you will not learn so much about China or Chinese culture and life styles. This film turns out to be a satire on media, commercialism and "Big Shots". And for all those who don't want to do without love - you do not have to.

Written by: Eva Behrendt, Dorothea Maurer, Martina Koepp, Karin Schmidt-

participants of the Berlinale- film - workshop "At the Movies",2002