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Jiang Wen is pretty much the most popular mainland Chinese director/actor at present. But whenever I watch any of his movies I can't help feeling that it might be useful being Chinese myself so I could better catch more of the social commentary and humor, which are apparently plentiful in all of his movies. But I am not Chinese, and so Jiang Wen is one of the few directors, whose movies leave me behind feeling stupid and somehow a little guilty for not "getting them", because there is supposedly so much to "get"...

But I also can't help feeling that his movies are pretending to be more than they really are. This is especially true for this movie, which I enjoyed the least of the three Jiang Wen movies I have seen so far (the other two being "Devils on the Doorstep" and "Let the Bullets Fly"). The set-up is really nice, there are interesting characters and stories introduced. First we see one story in one part of the country, then another story in another part of the country, then one character from the second story going to the first setting and encountering characters from there, and then we get to see a flash-back which ties it all together and wraps the whole thing up. And it all works out pretty nicely with very, very beautiful music and sometimes hilarious scenes going on.

BUT there is constantly some surreal sh!t happening that doesn't make any sense at all! We have a goat falling from a tree, a piece of grass and dirt floating on a stream leading to a house built with round rocks, a man committing suicide right after all his problems have been solved and a girl giving birth to a baby on a moving train while she is peeing through a hole on the track, thus dropping the baby on the flower covered train track - just to name a few of those moments. I've read that these events are for the most part supposed to symbolize the crazy futility of the cultural revolution, which is the time-setting of the majority of the film. What?! Really?! Come on! I'm sure there are better ways to depict the futility of the cultural revolution than having something completely (!) random happening in the movie all the time...

Another thing that i found pretty annoying is that Jiang Wen seems to like using unresolved plot lines as a cheap means to have people discuss and think about the movie afterwards. He simply has plot lines ending abruptly or not showing them any more. That doesn't make it deeper, it just makes it a bigger mess.

If you want to watch a movie by Jiang Wen, don't start with this one!

About two weeks have passed since I watched this movie, so I don't remember every detail of it perfectly anymore. But what I do remember is that I did enjoy watching it.

Luckily, I didn't read the plot synopsis on IMDb before watching it, because it sure looks boring and overcooked: Careless bachelor is tracked down by the daughter he never knew he had; they slowly start bonding while facing all kinds of obstacles... yaaaawn!

But quite on the contrary, this movie struck me as a fresh and playful drama with lots of funny moments (that for the most part didn't derive from the "oh-so-funny" plot-element of father and daughter trying to work it out despite not knowing anything about each other, which in turn results in awkward situations etc.). The cast was very good. I especially liked the stoic male main character and one of the supporting characters who was eating stuff in every scene he was in. There are also quite a few little plot twists that are believable and serve the story line well.

Overall, it's a very likable movie with the message that it's never too late to change your path in life, even though it may seem painful. Interestingly enough, that message is not only delivered through the father-daughter-main-plot, but also through sub-plots. And it's delivered in a non-hysterical, non-preachy way, which is a big plus in my book!

Isabella is definitely not a masterpiece, but it's the kind of movie I would like to see more; especially in times when the money that is being spent on any given super-hero movie would be enough to make literally a hundred movies that are relevant to people's lives, actually make a point and give just a little food for thought (not demonizing blockbusters here; just saying the balance is off).

I have to say that I am genuinely skeptical about people who hail this movie as a "masterpiece", because I simply cannot believe that anyone could overlook the many flaws of the movie - especially concerning the aspects of story-telling and entertainment. I can already see how some people who read this cry out: "This is not supposed to be about entertainment, it's about emotions, a mirror of the time and place, it's thought-provoking, beautifully shot, if you don't like it, you should go back to watching the Fast and the Furious", etc.! Well, fact is: a good movie SHOULD be entertaining! If it fails on this level, then it fails as a whole, no matter how beautifully shot, etc. it is. It is right, of course, to say that too many movies are made solely for entertainment purposes. Many movies try to feed us basic ingredients, but fail to spice them up - and those movies fail, too. Summer Palace, on the other hand, delivers lots of spices in terms of artistic craftsmanship - but no substance. I don't think the story it tells is worth telling for the most part.

The movie does depict an interesting time and place; and it is nicely shot. And it probably took some courage to make because it features the demonstrations at Tian An Men Square in June 1989, which is still kind of a taboo today in China (don't get your hopes up, though: you just see a crowd demonstrating and throwing bricks at a burning truck for a few minutes; the political background is never mentioned or even hinted at, nor does anything else happen, besides the main characters being scared and confused and running around inside the student dormitory looking for each other).

The characters, however, experience a remarkably small amount of hardship (or happiness, or even anything), considering the times they live in. Yet they all seem to break in their own ways under the things they endure. I think a big problem i have with this movie is the fact that it takes itself so very seriously and the characters feel sorry for themselves all the time because of how tough they have it. And since they don't attempt to do anything about their oh-so-tough problems, it is pretty hard to feel sympathetic for them.

We get to see good acting for characters that are barely worth the actors' while. They have to deliver pseudo-meaning-bearing lines like "i want to break up with you because i cannot break apart from you" followed by two people staring at each other or thinking for a veeery looong time without saying a word. Another recurring thing (at least once every fifteen minutes) is people having sex and bursting out in tears after wards because they are emotionally overwhelmed or unfulfilled. The sex scenes get really old really quick, by the way. And so does the crying.

Summer Palace seems to me like a movie made for an audience that generally enjoys independent movies with high artistic value and low commercial motivation. It is made for an audience that likes to find subtle messages where there maybe really aren't any. And it is made for an audience that doesn't mind watching an unimpressive story unfold over two-and-a-half hours.

It's the kind of movie you're bound to see at some point when you attend a film-festival.