Zhifu

I'm only commenting due to the lack of information about this movie available--I'd like to keep anyone interested from making my same mistake.

"Uniform" was a largely cliche-ridden, uninspired movie which contained sequences both unappealing to the eye and intellect ("simple" as the reviews called it). Essentially fruitless, "Uniform" is simply unbearable to sit through-I painstakingly made my way through half. I found it amazing this movie was given any credibility (however underground it may be), as every aspect was entirely banal and seemingly ignored during production (note when a passing SUV passenger sticks his head out the window to look at the camera crew). An obnoxiously linear story teamed with horrible, horrible acting is what should be expected.

In summation...

"Zhifu" is reminiscent of a student film--a student sadly disgracing cinema who has no right to be using the medium until he shows a little more respect for it's intrinsic artistic value.

I watched Diao Yinan's Zhifu (UNIFORM) at the DC FilmFest last year. It made a strong impression at the time -- and it lingers in memory (now many months later) as a work that afforded an intriguing experience.

In some respects perhaps Zhifu exemplifies a new esthetic model gradually emerging with the DV medium. While a fictional story, UNIFORM feels very close to real life: to the ambiguous, low-temperature, mundane texture of life in much of the world. ... The deeper lessons of experience are not summarized in plot lines. They're etched out in the slow toils of living.

The story & relationships are built gradually and naturalistically. The closing scenes of Zhifu were (for me) particularly affecting. Kudos to Diao for guts -- & for what seemed a distinctive, understated style, and an interesting, individual viewpoint.

Zhifu is a gritty film that explores the plight of people who have few skills and little education in a China shifting from a command to a market economy. It is also about the disconnect between the "common folk" and the authorities who ride herd over them. Having spent most of the 90s in China, I can say that Zhifu captures a lot of what daily life in urban China is like - family life, attitudes towards authority, the sense of aesthetic, and the contradictions of loyalty.

If I had a criticism of Zhifu, it would not be the lowish production value, which I think makes the film more authentic and fresh. Rather, I would take issue with the near utter lack of humor or happiness. The director may be trying too hard to depict a difficult situation. Chinese people are not typically morose or grim, and often express a sense of humor that is somehow cheerfully sardonic. The film would have been lifted to something more had we been shown this resilience, in addition to the hardships the characters endure.

A few years ago, the NY Public Library ran an underground Chinese language film series. Most of the films were produced on video; many were crudely shot and edited. But the entre' into places in mainland China, Taiwan and Tibet proved worth the time spent with these rough-edged videos. "Uniform" reminded me of this series, looking more grown up and much better funded.

The film is about the necessity of taking on an alternate persona in order to survive in the new "free market" China. The action takes place in an anonymous provincial town in northern China. Admittedly slow at times, the leisurely pace nevertheless allows the eye to appreciate the many exquisitely composed frames. There's flash and substance in each composed scene and veracity in the wide, set-up shots,including passersby noticing the camera.

The protagonists (a man; a woman) are both young and scraping to make the next meal. The man's background is intuited as we see how his family lives. He is employed as a low status textile worker, an occupation usually given to women. From this, without knowing anything about Chinese culture, we can understand why he chooses a macho profession to impersonate; one where you are given immediate respect by the uniform you wear. You don't wonder why he does what he does or how he does it. On the other hand, the woman's background is pointedly opaque. Does anyone care to know the how's and why's of people who ply the oldest profession in the world?

There's minimal dialogue. With the added immediacy of video, the writer/director twists the plot in the real streets of China -- not the tourist images of Beijing or Shanghai. These twists rest on a number of juxtapositions: gender, societal, cultural and economic. And, the film is not without humor, much of it visual. For instance, is Superman a universally known action figure? In one scene when the man is literally changing his life while he changes his clothes, one can't help think of Superman if he lived in a town without phone booths.

The visuals are both striking and absorbing. Like words in a great novel,both the beginning and ending images in "Uniform" pique the interest and invite our participation in creating our own semblance of the events. Too bad this film, mostly because of its pacing, will be relegated to the art house and the museum film roster.

Rosselini invented "neo-realism" in Rome at the end of WWII when Italy and its film industry were devastated and production money was scarce. He took his actors and camera and ideas into the street and showed the world that singular time in that particular place in the form of popular entertainment.

"Uniform" accomplishes this in contemporary China. Like the films I saw at the library, I felt privileged to be invited in, only this time with a cleaner eye and a sharper ear.

We enter this movie as voyeurs, intruders into Xiao Jian's sewing room.We see only Xiao Jian's shadow, bent over the shadow of the sewing machine projected on a yellowish dirty wall,implying that this is going to be a story of a man projecting another life into his world a made up shadow of his real self.I see this as a movie within a movie Xiao Jian's acting out the movie in his head -- having power as a policeman.The actor gives a perfect awkwardness to Xiao glossed over with poorly contrived bravado as he intimidates commuters in deserted highways.Later he smoothly shows Xiao's increasing confidence, not in his con game, but in some kind of self-deception that he has become a real policeman.His walk is more determined,his sneakiness less nervous,more cunning. The wearing of the uniform has turned fantasy into a discovery of something in him to respect. The movie is about finding self-respect.The final Chaplinesque image of Xiao biking away confirms for me that this movie is a commentary on some specific socio-political condition in China presented in a Silent Movie mood. Xiao is cartoonish yet moves us, makes us feel for him as Chaplin's and Keaton's characters did. He is the innocent, naive Everyman caught in the turmoil of wiser men and forced to fight his way out. His policeman's uniform is the reincarnation of all those common objects Chaplin and Keaton used to throw at their pursuers. Zheng Shasha's waifish persona is a strong reminder of all those women Chaplin and Keaton's characters used to go goo-goo eyes over. This is a Silent Movie with sound and dialogue (although there are long stretches without any conversation). A movie that says a lot, simply. Cinematography is tinted like the patina of tarnished metal, greenish, darkening beginnings of rust. Gives the movie its character's mood of increasing desperation.tito a. ##