Free and Easy

A quirky and unusual Chinese comedy about several characters (mostly crooks) running around a desolate town. Occasionally they meet, which results in unexpected funny moments. The film's humor is dry and effective, while sparse music, slow pacing and run-down environments add to its neo-western feel. It's never bloody or overly serious, though, so it's an easy watch if you prefer your comedies with a lighter touch.

Delightful, slowly developing tragi-comedy in a mostly abandoned Chinese mining town. A soap salesman arrives with bad intentions. This alone is sub textually genius because even amongst themselves, Chinese admittedly suffer from cleanliness and hygiene difficulties. While the soap salesman attempts to apply his chosen trade and stay one step ahead of the local law enforcement, he becomes embroiled with other sad sack inhabitants of this lonely town. Static camera and slowly developing scenes with long shots thrown in here and there, it is reminiscent of Jarmusch. That being said it stands on its own as well as providing tongue-in-cheek social critique. A curious statement to me is the fact that the only self proclaimed Christian in the group is the only Moral and empathetic character? There's just more than meets the eye going on here and a great little "side trip" of a movie.

Positive: Well, positive if at least 50% of screen time silently panning through a large, mostly abandoned, industrial town or watching our characters walking it's roads, is interesting to you. Another 25% of time is viewing a few people living in the town, again mostly not talking, or doing much. Negative: What we do see, briefly, of people - a pretend buddhist monk; a crooked thief posing as a soap salesman; a couple of cops; and a few others with brief roles. The main take away is corruption as the salesmen steals from people, the monk falsely begs for donations, the cops try to take advantage of their position, and a couple of other victims. Conclusion, theme could be a bit of humor on the effects of urban blight - not sure.

This movie uses comedy and a ridiculous scenario to examine ideas of loneliness, apathy, crooked officials, crime, and does so very well. This movie is worth the time. The acting is superb.