Les filles du botaniste

The photography in this film is one of the best I've seen in years. Though the story, at first, sounded too simple, I must admit the actors and director did a wonderful job.

There is a small gap (5 minutes long) when you do wonder where the story goes. But it quickly catches up. (that's why it got an 8).

The emotion ran high in the movie-theater and all left quite moved. Some fought back tears.

It is a movie on love. And a beautiful one too. As a romantic film, with its beautiful landscapes, camera moves, photography, this would be a perfect start to an evening.

Also, the music score does ad to it, without taking over.

It is an exquisite work. With an incredible cinematography and both casts are exceptionally well fit for the part they play. It is very hard not to learn to love Mylène Jampanoï who plays Li Min She is an exceptionally precious asset to Asian Love Stories of highly spiritual contents that requires subtle but sublime or even ethereal quality.

Sad and lonely look in her eyes in contrast to such girlish and intimate gaits with energetic down to earth acting makes her endearing image to retain a very special place in every viewer's heart of both genders her muted whispers in search of love can be heard time after times like a poem. It's a hauntingly beautiful story too but very sad and heart breaking with a sudden shocking and apathetic ending for those understands that how much the relationship meant to Li Min, The Conservative society was so unforgiving to them in such a way that the Chinese society could not offer a space for them to survive.

It would surely cause a traumatic sorrow to everyone grew up in Japan to find out Li Min and Chen An were put to death. Only if they had lived in the community knowing the fact that they could have found their perfect paradise in Kyoto Japan and worked together as long as they wanted. It was considered perfectly normal for a couple of court ladies to share a bed room and bath whilst in service to the imperial court.

Japan has a long history of parthenocratie blossomed amongst highly privileged members worked in the court in ancient imperial capital 'Kyoto' from the Hei An Era (meaning Periode for "peace and tranquility" It still continues to be an elegant and definitely most popular and lenient city for female couples. Lush and ancient gardens of average age of 1000 years old. Luscious landscapes and uni-sexed sweet sounding dialect makes it a Heaven for young couple like Li Min and Chen An. Only the requiring for them to become wealthy and affluent was to be born or adapted into a noble family and work for a crowned princess as lady in waiting. There were in fact generous princesses who would accept a pair to be employed at the same time. There is a silk screen painting of a female couple of court ladies on the Great Gojo bridge holding hands in a summer evening watching fire works. Such a scene comes out quite naturally and blends well into this 1200 years old city built around ancient tradition catering to Imperial family, lord chamberlains, lord reagents and court ladies including those who preferred same sex companions.

Relationships amongst Female were not penalised elsewhere in the world either Orient(Japan) or Europe (Sweden) in human history. They have been protected by sovereign monarch since such relationship were more readily blossomed in highly privileged or educated environment such as in and between princess and lady in waiting, court poets, court musicians and likes amongst those who are blessed with exceptional beauty like Li Min (Venus) and An Chen (Diane). When a woman look for a soul of mother in another woman, such bond can grow often stronger than relationship with a male. I as a bystander, can almost visualise their ethereal love precipitate and purify, then crystallise into a precious jewel.

Mylène Jampanoï impresses every viewers with such a captivating screenplay so real and natural She is simply outstanding! Throughout my life, I have never seen a such an exceptionally perfect mixture of both Eastern and Western worlds in any one person to this date. Needless to mention even in 1116 models whom I photographed for Pinup and Calendar market between 1980 and 1994 in San Francisco Bay Area. No one has even come a halfway near to such an incredible perfection in projecting beauties from the both side of worlds with such balance and harmony that I find in this actress. I was so stunned and could not help but repeatedly keep asking myself "What Have I done with my life?" "have I been a blind or sleeping all these years? You have to be very patient and watch the entire length of movie to understand her indispensable assets that are uniquely of her own due to the fact that her incredible beauty comes out to afore from her soul. Look for an intimate smile filled with warmth and bliss in the scene by the temple where she releases 108 doves into the sky with Chen An. Once you discover her inner beauty it is very hard for anyone regardless of gender or age not to love her. Her image will stay behind your eyes for days.

Sadly there is only one Mylène in this entire world of 6 billion people. I am a mixture of oriental and occidental myself but I look more oriental except for my mouth snd nose. In fact I am extremely envious of her parents for being blessed with a daughter with such extraordinary ability, beauty, talents and wisdom. It always has been one of my life long dream to have children with more perfect mixture from the both worlds, I married an American lady of Germanic heritage. But all our children look more like occidental with a long and pointed nose along with turquoise blue eyes not harmoniously blend in with oriental crowds.

With "Balzac and the little seamstress" Dai Sijie delivered a nice period piece with some interesting reflections on the importance of literature, moving images and theatre. Although a large part of the crew were French, it had a real Chinese feel to it. That feeling is totally absent from Les filles du botaniste. One gets the impression it has been made to order, to cater to the European market. There's hardly any Chinese name on the credit roll, if they're not French they're Vietnamese. The story could have been powerful but has been diluted by its cliché approach and its David Hamilton-esquire photography. In addition, I got completely disoriented by the Vietnamese setting. The worst mismatch was the temple. It was so blatantly a Vietnamese, not a Chinese temple. And using Ho Guom Lake right in the middle of Old Hanoi was not a wise decision. There were plenty of other lakes to choose from, while the urban setting of Ho Guom made it hard to forget we were not supposed to be in 2006. The mountain landscape in the movie is similar to the karst rocks in southern China, so no problem with that. I even wonder if the Kunlin in the film is not meant to be a combination of Kunming and Guilin. Still, I felt cheated by this movie. It is as if the makers are not taking the public serious. It was the same with Memoirs of a Geisha, another Eastern tale made consumable to Western tastes, with 3 very Chinese actresses trying to be Japanese and failing. But hey, who cares? If it has slanted eyes it's all the same, no? One of the commentators to Memoirs of a Geisha was calling it neo-colonialism. I think the same could be said of these Filles.

I stumbled upon this movie last week and just happened to finish it yesterday. Have to say, out of those loud, CGI filled films and those typical LGBT movies i've watched recently, "The Chinese Botanist's daughter" is a pleasant treat.

The story starts with Min Li-a half Chinese half Russian orphan who lives in the post war period of China. She's going to intern for one of the best Chinese botanist there is. And once she arrives she notices that her internship is not going to be easy. The professor is a much perfectionist person with short temper-which would be shorten a lot more when it comes to untraditional behavior. But despite all that, during her stay in the exotic garden, Li finds herself attracted to An-the botanist's daughter. Their bond grows stronger and their love blossoms alongside this beautiful landscape. However things turn ugly when Li has to marry the botanist's son in order to never leave the garden (so she could live with An after her intern ends). And the conservative society has very little place for the both of them.

The story seems solid enough, nothing extremely special or stand out here but it's soft while intense, exotic yet tender, traditional yet manages to has very different feeling. Its visual is absolutely stunning and full of desire. I have seen so many "oriental landscape" embedded films but not many comes close to be this sexy and spiritual. Of course this was filmed in Vietnam and not China but it's hardly an argument here. The director definitely has eyes and heart. The acting flows well, the characters come out quite naturally. The girls really are victims of their times, so it's sadden seeing them trying their best for love and survival. However, even though some scene can be more than cruel or brutal and makes your heart jump, it's strangely up-lifting in the kindest way. Once in a while this movie appears to be a little bit distracting with cut-away scene and long silent moment, but we all have taste and style i guess.

Of course, what's risky about this movie is that it's very cultural oriented. It's not that "if you're not Chinese, you won't understand". Surely one will know that "it was that way at that time in that country" but still, the culture aspect will make one with experience or understanding about China less depress than one who don't. Certain characters might appear two-dimensional and the cruelty shall frustrate the viewers. But it is a quite small factor, and if you're already interested, don't let this stop you watching. This is a great film that actually has style. Even if you're not a fan of LGBT films, The Chinese botanist's daughter has potential to be appealing to open-minded movie lovers. If you're against homosexuality...well, i can't see why you would wandering here and read my comment to this point. I know art can sometimes change the world and people's mind set but i'm not gonna try.

I was looking forward to this film but it was a big letdown. The best parts of the film (and why I give it as much as a 4) are; 1) The efforts of the two main actresses. They really tried but those efforts were wasted on the uninspired dialogue, directing and editing. 2) The physical beauty of the settings, sets and some of the lighting and atmosphere. Even here, we have to subtract the fact that the movie was obviously not filmed in China and did not do a good job of pretending to be in China. The success there was in this area was wasted on the problems itemized below.

The bad parts of the film were; 1) Almost no character development. Every character is uninteresting. The two men are nothing but self centred brutes with no other characteristics. There was not much more depth to the women. It was hard to develop a full sympathy for them. And that is too bad. The opportunity was there and the actresses were there to do it. 2) Uneven story progression. It frequently goes from scene to scene in a disjointed fashion. How much useful content was cut? This seems to want to be an artistic, lush film. So why not stretch it out to 120 minutes or more and do justice to the characters and the story? This might simply be the director's fault but the editors and producers might have played a part in that. 3) Thin story. Not much happens. Some films can get away with that, but here, we don't even get nicely drenched in what does happen. 4) Uninspired directing. We get neither a fully indulgent artistic film nor something brash and in-your-face nor any kind of satisfying balance thereof. To be fair, the director might have actually created the material for a better film which was then badly edited. Alternatively, maybe the diversity of the production crew prevented the film from having a clear identity. 5) Old hat, tired symbolism. I don't want to put in specific spoilers but suffice it to say that it was very obvious and hyper familiar. 6) Lost potential. It's just a shame when some good components and potential are lost.