Fu zi

This movie is not a social criticism, not a social realism, not a naturalism, not about family value or any moral lessons concerning raising a child or being a parent. The movie says one thing: even the biological father-son relationship is contingent and fragile. The love and bond between the father and the son cannot hold the relationship when it is impossible or too painful for them to continue the relationship. The father, mother and the son love each other, but apparently it is the best for them to go separate ways. In the end they all have their own happy life (maybe with some regrets)and their own (new) families. Father-son relation is just like relation between two lovers. If it cannot work out, it would be better just to break up and start anew. That is a very potent (unnerving for some) message of this movie. It is about modern relationship. The whole movie comes down to the surprised ending, which transforms your perspective and gives this movie a different light.

Except for the intrusive music which felt like a none too subtle attempt to evoke the sought-after emotion, this was a passable tear-jerker with a bit of sex and comedy. The music was particularly jarring because the solo piano was so much more foreground rather than background, and the distinctly European sound clashed with the tropical Southeast Asian visuals on the screen. To my Western tuned ear, the lack of strings kept the tears, which were yearning to be released, from emerging.

The "feel" of the picture was very Malaysian even though the story revolved around mostly ethnic Chinese characters. The interior and exterior shots as well as the scenes showing dining/food added to the "flavor" of the film. (Please, forgive the pun.)

Worth seeing? Maybe for a rainy afternoon or a soap opera addict. It is a tad too long and could easily be pared another 30min. I can hardly imagine watching the original version - still, I know people watching a continuing soap opera after 20yrs.

This film needs no introduction. The latest work from director-writer Patrick Tam, After This Our Exile took home honours from the recent 2006 Golden Horse Awards for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best PIcture, and after watching it today, it's no surprise why it did.

As mentioned in one of my recent reviews, the storyline of a movie is important, nevermind if the technicalities are great, because if the story doesn't engage, then it's a battle lost, in my opinion anyway. In After This Our Exile, the story is extremely simple, but it resonates deeply, and also because it deals with something very personal, very close, and perhaps, family ties always cut closer to home. After all, the Chinese title is Fu Zi, literally translated as Father-Son, which is quite unsophisticated if compared to the English title.

If you raised an eyebrow in Aaron Kwok's win for his acting in Divergence and thought he probably didn't deserve it, then his role as Sheng will win you over and justify his back to back win at the Golden Horse Awards. I'm sold. Gone are those teeny-bopper bad hair days and repetitive dance moves. Now, with maturity, he adds a certain gravitas to his roles, and kudos too to his willingness to take on unsavoury characters, instead of playing hero all the time. His dad is the perennial terror, one who blows hot and cold in a whim, full of false bravado, and never hesitant to raise a hand against spouse and kid. Uneducated, loud, uncouth, and worse, a habitual gambler, life for his family is difficult, both in material and emotional wealth. Yes, Kwok pulled off this character with aplomb, with subtle nuances, gestures, mannerisms and attitude all spot on, bringing to life a character you'll so love to hate, yet sympathize with at the same time.

And since the "Fu" played opposite the "Zi", and having both of actors pull off their father son relationship so convincingly, with great on screen chemistry, it's no wonder too that 9 year old Gouw Ian Iskandar took home the Best Supporting Actor award as the Son. His childlike innocence will probably bowl you over with earnestness, as he holds his own opposite Kwok and screen mother played by Charlie Young. He doesn't come off as irritating, and is so much likable and vulnerable in character that you just want to give him a hug. Intuitive and smart, you'd come to love and pity his character very early in the story.

Charlie Young only had half as much to do as the other two leads, and without makeup, she manages to bring out that average every day weary look of a tired mother and wife who had enough. And herein, the conflict begins, from the beginning of the film. Other supporting cast include Valen Hsu and Kelly Lin, are kept to a minimum, thereby keeping the focus squarely on the principal cast.

As I mentioned earlier, After This Our Exile tells a simple tale with deep themes, and is able to draw out emotions from within you as it resonates. In what could be problems that households face when there's a gambler in the home, the movie sets to show these issues from the onset, with the breaking down of family ties and values, and the debt causing financial strain on the family. I guess opposition to our Integrated Resorts would see their arguments fleshed out here.

In what could be an oversimplification of the issue, gamblers = debts = strain in family relations, it is this domestic disturbance that ring out vividly. Broadly it can be categorized into two acts (no, I won't say anything more), but each act focuses on different aspects on the family relationship and dynamics. Toward the end, everything comes full circle, with the son experiencing exactly what the mom has gone through, and it makes the movie extremely poignant. It emphasizes the widely held notion that in domestic squabbles, it's always the children who suffer the fate of the consequences.

Brilliant cinematography and awesome musical pieces complemented the movie well, with plenty of nice piano pieces punctuating emotional moments. The pacing, though slow, is well measured, and Ipoh never looked more beautiful, becoming a character in itself rather than just another locale to shoot the film in. Attention to details are not spared, and the production brings about Malaysian flavour to it too. Some though I predict, may not enjoy the open end that director Patrick Tam chose to finish it with, but it will allow for post viewing discussion, loads of it.

My only gripe, as I just found out, is that the theatrical version now showing in theatres, is the watered down one. The director's cut, clocking in at almost 2.5 hours, get whittled down to 2 hours here, leaving certain scenes on the cutting room floor which were glimpsed at through a series of very quick flashback montage. I thought the film could have gone on and showed us more footage, especially on the father-son bonding (hinted from production stills), which I thought would have added a better level of the understanding about the dynamics of the Fu-Zi relationship.

The second movie this year which used the You Are My Sunshine song (the other is the Korean movie), After This Our Exile makes its way easily into my shortlist of favourite movies of 2006.

You are my sunshine, making me happy when skies are grey. You never know how much I love you.

As eagerly awaited as a new Terence Malick film, After This Our Exile, the latest work by idiosyncratic Hong Kong director Patrick Tam more than lives up to expectations. Known as a teacher of Wong-Kar-wai, Tam's first feature in seventeen years is a compelling and moving film about the complex interaction between an irresponsible father and his loyal and devoted son who would do anything for him, even steal. Winner of major Hong Kong awards as well as Taiwan's Golden Horse Award for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actor, the film carries on the gritty tradition of the Hong Kong New Wave of the 70s and 80s while defying patriarchal genre conventions and probing greater emotional depths than much of the mainstream cinema of the time.

Set in Malaysia but spoken in Cantonese, the film uses flashbacks, crosscutting, and ellipsis to tell a riveting and often-melodramatic story. After Lee Yuk-lin (Charlie Yeung) walks out on her abusive husband Chow Cheung-sheng, (Aaron Kwok), a compulsive gambler, their nine-year old son Boy (Gouw Ian Iskandar) runs to his father's place of work to tell him of her escape. The overwrought Sheng drags Lin home and physically and verbally abuses her, but eventually shows his loving, almost childlike side and they end up having sex.

After taking Boy on a cruise, Sheng returns to discover than Lin has left again, this time with another man, and father and son are left to struggle alone. Sheng has lost his job, owes gambling debts, and Boy is without the money to pay the bus driver to go to school. Forced to move to a seedy small town hotel, Sheng is driven to pimping a girl (Kelly Lin) to make money but their life soon begin to spiral further downward. Sheng teaches Boy to sneak into people's home to steal jewelry, but the child is caught and sent to a detention center in a sequence that leads to a startling and unexpected conclusion.

While After This Our Exile sounds depressing and there are some truly heartbreaking moments, the film has touches of kindness and humanity that are enhanced by the caliber of the acting and the rich cinematography of Ping Bin-lee. Iskandar, also known as Ng King-to, is sympathetic and moving as the appealing but not cloying child who loves his dad but is slow to realize how he is guiding him into self-destructive behavior. Pop singer Aaron Kwok gives a masterfully nuanced performance as the deadbeat husband who manages to evoke sympathy as a suffering human being in spite of his failings. We know that Sheng is doing what he does because he loves his son, never grasping the extent to which he has endangered the boy until a furious coda suggests that pain heals very slowly and sometimes not at all.

Like some others who have reviewed the movie, I am puzzled as to why this movie managed to win the awards it did -- except for the best supporting actor award going to the kid playing the "Boy" in the movie. He totally carried the movie -- he's really a major reason why I could sit through the 160 mins of the director's cut version of the movie.

Don't get me wrong. The movie isn't bad, but just that it's really not that good. A few pleasant surprises, besides the fabulous performance by the kid. Despite that his character is essentially a clichéd stereotype, Kwok turned out to be a much better actor than he is a singer. Also, several scenes are funny and the director's humor showed.

But the movie severely suffers from empty script and indulgent direction. The movie's character and plot developments are too light to substantiate the 3-hour duration (or, I believe, even the 2.5-hour duration of the theatre's cut). And the movie drags on and on. Sometimes it's as if the director isn't confident that the messages he intends for the audience would get through, and so he keeps re-sending them, and sometimes in an overly melodramatic way.

Another thing worth mentioning is the director (Tam) seems heavily influenced by Kar-Wai Wong. It's especially evident in the setup where the father gets into an affair with his neighbor in the hotel (reminiscent of "In the Mood for Love" and "2046"). But the movie would have benefited much if Tam's direction were crisper, subtler and more assured.