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Pavilion of Women (2001)
Hollywoodish love story -- light years from Pearl Buck's book
Pavilion of Women was billed by People's Daily, China's official newspaper, as the "first Chinese-made Hollywood film", and indeed was jointly produced with Universal Pictures, and shot in both English and Chinese.
If you never read the book, and come to this movie cold, and accept it as a Hollywood-style romantic epic melodrama set in 1930s China, then you probably won't be disappointed especially if you know nothing about Chinese society at the time. The film has high production values and compelling narrative elements in terms of western values that heroicize transgression: the irresistible romantic attraction between a Chinese wife and Western priest transgresses both social and religious propriety; the attraction between Chinese son and his father's concubine transgresses generational lines.
The problem is that the film is a contemporary love story masquerading as an historical drama that seeks to accrue legitimacy by referencing Pearl Buck's novel of the same name. The entire plot, the setting, the characters, their motivations, and their interrelationships are all utterly at odds with Buck's novel. The filmmakers took Buck's thoughtful story of a women's personal spiritual and philosophical odyssey in the context of traditional family relationships, and transformed it into a fairly ordinary story of physical and material lust to which is lent false importance through the crutch of sensational scenes of fire and war, and the pathos of orphaned children. Buck must be turning over in her grave.
The movie is set in Suzhou (rather than in an area remote from the war); it has omitted characters (two of the four brothers, one of their wives, and Fengmo's wife), changed the personality of every major character (Mr. Wu, Madame Wu, Andre); and created events that never occurred in the book (the orphanage fire, the Japanese invasions), manufactured encounters that would have been impossible in Chinese society of the time (e.g. conversations and meetings between Madame Wu and Andre, between Fengmo and Qiuming), and falsified the very social structure and gender relations that the novel sought to critique and explore.
The mutilations are legion, and surface right away, in the first moments of the film even before the credits. 1) In the movie bringing in a concubine is presented as the mother-in-law's idea whereas in the book it was Madame Wu's idea for freeing herself from childbearing (which makes Mr. Wu's fixation on oral-sex in the movie pure lasciviousness). 2) In the book, Madame Kang's birth difficulty occurs many months after Madame Wu's birthday and follows a series of conversations between the women about age and births. 3) In the book the priest Andre plays absolutely no part in Madame Kang's birth crisis; instead Madame Wu commandeers Mr. Kang to assist in the birth as a way of demonstrating to him the consequences of his sexual appetite so that he will leave her friend alone. Madame Wu emerges the hero, but the movie makes the white male the hero (surprise!). 4) The movie presents Mr. Wu as a domineering husband, whereas in the novel he is actually quite compliant and loving and resistant to the idea of a concubine. 5) In the book the concubine's arrival in the Wu household is discreetly maneuvered not proclaimed with a wedding, and absolutely not publicly revealed as a face-losing surprise to Mr. Wu. 6) The necklace in the movie is complete fabrication. The only thing Qiuming (correct transliteration for "autumn brightness") brings with her to the Wu household is the embroidered jacket in which she was swaddled as a foundling -- in the novel this later leads to a reuniting of Qiuming and her daughter (where is the daughter in the movie?) with her birth mother (the movie just sends her off all alone on a boat with some silver coins). 7) The novel's Andre was born in Italy, not the U.S., had a full beard, and was hired to teach foreign languages to Fengmo. It would have been prohibited for Qiuming to participate; even Madame Wu herself had to eavesdrop from another room. Because of the domestic and social controls on interaction between the sexes, the conversations and encounters in the movie could never have taken place. 8) The orphans in the book are all girls (basically only daughters are abandoned). And 9) in the book no one was directly involved with the army, the Communist Party, or the Sino-Japanese War.
There are many, many more discrepancies, and I could go on and on about them. But suffice it to say that this movie should not have been given the name of the novel; and indeed, the title makes no sense in the context of the film. The movie should have been given a different name so that it could stand on its own merits instead of cheapening Buck's literary work and inviting the kind of harsh criticism I have felt compelled to give here.
Long cheng zheng yue (1997)
Gripping, beautifully photographed, sensitively acted
In Northern China during the early Republic (@ 1911 - 1925) Dragon Town warlord Xiong Jinbiao has the entire Jiang family gunned down in the street during a wedding procession. The bride, Jiang Lanjuan, is the secret sole survivor. She gives all her jewelry to an old family friend to pay for the family's burial, including an empty coffin to fake her own death.
Nine years later, bent on revenge, Lanjuan seeks to contract a legendary assassin, Li Qingyang, to kill the Xiong family. Virtually penniless, Lanjuan offers herself in payment. Instead of accepting her offer, Li instructs her to represent herself as ¡°Mrs Wang¡± to a certain landlady (Da Gusuo) in Dragon Town. Da Gusuo welcomes her, and portrays Xiong as a benefactor to the city ¨C making it possible for the entire city population to freely attend New Year's theatre performances (and later the gilding of the Buddha statue at the local temple).
Soon after arriving in Dragon Town, Lanjuan assumes the disguise of a young man and unsuccessfully attempts to shoot Xiong at a theatre performance. In the meantime, Li negotiates a contract with a rival warlord, Hu Danlong. to assassinate Xiong. Li arrives at the landlady's house as ¡°Mr Wang¡±, a visiting merchant.
Li and Lanjuan -- publicly masquerading as husband and wife while privately eschewing any sexual relationship -- methodically plot the massacre of the Xiong family. Suspicious of the couple, Xiong devises numerous strategies to flush out their true identity and motives. At the same time Lanjuan and Li develop deeper feelings for one another. In addition, Lanjuan's blood-thirst weakens as she comes to perceive Xiong's son and wife as innocents.
In the meantime, Xiong has amassed a robust military protectorate, which leads Hu Danlong to recognize the impossibilities of his own ambitions. When Li accidentally assassinates Xiong's son, Hu seizes the opportunity to become Xiong's ally, offering to flush out Li by capturing Lanjuan, whom Xiong vows to sacrifice at his son's funeral. Li intercepts the funeral procession; professes his true love for Lanjuan and offers his own life in place of hers -- whereupon Lanjuan movingly promises that in their next life she will be his wife and bear his children. The resolution turns on Xiong's heretofore unrevealed character.
Multi-layered with spiraling deceptions and constantly surprising revelations, the film moves toward its unpredictable conclusion like a chess game of destiny and karma in which moral space is subject to constant definition and redefinition. Despite occasional weaknesses in the plausibility of the plot, this is a gripping film from start to finish, beautifully photographed, sensitively acted, and masterfully edited. It will be most deeply appreciated, however, by viewers who welcome the opportunity to explore the dynamics of Buddhist moral discourse that lurk beneath the surface.
Xi yang jing (2000)
Enjoyable but shallow
An enjoyable but shallow film based only in the loosest way on historical facts and Chinese culture at the turn of the century. A lost opportunity -- differing cultural perceptions as well as the early days of Chinese cinema could have been explored in a deeper and more meaningful way.