美人魚 ([The Mermaid], 2016, Stephen Chow)

We don't get this kind of film too often on the big screen and then even in 3-D! This was a blockbuster in Mainland China, so this would also be a good opportunity to get acquainted with Chinese mainstream culture.
This first part of this film is slapstick. It has a very physical humor. It is funny for people who laugh when somebody gets hit with a golf club.There were exaggerated performances, seemingly also meant to be funny and close to being unbearable.
A business tycoon is destroying the life conditions of the mermaids, so they decide to send an assassin. But they fall in love instead. The tycoon discovers that he has a conscience, but other parts of his empire are chasing the mermaid population. They need their DNA for purposes only they fully comprehend. The chase is the second part of the film. This chase is rather gory, but again too exaggerated to be realistic. The strangers with whom I watched this film also thought this was funny.
The message is (when people have finished laughing) that we should protect nature and the diversity of species.
Neither the comedy nor the action part of this film are convincing. The c9omnedy is just not funny and the action part is far from breathtaking. And the 3D? Mr. Chow didn't use it in a spectacular manner, so the extra dimension did not enhance my experience with this film. It can be watched on a DVD without missing anything particular - if you think you should watch it all.
4/10

桃姐 (2011, A Simple Life, Ann Hui)

... and a simple film. Chung Chun To has worked all her life for the family of Roger. When she suffers from a stroke, she decides to retire and Roger is looking after her. Her health declines and in the end she dies, but yet - a film that is inspiring hope.
Wonderfully acted by Andy Lau and Deannie Yip. So many expressions are conveyed just by their doing and not by their saying.
The film also "criticizes society", however not by crying out a manifesto, but just by pointing. For example when we see that the people in that retirement home haven't their private rooms, but just detached cells without much privacy. Nor when we learn about the latent racist attitudes that without shame accepts different payment according to the origin of the worker.
This is a quiet film, that kept me thinking for a while.
10/10

Andy Lau and Deannie Yip in A Simple Life

Remembering happy days together

Privacy in a Hong Kong retirement home

A Simple Life is one of the best films I have seen recently

小城之春 (Spring in a Small Town, 1948, Fei Mu)

This has been declared as the finest Chinese movie ever made. Indeed, it is amazing It starts as some Lady MacBeth in the Chinese Province, but then it takes another, maybe specifically Chinese direction. The movie rotten many years in the dungeons of Mainland archives, as it was so far away from the official wishful thinking the Communists advocated in their flicks. This is a little, intimate study in the lives of four people.
The story is told in a strange old-fashioned way. It is as if the sound was recorded in a studio, however I want to leave technical details alone. We should be happy that we have this movie at a.
In the beginning there is a sick husband, his sister and his wife, She feels extremely bored in the devastated house, especially with only one room at her disposal. The couple doesn't live parallel, but total separate lives. She feels bored, he allows himself to be absorbed by his health. A doctor calls, an old friend. The war had separated them. The wife had a crush on the doctor and stills feels attracted. She would like to run away with the doctor, but what to do with the husband? A possible marriage with the younger sister is discussed.
One evening the emotions are clarified; every body continues life with a better understanding of each particular life.
This film doesn't need may words to explain the development of the emotions between the main characters. Mu Fei knew the subtle art of allusion; putting a hint here and there. The viewer finishes the story in the head. This is great art, so it had to be banned from the Mainland. I want to see more from this director.
8/10

Two plus two will eventually equsl four