szetungyip Reviews

Olga (II) (2021)

olga's sports career was ruined by politics

[7/10 · 27 August 2022]

#46th Hong Kong International Film Festival# Olga's sports career was ruined by politics. I'm kind of depress after watching this film. This situation was really likely to what's happening in hk, if your family was involved with the event, you must feel loneliness, helplessness, confusion, confusion and fear. In the beginning of the story, Olga really wants to take part in the Olympic , but in the end of the story, she hurt herself again and again just want to be able to return to Ukraine.

I have no political stance, but I hate politics. It seems that human society can only be trapped in the whirlpool of political destruction and reconstruction, never stopping. Because there is no political position that can take into account the well-being of all people, there will always be people injured in the tug of different positions, and the hypocritical peace is transient. In this film festival, I also watched "La Fracture". This film is also talk about something political and people get hurt in that situation. I deeply felt that no matter what kind of position, in the process of political struggle, only citizens will suffer.

Diary for My Children (1984)

diary for my children

[9/10 · 17 August 2022]

Today I watched this Hungarian film which only show in Hungary . The director is Márta Mészáros,I think she is the best director in Hungary. Her works are very bold, forward-looking, sensitive and sad. Only a few of the 64 films she has directed can be shown in the public. Most of them are included in the film archive. It is very rare that the Hungarian Film Archive provided the broadcasting resources only when it met the Hong Kong International Film Festival. Moreover, it has been restored in high definition! I'm really lucky to have the chance to see this movie!!

This is a semi autobiographical film. Originally, the film was released in Hungary in 1982. However, due to the content containing politically sensitive topics, it was dragged with the National stuff for two years. Finally, it was released in Cannes and won the award. Márta Mészáros 's father was a sculptor who was killed in the Stalinist purge of World War II. Her mother was a prison guard. After her mother died, she became an orphan. Mesarosh's childhood experiences are generally shown in this film. The film is full of a very ironic realism tone. At the same time, it is interspersed with the repeated memories of Juli. She is extremely eager for the life in she has before, but saddly she loss her close people again. This story reflects the typical tragedy of hundreds of thousands of East Europeans who experienced World War II.

There are a lot of scenes of worshipping and praising Stalin and socialism in this film. It is interesting that this film was actually shown in the Soviet Union that year. Obviously, these political censors who were baptized by Stalinism could not understand the irony. It was not until later that it was rejected by many regions. In addition,I could not post this film review on Chinese movie app. My article has been rejected by deletion, obviously Because of political reason.

The Last Emperor (1987)

It took him a lifetime to become an ordinary person

[9/10 · 6 June 2021]

I define this work as: a realistic biography of Puyi in the form of film.

The film is very depressed, too lonely, from the age of three he enter the Forbidden City, he was doomed to the tragedy of this life. From the age of three to fifty-four, he was almost under house arrest all his life. He was put under house arrest in the Forbidden City before he was a teen , in Manchuria after adulthood, and in ideological labor reform during his middle age. He is a human being, but he is like a doll. He is played by the times and tied by fate. It was not his decision that he ascended the throne when he was a kid. After he ascended the throne, he found that the world was not belong to him. The world outside was ever-changing, but he was separated by a wall. When he finally left the Forbidden City, warlords were fighting, his family's bones were dug up and burned, so he had to take refuge in Japan. Who knows that he became a puppet under house arrest under Japan. Later, the times changed again, it was the Communist Party, he was locked up in the ideological reform. All the changes in China are affecting his destiny, but he has nothing to do.

Because of his status, he is the emperor, but he has no power. Many people were born ordinary people, but it took him a lifetime to become an ordinary person. In his later years, he became a gardener, but he had to buy tickets when he went back to his home. I really like the Surrealist shooting of the last scene, which he got the cricket at the age of three, and finally he gave it to the son of the security guard. The cricket is just like him. He had been locked in the box all his life. He gave the cricket to the kid. The cricket climbed out and he disappeared.

The scene of the red guards fighting was also ironic. The red guards holding the portrait of Chairman Mao and calling Chairman Mao long live is no different from the scene of the Qing Dynasty when they took up the sedan chair to worship the emperor. The only different is just that the times have changed and the rulers have changed.

Another point I want to say is that the Chinese people's servility has remained unchanged for thousands of years.

At the beginning of the movie, Empress Dowager Cixi is dying, and everyone is still afraid of her. Thousands of people kneel down to Puyi, who is three years old, with a serious face. Puyi asks the man to drink the ink, so he really drinks it. Even at that time, the whole Qing Dynasty had no ruling authority. Everyone is willing to perform such a play. Even later, Puyi was displaced, and the servant was willing to tie his shoelaces at the reform centre. That's because everyone thinks he is an emperor after all.

In the feudal rule of China for thousands of years, everyone has been instilled with the idea that heaven and earth are the Dynasty and the son of heaven. The change of Dynasty is not important. It doesn't matter who the emperor is. As long as you are, I will obey. The Chinese have always been subconsciously obedient to the so-called high-level officials. Even after the founding of the people's Republic of China, the rulers would still be put on the altar to praise. Everyone shouts "revolution is innocent, revolt is reasonable, don't revolution roll back to the garbage..." All people still keep the old servility, the ruler says 1 is 1, you think 2, then you are guilty, that is the so-called political correctness. In fact, it's the same now. This kind of servility is engraved in DNA and can't be changed in decades.

The Lady (2011)

Aung San Suu Kyi

[6/10 · 15 March 2021]

I admire Suu, and this is a heavy topic.But objectively this is not a good movie to express all the emotions and situation