Men (2007) Reviews

• Intelligent and sensitive film noir - highly recommended A+++ *Spoiler included*

  jamieswireless2011-04-03

  A most unusual (and original) films to come out China in the last decade. A monologue of a young man, talking intimately to his girlfriend opens the scene. The cinematography is sparse at first. Whereas the monologue is plaintive and yearning, it also brings a shudder to the viewer as he wonders what the young man, is taping up as he talks. The cinematography weaves a brilliant unfolding plot. The viewer is mesmerized in unraveling what takes place: the lead actor carries a tension, borne out in the rupture of his relationship with his girlfriend. Their relationship is shown out of phase - trying to find each other through the unfolding cinematography shot in tense urban spaces - moving trains; traffic and cars. Traffic plays a huge theme in the cinematography - and the viewer is gripped in suspense at the chaotic turns and twists of the actor's journey. As he moves into a new apartment - barely furnished, he decorates the lounge, and chooses a blue wallpaper, with tender care, a color his girlfriend would like. Chen, is perturbed over the detail of his DIY handyman skills. The wallpaper seems irregular; it bubbles underneath; peels off, refreshing more nightmares. Shao Hong's art of suspense, leaving untangled threads until the classic denouement (Act IV) is purposeful and brilliantly woven however this is not a film for those who want straightforward Hollywood plots or simplistic Hitchcock styled resolutions of the protagonist's pathos. There are no family or kin - in this set. Chen Kun's role as a detached and suspicious young man, whose life has no roots, apart from the separation of his girlfriend which we are shown at the start, unfolds a chimera of torture, from nightmares to panic, derivative of the guilt he is carrying around with him, erstwhile sensing fragments of his lost relationship, and paranoia - in every other facet of reality he experiences. On his journey through the city - the taxi driver reprises sinisterly, leading to a suspense inducing car fight unusual for Li Shao Hong's cinematographic signature. His abduction and gagging in a wardrobe and his flight from his assailant who reprises as a motif in other ways, is unresolved. In my view, Shao Hong purposely melds the guilt and torture of the young man with impeccable distinction - so much so, that the viewer cannot fathom until denouement, whether his persecution is real; or whether it is self- inflicted - not only is Chen Kun's acting and persona imminently convincing, but not overdone or half-baked - he portrays an exemplary manner, of a young man's pathos, rarely seen to this depth in such a young mainland Chinese actor. The suspense of 'what is going on?' is very much that part of the protagonist's world - which the viewer is gripped by the edge of their seat and dragged into. More journeys' resume as a call from his girlfriend to meet him beckons - and even in a car, setting off at daylight, by evening with the fog rolling in, and the surreal experience of asking directions from a goatherd in fog, an ominous mood rolls thick into the scene as a graveyard nightmare unfolds. He parks and continues on foot, and his journey to meet his girlfriend at a block leads him to a foreboding estate where he enters after his car goes missing. Nightmare unfolds as he encounters her at a graveyard, as she invites him into her grave. We see him skulking around corridors - telephone ordering fast food to deliver to the flats in order to see who lives at his block. He meets his acquaintance - who is shown to us as a man in a swimming pool, leaving him feeling uncomfortable at the start of the film. His murder - as he comes out of the shower in a bathrobe, is again driven by paranoid fear and it is this second murder which brings the film to a close. A sense of peace envelopes Chen Kun's brilliantly articulated emotions in the character of his voice. The police come sirens screeching , and as he leaves, the police come into his flat (too late). The wall with his peeling paper finally goes under denouement and is stripped off and knocked down - to reveal the taped body of his dead girlfriend. The protagonist calmly walks off - the only time we ever really see him at peace - when he has told his story, and made sense of the paranoid fears and demons troubling his conscience - to commit suicide - walking into traffic in front of a juggernaut - to rejoin his dead girlfriend. Even small touches, like the Bach' cello sonata, which skips in the car, leading him to eject the CD, even comes back to haunt him; Shao Tong leaves no detail unturned in this brilliant script. Far from the protagonist as "suffering from a mental disorder" as the previous reviewer suggests - this is a psychological thriller of a young man, troubled by his murder of his girlfriend, set in a context of modern alienation where he plays back ways to try and make sense of the horror of what he has done, however sees himself as a 'victim', when we the viewers, become finally aware and aghast, that our identifying with his pain and suffering, is actually misplaced, when the viewer learns he is ... the murderer. His paranoid dreams and nightmares; fears and terror - all stem from what he has done. Not, from some supernatural or 'ghostly' intervention. In this sense, it is a portrayal of a young man's sur-reality - more concretely set in the urban world. Nothing this brilliant and cleverly written is easy children's' viewing - a film with utmost distinction - highly recommended.

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• You need to understand it first and then to appreciate it

  jueyinwang2007-06-22

  When you first watch it and if you don't watch it carefully enough, it may make no sense to you and it may seem a chaos. But actually, it's not a ghost movie and it really has something that's not just skin- deep. It makes much more sense to me after I watch it twice. The actor, Aloys/Kun Chen, did a great job. The director made a good use of Montage. The so-called ghost scenes are actually in the main character's dreams. It more of a thriller than a ghost story. It is not a ghost story if you read the novel which the movie is based on. The guy is a writer who used to be a normal guy but finally turned to have paranoia and some other mental illnesses. The movie shows you an extreme example(which does not often happen in real life but has the potential to happen) of young people in big cities in China nowadays who are facing increasing societal pressures from work, from peers, and etc. The movie makers actually want to warn people to pay attention to not just their physical health but also their mental health. What the movie shows you is an idea and you can't take everything in the movie as it really happened to the character, because he was dreaming, and all that were mental pictures. Pay attention to some details and you'll get more than you can imagine. It may seem to you orderless at first, but do remember that the guy has mental illnesses.

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