Legend of the Mountain [Shan zhong chuan qi, 山中傳奇]. Dir. King Hu [Hu Jinquan, 胡金銓]. Perf. Shih Chun [Shi Jun, 石雋], XU Feng [徐楓], Sylvia Chang [Zhang Aijia, 張艾嘉]. Feng Nian [豐年]: 1979.

Shih Chun Still has the eyes of a movie star

Hapless scholar He Qingyun (Shih Chun) is charged with the task of transcribing a sacred sutra. In search of a secluded place to still his heart, he arrives at the abandoned outpost of dead general. The general's secretary, a rather mannish Mama Wang (heh), and Wang's beautiful daughter agree to host him. Little does Scholar He know that they are all under the spell of [Xu Feng's character] Melody, who wants the sutra for her own nefarious purposes.

Yes, there are moments where this three-hour long film dragged. But the visual and musical excesses of this film are still so beautifully composed -- perfectly framed shots, lush landscapes, lovely music even moreso than lovely ladies. Minimal use of artificial light (which, unfortunately, makes some of the makeup work even more egregiously bad, though that was just how it was done back then). It never gets that creepy, though this is essentially a ghost story. I like how flashback sequences were delivered basically as a 'movie' within the movie. Use of music as a narrative and structural device is very interesting too, need to come back to this.

Breathless [Ddongpari, 똥파리]. Dir. Yang Ik-Joon [楊益俊]. Perf. Yang Ik-Joon, Kim Kot-bi, Jeong Man-shik, Lee Hwan. 2008.

Yang Ik-Joon (right) Director/actor/screenwriter Yang Ik-Joon of Breathless (right) and a very good translator (from what I could tell -- she just naturally slipped into his mannerisms and translated things as 'I', even mimicking his movements, which indicates a level of immersion to me). Despite the bleakness of his film, Yang was a very chirpy, happy-looking person.

One quote to summarize this film: "All the fucking fathers of this country are fucking cunts."

Wish I could put that into Korean, but alas, I think I only learned one word from this film.
This was the most powerful film I saw at the Taipei Film Fest.

Night of an Era [Zaijian Wutuobang, 再見烏托邦]. Dir. SHENG Zhimin [盛志民]. Stage Empire: 2008.

Mickey Chen & Sheng Zhimin

Remnants of the Beijing rock scene through the eyes of the old and jaded. Perhaps someone who wasn't as intimately involved with the scene could have presented a better documentary. True idealism lost is no authority at all, and certainly doesn't help to put together a good story. I was disappointed, and even a little pissed (certainly impatient) at this documentary, so I'm afraid I don't have much to say by way of positive feedback at the moment... give me some time, and I hope to come back to this entry with something more thoughtful.