Category: Movies based on a book

Mountain Cry

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★★Mountain Cry

Rated: M

Directed by: Larry Yang

Adapted Screenplay: Larry Yang

Music by: Nicolas Errèra

Cinematography by: Patrick Murguia

Starring: Yueting Lang, Ziyi Wang, Taishen Cheng, Ailei Yu, Jin Guo, Caigen Xu, Chendong Zhao; Siying Li.

Language: Chinese Mandarin

Subtitle Language: English

Based on: Lu Xun Literary Prize recipient novel of the same name written by Ge Shuiping.

Mountain Cry is a Chinese tale of a mute girl, Hong Xia (Yueting Lang), who moves to a remote rural village with her two children and abusive husband, La Hong (Yu Ailei).

After her husband is killed by a detonation used in a badger trap set in the woods, a young villager, Han Chong (Ziyi Wang) is blamed for the accident.  The village council then forces Han to look after the young widow and her children until the debt is paid for killing her husband.

Mountain Cry has been beautifully adapted to the screen with director and screenwriter Larry Yang relating this amazing story of Chinese village life and the two main characters slowly falling in love.  But this film is so much more than a romance, there’s crime here and mystery.

The characters show more of themselves with each action, with each scene adding weight to the adage, show don’t tell.  There was such a gentle touch here with tragedy and longing, freedom given and taken away, responsibility and loyalty and love all revealed like leaves slowly falling.

When novels are adapted to the screen there can be the feeling of parts missing or the story being rushed or glossed over, but Mountain Cry was a complicated story given depth, revealed slowly allowing the audience to become absorbed by the mystery of Hong Xia’s life.  Not surprising that the film won Shanghai International Film Festival Media Award Best Director Award and Shanghai International Film Festival Media Award Best Scriptwriter Award.

Although set in 1984, there was a classic feel to the story: old fashioned tools used for farming, handmade paper and painted writing, and the echoing sound of voices and drums like the heartbeat of the vast mountains.

The scenery was captured beautifully by cinematographer, Patrick Murguia.  And the soundtrack a fitting accompaniment (Nicolas Errèra) to this classic Chinese tale.  But it was the characters who were the focus, and their relationships.

Although a tragedy, the story was lifted by the simple warmth of Han Chong and his ginger kitten, but you need a quiet mood for this one.  And I have to say the film was slow at times.  But by the end, I was completely absorbed and pleasantly surprised by the mystery and beauty of the story.

A slow reveal but well worth the journey.

 

NERVE

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★☆ (3.7/5)Nerve

Rated: M

Directed by: Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman

Screenplay by: Jessica Sharzer

Based on the novel by: Jeanne Ryan

Starring: Emma Roberts, Dave Franco, Emily Meade, Miles Heizer, Colson Baker, Kimiko Glenn, Marc John Jefferies, Brian Marc, Samira Wiley and Juliette Lewis.

NERVE is a thrill ride with directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman putting the audience in the middle of the action.

Shot in New York, the camera work and streetscapes made the film more entertaining and better than expected.

Vee (Emma Roberts) is living in the shadow of her best buddy, Sydney (Emily Meade).  Always the cautious, wilting violet, Vee is terrified of putting a step wrong until she’s had enough of being a loser in love and life.

Sydney, being the dare devil, has managed to make it to the Top 10 of a new online game, NERVE, where the Players earn money and fame by completing dares given by the Watches.

And Vee, sick of towing the line, feels a wave of reckless youth and takes the plunge into the world of being a Player.

Knowing that she’s pushing her limits but finding a part of herself that she likes, Vee meets the hunky Ian (Dave Franco).  Loving the couple, the Watches dare the partnership on more challenging dares until the dare becomes a sinister reflection of mob mentality – where being anonymous allows behaviour that borders then becomes that of a sociopath.

It’s all about the moment recorded via the Watches’ camera phones; information about the Players taken from social media and everything available online: purchases made, banking details.  The film highlights how much information is available and how easy it is to take over a person’s life via the internet.

NERVE makes the point it’s no longer Big Brother we need to be afraid of, it’s us who are recording and sharing with each other.

Based on a young adult novel written by Jeanne Ryan, teens living adolescent lives leads to the expected awkward moments of unrequited love and the usual we’re-best-friends behaviour.  Thankfully, I was happily absorbed into the action of the online game rather than the film dwelling on the drama.

The character Vee had cringe-worthy moments, but only a few.  And the adolescent aspect was overcome by the creative camera work, where the audience was taken along for the ride.

NERVE was a lot of fun but I found it hard to take seriously when the story turned into the realm of giving a lesson.

Tapping into the teen angst of wanting to break free was still present and this was shown with unexpected edge.  I enjoyed the ride but the attempt at depth gave the film more meat not more meaning: we’ve already heard about the dangers of social media, right?

But drawing the audience into the world of NERVE and being given the feeling of taking those dares along with the characters made a suspenseful and entertaining film.

The Revenant

The RevenantGoMovieReviews Rating:★★★★☆ (4.2/5)

Director:  Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu

Writers: Mark L. Smith and Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu

Based in part on the novel by Michael Punke, ‘The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge’.

Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki

Starring: Leonardo Di Caprio, Tom Hardy, Will Poutter and Domhnall Gleeson.

Revenant: A person who has returned, especially supposedly from the dead.

Hugh Glass (Di Caprio), is part of a furring team, out in the wintery wilderness of Montana. In the 1820s, this was a fight for survival against the natives, against the cold, starvation and the wild animals.

After being attacked by a bear, Glass is left for dead, only to rise again to avenge the murder of his son.

I have to admit I was apprehensive about watching this film, thinking I’d be confronted with war-like graphic violence. If not for the beauty of the landscape captured by Emmanuel Lubezki (also cinematographer of Gravity (2013) and Birdman (2014)), this would have been a cruel film. Think dripping snow, captured leaves in ice, the endless sky and trees creaking and waving in the wind; a pack of wolves taking down a stray buffalo.

The reality of nature is that it’s both a heaven and a horror.

The director, Alejandro (Birdman (2014), Babel (2006), Amores Perros (2000)), insisted on filming 93 percent of this movie at exterior locations – Calgary in Alberta, Canada, Montana, United States, and the southern tip of South America, Argentina. Di Caprio certainly earned his Acadamy Award with this one. Just the cold itself, and all those icy rivers…

Brutal humanity is likened to the harshness of a winter’s landscape. How quickly a human can turn to animal instinct for survival is a harsh reality of the characters in this film. People do what they have to, to survive.

It’s a fight to stay human, to give food and shelter. A choice has to be made. And with cleverly executed filming and directing, we see Glass up close, we see his pain and his will to survive. We see others who give and others who take.

This is a revenge movie, but I’m glad it was balanced with some light: the murmurings of a loved one, a bird taking flight, the sun reflected on snow.

I liked the flavour Alejandro gave the film. There is a real authenticity here, thanks to Di Caprio, but Alejandro has given the film something almost mystical. Nature untouched, is a bit like magic. The Native Americans believed in the will of the trees and the wind, and I think Alejandro managed to capture some of this magic. Not an easy feat and a film worth watching.

 

 

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