Review - Dangerous Liaisons (2012)

March 28, 2013

Dangerous Liaisons – China, 2012

This is the third film adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos’s 1782 novel Les Liaisons dangereuses that I have seen, and it is the second best of the three, sandwiched of course between 1988’s Dangerous Liaisons and 1999’s discomforting Cruel Intentions. The former I enjoyed a great deal; the latter left me feeling extremely cold. Laclos’s novel is often seen as a critique of the decadence that existed prior to the French Revolution, and its depiction of high-class aristocrats destroying the lives of innocent people likely both shocked and mesmerized its readers. Sadly, this latest adaptation is not likely to do either.

The film is directed by South Korean Jin-ho Hur, who also made 2007’s emotionally moving film Happiness. Hur’s adaptation is set in Shanghai in 1931, and it is quite easy to see the parallels that screenwriter Geling Yan is drawing between pre-revolution France and pre-World War II China. While France’s aristocracy lived the good life at the expense of average French citizens, Shanghai’s elite, at least according to the film, carried on as if the country’s ongoing civil war and the imminent threat of Japanese aggression gave them no reason to be concerned.  In the film, they continue living in opulence and worrying about such trivial matters as marrying rich and ensuring the chastity of one’s future bride. Let the head shaking commence.

The film tells essentially the same story as the other adaptations of Laclos’s novel. Here the two villains are Mo Jieyu (adequately played by Cecilia Cheng) and Xie Yifan (South Korean actor Dong-gun Jang), and like the other incarnations, the male in this pairing conspires to woo and dump a young, unsuspecting woman. In this version, the intended victim is a widow named Du Fenyu (Ziyi Zhang), and everything about her, from her clothing to the placement of her arms, screams traditionalism. It is for this reason that Xie sets his sights on her, and he would consider her downfall an impressive personal achievement. His less-than-noble intentions morph into a wager between Mo and Xie that will eventually be the ruin of all of them. The film also features a younger woman whose mother is trying to keep her away from men until she’s married, and the young man (here an artist) who pines for her. Then there’s the film’s finale, in which violence and betrayal rear their ugly head to put a final exclamation mark on what is supposed to be a rather explosive and tragic tale.

The film misfires badly. Its first misstep is the casting of Dong-gun Jang as Xie. Jang is a talented actor, yet in this film, he is woefully miscast. While Jang is fully capable of playing a man with few moral scruples, nothing he does in this film is likely to convince the audience that Xie would win the heart of a woman like Du. When John Malkovich played this role, his character was able to feign vulnerability and lure his target closer. It felt authentic. However, Dong plays his moments with Du too aggressively. In fact, the film seems to be operating under the assumption that all a man has to do is act impulsively and be rude for a woman to fall in love with him. Also, throughout the film, Dong seems incapable of playing warm and fuzzy, and as a result, key moments when he is supposed to be confessing his true feelings only reinforce the notion that his character is nothing but a pathological liar.

The film also makes the inexcusable mistake of misusing Ziyi Zhang. Here appearing in a supporting role, Zhang is given very little to do other than look as if she is doing all she can to suppress her passion. This would be understandable if she were inexperienced in love (she isn’t) or if her pursuer were actually doing something to earn her longing (he isn’t). However, it is hard to imagine what she could like about someone whose attempts at wooing her involve grabbing a book that belonged to her deceased husband, throwing it into a swimming pool, and proclaiming that she must stop living in the past. Has he never heard of flowers and chocolate? Add to this the film’s overbearing soundtrack and its overreliance on tried-and-true cinematic devices to evoke the audience’s sympathy, such as using slow motion to extend supposedly heartbreaking scenes, and what we’re left with is a film that is simultaneously trying too hard and not putting in enough of an effort.

We’ve seen all of this before, and in truth, we’ve seen it done better. Therefore, I suggest a golden rule for films such as these. Simply put, when someone is considering remaking a film, let’s apply this simply standard before giving the remake the green light: If it is not going to be an improvement on the original (and it is not difficult to tell from a script that it won’t be), don’t make it. Just say, “I’ll pass.” Better yet. Hire the writer to produce something original, something that has authentic characters, believable dialogue, and an uncompromised ending. Believe me, the film you come up with is almost guaranteed to be better than this version of Dangerous Liaisons. (on Blu-ray in Region A)

2 and a half stars

*Dangerous Liaisons is in Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles.

Review - Happiness

July 26, 2012

Happiness – South Korea, 2007

In a pivotal scene early in Jin-ho Hur’s moving 2007 film Happiness, we witness a woman sitting calmly by herself outside a small market in the middle of the Korean countryside. A man comes out of the market carrying two cans of beer and some snacks and parks himself down near the woman. Then, for not particular reason, he starts to inch his way closer to her. The woman is understandably unnerved and begins increasing the distance between them. The man, delighted at the unease that he has caused, quickly resumes his encroachment of her personal space. Eventually, the woman stands up and pretends to be looking to see if the person she’s waiting for is arriving soon, and when that person does indeed arrive, the young woman departs as quickly as she can. Who can blame her? Of course, later we learn that their destination is identical and that they will have many more encounters. I’ll give you one guess what the film has in store for them.

What makes this even easier to predict is the way the young woman conducts herself wherever she goes. She smiles in the face of adversity and seems to genuinely love all that life has given her. Eventually the gloomy, impolite man from outside the store begins to see life and all its possibilities through her eyes, and he becomes a changed man. Now there’s an overused cliché in movies that dictates that whenever a film’s protagonist meets a woman with a surprisingly infectious love for life, it won’t be long before she receives some pretty depressing news from a doctor, and while Happiness does not depart from this motif completely, it does find a rather refreshing way to update it.

What distinguishes Happiness from other tear-jerkers with similar storylines, such as Sweet November and Love and Other Drugs, is that both of its lead characters as slowly dying. The man, Young-su (Jeong-min Hwang), is suffering from cirrhosis after years of overindulging in alcohol and cigarettes, and the woman, Eun-hee (Su-jeong Lim), has a debilitating lung disease that forces her to do everything slowly. In the first part of the film, we watch as they come together in a rather believable and touching way, and in the second half, we watch as their relationship tragically falls apart. The film is beautiful and thought-provoking throughout.

The film takes places in an area of the countryside where a community has been formed to help people either recover from their illnesses or live their final years in tranquility. Their days are spent surrounded by people who know what they’re going through, as well as a variety of breathtaking trees, sweet-scented flowers, and healthy plants. It is easy to see just why people would be drawn to places like this during trying times. The film also shows us some of the daily routines of the people who live there. We watch them scour the fields trying to learn the names of plants, and we observe their morning exercise, which seems to be a mixture of jogging in place and tai chi. In one scene, we are privy to the morning pep talk, which strives to make sure that every member of their community begins their day with laughter and a smile. It’s impossible not to be moved by these scenes. I asked one of my Korean students to tell me more about communities like this, and she related a short anecdote about a family member who was diagnosed with cancer and spent the remainder of her life in a community similar to the one featured in the film. The way she related it to me, it sounded as if it had provided everything it was supposed to – peace and tranquility, time to reflect, a community of supporters, and richly deserved happiness - during what was likely a very trying time.

The film wisely does not depict Young-su’s downfall as being caused by a slimy drug dealer or an uncaring fair-weather friend. Instead, his fall is the result of some of the most well-meaning people and innocuous temptations you ever see - a co-worker who offers Young-su a cigarette as a token of his appreciation, a vendor who just happens to be selling a medicinal form of alcohol, an ex-girlfriend who gives him a mobile phone so he can reconnect with the world. It’s doubtful that any of them truly understand the potential consequences of their actions or that they could have foreseen the tragic toll that Young-su’s fall from grace has on Eun-hee. How could they?

Happiness is not always an easy film to watch, yet it feels more real than many other films of its kind. The community depicted in the film is not shown as a place where miracles happen. In fact, if one comes at all, it is because the people work for it, and sometimes even that is not enough. One wonders if the film is subtly warning people about modern-day excesses and our overemphasis on material possessions and the attainment of wealth. It’s clear watching Young-su that none of these bring him happiness. Perhaps then the film is advocating a simpler life, a life in which we pursue the things that we know are good for us. Surely, happiness and love would fit this description.

If Happiness disappoints at all, it is in its adherence to film stereotypes involving sweet, dutiful women and weak men who don’t realize how good life can be until they meet the women of their dreams. I also felt slightly disappointed at the film’s rather simplistic ending. After going to such great lengths to depict just how far Young-su has fallen, the film settles for one of those moments in which everything is resolved in a split second. And while the scene indeed makes sense given what has transpired in the film, it left me wondering if we’ve become so accustomed to happy endings that we have to force them into even the saddest of situations. Perhaps filmmakers should give their audience more credit. Every once in a while, it’s acceptable to challenge the audience with an ending they had hoped would be different. Still, Happiness is a deeply involving film that will warm hearts and cause more than a few tears to flow. It’s an emotional roller coaster and a good one at that. (on DVD in Region 3)

3 and a half stars

*Happiness is in Korean with English subtitles.