Weekly round-up

>>An old-school epic and an
assault on advertising

HEARTFELT HISTORY: Children of Huang Shi

by MALCOLM FRASER

The Children of Huang Shi

This historical drama, based on real events, tells the story of George Hogg, an English journalist who charmed his way behind the front lines of the Japanese invasion of China in the 1930s.

Played here by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, he finds himself supervising an orphanage, then leading its charges on a daring cross-country journey to safety. Radha Mitchell plays a tough American nurse and love interest, and Hong Kong superstars Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh also pitch in, he as a Communist rebel commander and she as an opium dealer with a heart of gold.

Director Roger Spottiswoode has had an odd career, from ’80s crapola like Turner and Hooch and Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot to the Brosnan-era Bond flick Tomorrow Never Dies. His most recent film was Shake Hands With the Devil, with which Children of Huang Shi shares a few qualities.

In both films, viewers unfamiliar with the historical background may find themselves scrambling to keep track of the details, and in each, a widespread human tragedy serves as a backdrop for the white protagonists’ heroism and romance (though to be fair, Spottiswoode is hardly the only perpetrator of this tendency).

The film’s style is resolutely old-school—the dialogue and characterizations are straight out of a 1940s flick, the dramatic twists tend to the melodramatic, and sweeping cameras and swelling strings are plentiful. So stay away if you don’t like romantic historical epics, but if you do, this is made to satisfy the old-fashioned way. (MF)

99 francs

In this conceptual rollercoaster ride from French director Jan Kounen, based on Frédéric Beigbeder’s novel, Jean Dujardin (famous in France for portraying the titular doofus in Brice de Nice) plays Octave, a top-level ad writer with a massive ego and a coke habit to match.

CONCEPTUAL CHAOS:
99 francs

The film begins with him plunging off the roof of a skyscraper; in flashback, as he embarks on a big-budget campaign for a yogurt company in a make-or-break contract for his firm, events conspire to make him question the meaning of it all. What ensues is partly the story of a man’s personal descent, partly a searing, critical look at the advertising industry.

Kounen overloads the film with visual style, every scene deliberately crammed with the slick shots, slick edits, garish effects and visual gags characteristic of TV commercials. There are self-referential cinematic and cultural references aplenty—only some of which are Gallic inside jokes—and more than a nod to David Fincher’s Fight Club in the hyperactive aesthetic, irony-drenched consumerism critique and mind-fucking narrative trickery.

Dujardin is extremely watchable even as a deeply unlikeable character, no mean feat, and he’s backed up by an equally able cast of supporting actors, notably Syriana’s Jocelyn Quivrin as his sidekick and the lovely Vahina Giocante as his girlfriend.

The film’s fundamental message—that ads are manipulative drivel and the people who make them have sold their souls—is hardly novel or profound, but the strong cast, clever writing and Kounen’s snappy, stylish approach make it an enjoyable ride. (MF)

Both films open this Friday, June 6

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