An Ode to Human Spirit
Today was an excellent day of festival harvest. I have already written about the first two films: Closely Watched Train and Talk to Her, the appetizer and the main course of the day, respectively. The dessert did not fall behind too. Getting Home is a delightful celluloid ode that celebrates the power of human spirit. There is not a dull moment in the film. This film is part of the competition section. But usually films that make people laugh do not win IFFK prize. It always goes to some serious films. Well, if Giri Menzel was here as the jury head, as arranged previously (but he could not come because of some minor accident), he would have been extremely happy with this film.
Getting Home is a Chinese film directed by Zhang Yang. It is the story of a man taking an arduous, but often comic, journey to a village in the farthest part of China to keep a promise he had made to his friend. He is taking his friend’s dead body to the dead man’s village. The remarkable aspect is that he is still treating the body as his friend, not a “dead body”. He makes the body sit with him in a bus, in public places, and often addresses him. His journey is so hilarious that laughter never ceased in the theatre. He encounters several charming people: a dead man coming back after his organized funeral, a truck driver who drove 300000 kilometers for his lover only to see her snubbing him later, a destitute woman whose son is studying in a prestigious university, and so on. This is really a film that may probably help you get over your worries. The spirit of the characters influences the viewers.
Media coverage of IFFK (including that in blogs like this and AEIOh!You) reminds me of the old saying about blind men describing the elephant. There is no similarity among the reports. For example, today’s Keralakaumudi (which provides the best coverage among Malayalam dailies) lists five “amazing” films, most of which are not reported in other papers (read the report here). Talking about Newspaper articles there is an interesting article about delegates in The Hindu on 8/12/2207: Birds of a Festival, imaginatively written by Geetika Sudeep.
2 comments:
hi brown country
why did u chose that name
anyway i came across ur blog while searching for iffk screening details.
i have never been to iffk
i don't like to watch foreign movies in cinema houses. because if u missed a dialogue or so u can't rwind it.
so i download them. so far via internet after reading about ur comments , i downloaded talk to her, all about my mother , bad education, live flesh.
u missed the screening of "4 months, 3weeks and 2 days". i had downloaded the movie. but the subtitles will be out next week in internet.
regarding talk to her , i liked the beauty of the film as well as the girl who is in coma.her name is lenor watling. i searched for her other movies. and i got "sound of the sea". i downloaded that movie also. it has a couple of terrfic sex scenes which completely utilizes her. it is directed by
bigas luna the notorious director who made penelope cruz her first major break in his movie " jamon jamon".
so keep up the good work of reporting daily screenings.
if possible and affordablev , buy a pc and an internet connection,u can download any no. of rare movies
and can watch at ur comfort. no need to rush from one theatre to another.
like to know u better : mail me at
vijil.johnson@rediffmail.com.
Western critics, meanwhile, have embraced the film, with several noting that while the synopsis recalls the American comedy Weekend at Bernie's, Getting Home far surpasses that film in plot, cast, and drama.
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