"I Killed My Mother (J'ai Tué Ma Mère)" by Xavier Dolan

 (photo taken from the website:  http://www.eyeweekly.com/article/70749)

This French-Canadian film received quite a bit of accolades at the Cannes Film Festival, but I honestly have mixed feelings about it.  I nearly turned it off right from the start but then I decided to keep on watching since I was still in the middle of my repast — and I'm glad I kept on watching because it got better after the exposition.

The parts that irked me the most were the shouting matches between Hubert (played by director Xavier Dolan) and his mother, usually instigated over seemingly inane and miniscule trivialities.  I couldn't help empathizing with his mother; however, I tried to remind myself that the protagonist is playing a teenager (only 16 years of age) in the midst of tumultuous hormonal upheavals — in addition to harboring his sexual orientation from his dear old mum.  Later on, you can see that the Hubert's mother isn't a saint either and is also prone to explosive anger.  This feud continues on and off throughout the movie, countervailed with scenes of sweet tête à tête with his homosexual lover, Antonin, lending an overall bittersweet, melancholic mood to the movie.

The movie's saving graces are certain scenes of sheer cinematographic beauty coupled with an ethereal soundtrack.  Here's an example:



I also loved the scene where Antonin and Hubert decorate Antonin's mother's office with a Jackson Pollack-inspired "dripping" technique; this painting process then devolves into lovemaking.  I thought the slow-motion shots of the paint being splattered and overlaid set to French-Canadian music were beautiful.

I also really liked the ending, which takes place at a bucolic cottage in the countryside.  There isn't a concrete resolution to the plot but it still lends a satisfactory denouement and conclusion to an otherwise raucous exposition and rising action.

Also while the movie is technically gay-themed, the romantic relationship plays second fiddle to the main relationship between Hubert and his mother.  (So heterosexual viewers can rest assured that this isn't another clichéd, gay-themed movie that just continues the Brokeback model of two repressed male lovers seeking to express their unrequited love.) The love scenes are kept subdued and tasteful and manage to keep the movie light amidst all of the teenage angst.  Antonin's liberal family provides a perfect antithetical juxtaposition to the tense situation at Hubert's home.  The movie also touches on the social bias in society against single-mothers raising kids and if this might explain the dysfunctionality of the familial relationship.  I think one rather amusing scene answers this query quite clearly, where the mother thoroughly wrings out the boarding school's chauvinistic headmaster.

The movie is said to be semi-autobiographical and while the homosexual element is not shoved in the audience's face, it's clearly a crucial part of the film.  The writer/director/actor, Xavier Dolan, talks about his orientation in an interview. (He also refers to the scene in the movie — where Hubert is beat up at boarding school for being gay — as being based in reality.):

"Sicko" (2007): An Indictment of the U.S. Healthcare System

Contrary to popular (American) belief, we do not have the world's premier healthcare service.  While many specialties and procedures are renowned for in the U.S., the vast majority of Americans receive sub-par medical care.  In fact, 100,000 patients die from medical malpractice every year in America and the U.S. is ranked 37th by the W.H.O. for healthcare, right above Slovenia.

While, I normally skirt around polemics like Michael Moore, the looming, controversial issue of healthcare reform in the states, my grandmother's ailing health, and my recent interest in health care issues (I'm currently reading Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston Price, MS., D.D.S., F.A.G.D. and and Surviving Your Doctors: Why the Medical System Is Dangerous to Your Health and How to Get through It Alive by Richard S. Klein, M.D.) made it impossible for me to ignore this seminal documentary.  So many of my peers had seen it and discussed it that I felt I had to give it a viewing before judging it or its creator.

A lot of the documentary was old pat for me as I've known of the ills of private HMOs, but the darker aspects of it — like its inception by Kaiser and Nixon was new for me.  It was news to me that Hillary Rodham Clinton had attempted to implement universal health care in the states during the Clinton regime but failed due to the financial and political clout of HMOs (and is now the 2nd highest recipient of HMO contributions).  Also, it was shocking to find out how people in other socialized countries like Cuba, Canada, England, and France have much lower infant mortality rates and much longer life spans than Americans.  In fact, the poorest English person still has on average a higher life span than the wealthiest American.  "A baby born in El Salvador has a better chance of surviving than a baby born in Detroit." These facts are disturbing to say the least.  (For those inherently skeptical of statistics coming from a Michael Moore film, here's a website just for you.)

I liked the amusing albeit sobering anecdotes in the beginning from normal Americans.  One man had accidentally sawed off the tips of his middle and ring fingers in a construction accident.  He wasn't insured so they gave him a choice:  $60,000 to reattach the middle finger or $12,000 to reattach the ring finger.  He was a romantic, so he chose the ring finger and now leaves his stubby middle finger for use in lame magic tricks for kids.

It was quite sad to be reminded of how we as a nation are treating the 9/11 volunteer aid workers.  As we all know now in hindsight, inadequate protection from the toxic airborne fumes at ground zero has led to debilitating upper respiratory problems for these unfortunate American heroes.  However, they are not getting the medical care they deserve because they were volunteers and not officially working for the state.  In the documentary, in a rather bombastic fashion, they got the medical care they needed instead in communist Cuba, free of charge — after a failed attempt to get medical care from U.S. doctors at Guantanamo Bay.

I'm shocked that this movie was made in 2007, but it is so relevant even to this very day and people like me who have only heard about it in the past year.  In England, they had National Health Services, since 1948, after the war, when the country was in shambles.  So what excuse does the United States, have now not to have universal healthcare in the 21st century under the tutelage of Barack Obama?

I would suggest every American on the fence about healthcare reform to watch this film.  For me, learning about other nations' systems was the most enlightening portion of the documentary.  Some of my favorite scenes concerning this aspect, are not even included in the documentary, they're in the DVD's Special Features section (I particularly enjoyed watching these videos).:

"What if you worked for GE in France?"

(I couldn't find the full video posted on YouTube, so just rent the DVD because it's quite amusing and all the footage that is in the special features makes it well worth the rent!  In case you were wondering, the laundry bit was an inside joke because in France the government provides a free nanny that cooks and does laundry for new mothers).

"This Country Beats France."

(I'm particularly impressed by harnessing sewage for renewable energy and by the government hiring a philosopher to gauge the most ethical usage of funds for the long-term.)

There's also a very good video called "Uniquely American" in the special features.  Where a lady, who had already recovered from cancer, wasn't insured but needed a biopsy.  In proactive, American fashion, she collects the money from the community through fundraising to pay for the test but finds that in the quagmire of US healthcare, things aren't so simple.

There's also an amazing (extended) interview with Che Guevera's daughter (Aleida Guevara) about the Cuban health care system.  (This can be found in the "Interview Gallery" section.)

If you like topics concerning philosophy, I also highly recommend listening to the interview with Tony Benn (also found in the "Interview Gallery" section).

《父後七日》 7 Days in Heaven

This film is simple, unforced and is carried off with a certain earnestness of emotion which lends the whole film sincerity. The father of the central character Mei, dies and the film follows the proceedings after his death: the complicated rites of a traditional Taiwanese funeral interspersed with the personal grieving process of each of the characters in the film. The understated and subtle acting brings genuine emotion and laughter to the film, which also seems to capture something that is very Taiwanese. This being said, the film has a universal appeal in the way it addresses the grieving process, with all its performed grief, the gentle humour and the unexpressed sadness that underpins the passing of a relative.

Great comic moments pervaded the whole film, the beer towers, the fake crying at random times, the jokes between brother and sister. The memories and the brief moments of grief throw the more light hearted parts of the film into relief.

This film far outreaches recent Taiwanese films in its uncontrived direction. It is comparable to Hou Xiaoxian's Dust in the Wind ( 戀戀風塵) in its easy handling of the Taiwanese character, without the heaviness of Hou's films, and with a lot more humour.



English Subs Trailer:

(絕色 Juese Cinema 7 is showing the film with English Subtitles)
Film Rating 5/5

The book it's based on is available at 誠品 (Eslite) and 博客來：

父後七日

《蘭嶼觀點》 Voices of Orchid Island

(中文版在下面）

The film records some of the issues that were being faced by the Yami people of Orchid Island in the early nineties: the incursion of Taiwanese tourism, modern medicine, religion and nuclear waste, as well as the effect of these on tribal traditions. This film was interesting in the manner in which the filmmakers questioned their role and motives in making the film. There was an emphasis on the camera's self consciousness, emphasized at times by the sounds of photos being taken or the little boy shouting "stop filming", as well as a series of negative comments about documentaries about the island, the filming of the other cameras crews who were there to provide exotic viewing for Taiwanese viewers, and the filming of all the cameramen present at a staged ritual dance. It is especially clear at the beginning of the film, where the motive of the documentary is laid out clearly by a discussion between the director Hu Taili and other figures who were part of the filmmaking team.

The traditions that are recorded in the film are not left unchallenged, but rather the difficulty of the clash between tradition and modernity become clear throughout the film, whether through the film makers self examinations, the doctor's use of "anito" (spirits) to introduce modern medical techniques, or even the difficulty a young yami encounters in organizing an anti-nuclear rally, due to his youth.

The film is an interesting exploration of the cultural and folk traditions of the Yami on Orchid Island, but also of the malignant nature of the ethnographer's presence and the change that comes with a culture's self-awareness. The moulding of Yami's customs to the eye of the other, in this case the Taiwanese, which they access through the medium of television, brings the Yami to resent this view of themselves as inferior.

As mentioned in the post "私角落 Corners", there is an interesting article by Kuei Fen Chiu discussing the way this film broke new ground in representing the unrepresented through certain cinemagraphic techniques. I have the link for those that are interested, post below if you'd like me to send it to you.

Here's a short preview of the documentary:



Film Rating: 4/5

《蘭嶼觀點》 胡台麗 1993

這部電影紀錄九十年代蘭嶼雅美族面臨的問題：台灣島遊客的入侵、現代醫學和宗教對傳統習俗的襲擊、核能廢料等；同時描繪上述問題對雅美傳統儀式的影響。

此紀錄片中有趣的一點就是創作者懷疑、討論其製做這部電影的角色及目的。透過拍攝照片的聲音及雅美人對鏡頭的負面反應，譬如小朋友說的「不要再照了」，電影裡的鏡頭產生了創作者和觀眾的自省感。紀錄片中出現不少利用雅美族人來提供台灣人所要的異國情調的攝影工作者。尤其是拍攝原住民所舉辦的「傳統跳舞」時，鏡頭故意去拍攝旁邊的一大堆電視攝影機、照相機等等。在電影開頭的討論中，胡台麗和電影的其他員工很清楚的說明他們自己對紀錄片所追求的理想。

紀錄片所紀錄的傳統並沒有逃脫鏡頭的理性觀察，然而傳統與現代性的摩擦很清楚的被彰顯出來，不管是製作電影者的自省、醫生透過anito(恶靈)的故事來解釋現代醫學或那一位雅美青年因為年紀等級的傳統概念，而組合反核能廢料組織時所遇到的困難。

蘭嶼雅美族的傳統文化、習俗探討是這部電影的重要焦點，不過另外紀錄片指出民族誌學者的有害的參與，而且文化的自我意識產生的變遷：就是雅美族傳統和儀式為他者的操演式化，同時透過媒體雅美人看得到他們在媒體裡怎麼被繪畫而被輕視。

邱貴芬在〈A Vision of New Taiwan Documentary〉透過探討這部電影的拍攝技巧，嘉許此片的開拓性。

我推薦： 4/5

私角落 Corners

This documentary is included in the series "A Retrospective Collection of Documentary Films from Taiwan 1930 ~ 2003". It sets out to discuss gay life in Taipei, but ends up rather fragmented as it tries to take on many broad ranging topics in one go. It details the failure of a gay bar due to police raids, the sexual relations of lesbians, one man's ambition to have a formal dinner for gays and subsequent emigration to Malaysia, gay marriage and cottaging in 228 Peace Park.


It tries to represent gay culture in much the same way as Bai Xianyong (白先勇) does in his novel Niezi, but it falls into a subcultural representation of the gay scene. It seems to identify with the idea of gay nation building, and the us and them mentality. The male gay subculture represented in the documentary is one of drag queens, and toilet prowlers which seems miles away from the contemporary gay scene in Taiwan, or certainly is not the only face of male gay Taipei .True, the issues it touches upon, i.e. that Taiwan is still quite conservative in its attitude towards sexuality, are still relevant today, and few people come out willingly here, but the documentary lacked a coherent message, and I couldn't relate to it. Maybe as it tackled issues from a different generation. The sense of community that the film tries to foster seems irrelevant in the modern world, and the idea of a formal dinner for "gays" seemed a bit off too. Although at points it tries to break through it, the film seems rooted in the gay/straight binarism and fails to address the more complicated nature of sexuality and gender. This documentary aims to forward a gay view of the gay world, but in this sense it seems outdated, as the term "gay" reduces the whole spectrum of sexuality into opposition with an equally fabricated concept of "straight".

There is an interesting article on this film and "Voices of Orchid Island" (《蘭嶼觀點》) by Kuei Fen Chiu, discussing how the crew of both films employed techniques that made the role of the crew more visible, and self conscious, like the camera employed during the lesbian sex scene and the narration in French, because a foreign language allows her to say things that would be unspeakable in Chinese. The article is called "The New Taiwan Documentary" by Kuei Fen Chiu, if you would like to have a look at it post below and I'll send you the link.

There is a series of videos on youtube discussing the film's production:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_mXJF-dtLg
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0KNq0WYJVM&feature=related
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFjNSWg3bX4&feature=related
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zaQupYzVCA&feature=related
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOxMqZvvNHw&feature=related
Part 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de559rt3Gpc&feature=related
Part 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Deo3M-e7Kb4&feature=related
Part 8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-C_K91qar4&feature=related


Film Rating: 2.5/5

《第36個故事》 Taipei Exchanges

This film is the crystallization of Taipei pretentiousness. It is an empty hollow of a film, pasted over the key tenets of Taipei yuppie culture: owning an independent coffee shop, the "art" of both coffee and tray bakes, travelling the world, a nod to the Japanese colonial period (Kousuke Atari and the book of Japanese songs) and the idea of swapping instead of paying. I was almost surprised they did not throw in a homosexual plot line or two just for good measure.

The film appears to follow on from films like "Somewhere I Have Never Traveled" (《帶我去遠方》) and "The Most Distant Course" (《最遙遠的距離》), but it lacks any of simplicity or ease of these two films, however, it tries to capitalize on this simplicity by posing as the same kind of film, despite it's obvious commercialization of independent film.

Before seeing the film, it had been recommended to me by a friend. He took me to see a new cafe, later telling me that this was the cafe featured in the film. It was not, as it might have seemed, an independent, quirky little cafe, but rather it had been built specifically for the purpose of the film, but had opened for business as a result of the the film's success. The queue to get a seat was about an hour and a half, by which point I had started to thoroughly despise almost all of the sea of patrons. I did not despise them for the wait, but rather for how much they were enjoying the simulated "independence" of the cafe, and how they had trawled through the 38 degrees heat to get here, given its isolated position far from the MRT, but yet were giving off an air of "I just dropped in to this cute little cafe".

The script is not awful, and I laughed at points, but the concept was too conceived, and the characters and plot were mostly flat and uninteresting. There was clearly a marketing poll or a board meeting of some sort behind the generation of this film. What do yuppies from Taipei like?

In Taipei coffee making courses are extremely popular, and this film's rejection of the designs on top of the cream was laughable, in favor of the natural fusion of the cream and the coffee. Laughable because it all seems unimportant, irrelevant and undetectable to my taste buds. Maybe I'm a philistine, so shoot me.



Star Rating: 2/5

Shida Book Club

Hello, I'm Jimmy. The goal of this blog is to create a space where we can discuss books, cinema, culture, art, and anything of literary or artistic value. Feel free to write your posts in Chinese or English.