Wednesday, July 2, 2014

A short review of Blind Massage (2014) scribbled in the hope you'll run out and see it today at the New York Asian Film Festival 2014

I just saw this film and I'm torn between writing this up the way it needs to be written up as full on review expressing all it's wonders or scribbling something fast in order to get you to rush out to see this when it plays at 2:30 this afternoon at the Walter Reade (tickets can be gotten here)

I'm going with trying to get your butts into seats to see this film.

Not to put too fine a point on it Lou Ye's film about a group of blind masseurs is an absolute cinematic delight. A perfect marriage of performance, image and music this is the sort of film that anyone who loves the craft of film must see. This is a film best described as a cinematic poem-but also a damn good film as well

The cast, a mix of sighted and blind actors is amazing. They are so good that I'd be left to wonder how much of this were documentary and how much is made up-until you realize this is based on a novel.

The craft of the film is amazing. Its a perfect marriage sound and image. I'm floored at how good this works and how good the technique of shifting the image from obscured view for sequences with the blind to perfect vision for those with sighted people. Its something simple and obvious and perfectly done. And listen to the sound track manipulation-listen to how it shift as and changes.  Amazing

Also perfect is Jóhann Jóhannsson’s music. It is a character unto itself. It drives the film and sets the mood and fills in tons of details. Its one of the best I've ever heard. (Between this and the music in KANO NYAFF should now be part of the Sound and Vision series that plays later this summer at Lincoln Center)

Go see this movie.

No seriously- if you love film, if you love what film can do go see this film. Trust me if you can geek out about the magical things that a film can do you'll be like me and murmuring "way cool" all the way through.

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