Hong Kong Trilogy: Preschooled Preoccupied Preposterous (Hoeng gong saam bou kuk) (2015)

HONG KONG TRILOGY vexes me.

A film unlike any other by director Christopher Doyle it is unlike any film I've ever seen set in  or about Hong Kong. It is a mix of documentary and fiction described in the press materials as follows:

In three docufiction segments, Doyle looks at three generations of Hong Kongers: School children, young “Umbrella Movement” activists, and the elderly. Overlaying audio from interview recordings onto loose narrative vignettes, Doyle creates sweet, richly textured, free-flowing portraits of a bevy of unforgettable characters, here just in time for the Umbrella Movement’s anniversary.

Which states it perfectly.

Unfortunately I am not sure that the film works completely.

Because it seems the story was cut from the footage shot a great deal of it doesn't hang together. You great a great image with a perfect voice over but at the same time going past the moment things don't quite work. Characters like the cute little girl in red is absolutely adorable but some of what she does just sort of there. Other characters never amount to much.

The biggest problem is pacing is also off  with the first third being a tough slog. It improves after that

The most interesting part of the film is the middle section on the Umbrella Movement. Owing to Doyle's eye and skill as a cinematographer we see life on the street in ways that the major news sources in the West never  revealed. This is Doyle working at the top of his game and it draws us in and makes us part of the Movement. There is much in this middle section to delight audiences and it's wonderful enough that despite the slow first part of the I'd strongly suggest you see film.

Actually since the film is by Christopher Doyle I'd recommend it with or without reservations. This is not idle worship of a director, rather its the respect for a master who makes films that are frequently imperfect but which contain so much intriguing material that they can not be dismissed. Give me a Doyle directed (or photographed) film over almost any other directors any day. He may make a film that doesn't work but it will be one that you can't shake and can't not think about for days (weeks after seeing the HONG KONG TRILOGY I'm still haunted by it). In point of fact Doyle is one the greatest directors working today and we simply do not have enough films from him.

HONG KONG TRILOGY opens Friday for a week long run at NYC's Metrograph.

Ruined Heart: Another Love Story Between a Criminal & a Whore (2014) NYAFF2015

Films like Ruined Heart are the reason why I love the movies. It also the reason why I love the New York Asian Film Festival. It bold and brash and truly unique. It’s an absolute must see- so much so that if I was able to I’d grab every one of you and drag your butts to NYAFF to see it.

The film is a dialogless tale of a criminal and his girlfriend in the underbelly of Manila. There are songs and poems and mystical occurrences. The director is graphic artist Khavan based on his short film, but the whole thing was shot by cinematic genius Christopher Doyle. It’s a glorious concoction that is a visual and aural delight of the highest order.

This is crazy insane. Its wildly alive. This is film as a living breathing entity. This is the type of thing that most filmmakers try to create but never manage. It’s a work of art.

Is it perfect? No. Its choppy and bumpy and things just are and just happen- but you know what that’s life- that’s poetry- that’s magic-that’s this film and its damn wondrous.

I really don’t have words to describe this, I only have emotion and enthusiasm for the film-I only have this desire to take people who love movies and force them to see this film.

GO SEE THIS FILM.

The film plays on July 2 and July11 at NYAFF and is at the top of the must see list of films to see.(Hell it's one of only two films getting multiple screenings)

Away With Words (1999)

I have no idea if Away with Words is a good film or a bad film. I don’t think it’s even worth trying to figure out if it’s one way or the other, rather I think we should just except it as a singular work of cinema and a grand masterpiece.

And yes it’s pretentious as all hell but at the same time it’s frequently so deliriously wonderful that I can forgive it it’s short comings.

The plot of the film has something to do with Asano who has a sensory relationship with words and an iron trap memory going to Hong Kong and meeting Patrick Sherlock at a night club. Sherlock is the odd man who I believe owns the club who has memory problems unless he’s drunk and who talks a mile a minute. There are other characters who come and go but for the most part the film focuses on the two men, their memories, dreams and the ways they relate to language.

For a film that is often about words this is an incredibly visual film. Amazing image crashes into amazing image. The connection of them, especially when mixed with the flowing words creates an emotional landscape that is deeply affecting to both the head and the heart…though more in the heart, it’s more a film that I feel than one that I can really talk about. It’s a film where words of description fail. How can I explain how a series of images, some rapid fire makes you feel? How can I explain how the sequences work when the visceral impact of three or four images would take three or four pages of words to duplicate.

I love that Christopher Doyle has thrown everything into the film. It goes from looking amateurish to looking stunningly professional and back again and again and again. The shifting back and forth should kill the film but instead it creates this unmatched sense of life and living. In life we go through moments that are dumb and then we bounce into highly polished ones. Such is the case here. This film is a gloriously alive, even to the point that the characters are all playing fictional versions of themselves.

I don’t know what to say but if you can track the film down. Watch it with no preconceived notions and just let it and its images and ideas wash over you. Don’t take it as anything other than what it is at that moment…and I think you’ll come away really impressed.

Away with Words is a visual delight

Some (Very) Brief Words with Christopher Doyle about ‘Underwater Love’

Although he’s not the film’s cinematographer, the favorable notices Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster has been receiving out of Hong Kong today have finally prompted me to post this “chat” with his famous collaborator

Given the brevity of what follows there’s quite the risk here of an introduction to a Q&A running longer than the Q&A itself; still, I feel that some set-up for the following, heretofore unpublished, exchange is necessary. It was conducted back in early 2011, just prior to Underwater Love’s world premiere at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival (hence the reference to its bow in the first question). But why are there only three questions? Well, Mr. Doyle was in Hong Kong on a shoot, and so the festival publicist arranged for me to interview both him and director Shinji Imaoka simultaneously—the problem was that the latter (for reasons still unclear to me) never answered his share of the questions, and so the follow-ups to both gentleman languished as a result. Still, I’m happy that these orphaned thoughts from a world-class film artist have found a home, however belatedly.

Oh, and please know that I’ve reproduced the text verbatim from our email exchange. Usually, like many journos, I’ll edit my long questions down to short ones and clean up the responses as needed… but in this case I fear there’d be nothing left if I did that.

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Kind of appropriate that this film is bowing on Earth Day, isn't it? What can you tell us about capturing the gorgeous natural imagery in this film? Did it make you want to shoot a nature documentary at some point? ;-)

xxxxxxx all the films i have made are a response to the physical : of the space of women of the fact that i have to burden 30 kg of camera on my shoulder every day of the last twenty years / I used to call myself the keith richards of cinematography , from this film i found the pink in my irish skin

What were some unique challenges or opportunities you faced with Underwater Love in comparison to your other work?

same shit different day . wonder of student film coniditions /making true intent to do something true : its all about people , and some people are kappas with big dicks ( and that helps )

Many of the shots of water, especially those in the second half of the film, are absolutely stunning. Was all of the lyricism achieved completely intentional, or did you ever try out certain things when shooting and then were pleasantly surprised by the results?

" its society's fault " i didnt choose the locations ( someone who knows what they are doing did ) ...but as in all the films we do its my job to respond to the space and light and constraints and intents of each film .... with a bit of experience you learn from what you have ( as one does in bed ) ... you respond to a space or a working situation or the abilities of the actors and so on to make the film you can become the film you want

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A contributing editor at Metro, Peter Gutiérrez also writes for Twitch, and blogs on media and pop culture for School Library Journal. And you can find him on Twitter: @Peter_Gutierrez.