The Blue Kite

Technically superb, but as entertainment not so good. A well done glimpse of what happens when the lunatics take over the asylum tho the passiveness of the lambs, who you know will be slaughtered without any real justification, while perhaps realistic, becomes infuriating. Thank god I don't live there is all I kept thinking. Kudos to the production staff and actors for having the courage to make it, just a pity it is so dry.

An illustration of the drastic and catastrophic influence of cultural revolution. Very sad, but nothing outstanding cinematically. Watched almost 10 year ago.

A slow but well made drama about the life of a mother and son living and growing during the beginnings of what was to become the Chinese cultural revolution. I really enjoyed the film for the first 90 minutes or so but wasn't a fan of the mothers parenting style which was all about yelling and shaming. The film really started to drag with the Stepfather section and I really fell out of it during the last 30 minutes.

The non-ideological underpinnings keep it from losing sight of its central tale of a mother and her son struggling to make sense of their lives during times of great cultural turmoil, but Zhuangzhuang perhaps underplays his hand, leaving the film without a particularly strong sense of interiority. It is, however, a remarkably valuable document of a time and place, particularly given the miracle of its own making.

While the pacing could be a tad better it's a really moving story paralleling and commenting on the Chinese cultural revolution.

I think there's a long-term plot by Chinese authorities to send out movies that bore foreigners while protecting their own people from them.