Quinoa1984

Anyway, give me a child until he is seven, and I will give you a man (or woman I would add). But how many of us are really that at seven? I was lucky I knew how to tie my shoes! This is a group of charming and articulate young little tykes, who get asked about many things, from their interest in girls and boys, in how many kids they want one day, what they do when they go home from school, if there should be appointments or elections in parliament (how do they even know to answer that, wow).

It all makes for an enlightening viewing, even as it is more of a short documentary (at 39 minutes), since all of the kids want to be able to answer what they are asked; it is when they have to think and come up with an answer that their shared humanity comes through. Of course it may not all be things we may understand watching today, like when they are all eating around the table and have a bell to tell them when to stop and start.

Then of course the kids are asked about prejudice and money, and the thing is they are... just as bright and have really good answers (probably more on point in some ways than you and I would answer on camera). And you cant help but laugh when the one kid responds to another asking why someone would go to prison: "becauae you've been spending too much!" You are struck watching the kids that they are learning things about the world very quickly and even if they don't process it or put through a lot of critical though (after all they are... seven) there is the sense they may change over time.

But the world of these kids is one where you can feel that they have the whole world in front of them, regardless of whether they're coming from rich or poor backgrounds. This is a wonderful little start to this series - mostly because there was no thought this would continue in this way for the over half a century it has thus far (will there be a 70 Up some day, even minus Michael Apted? We shall see). The point is if you watch this and don't go any further you still can enjoy it as a window into the world of growing minds in England.

I was already quite enjoying this visually robust and patiently paced epic (that's not a put down, I love how much King Hu and his crew take in establishing the place and time and how still everything seems while there is so much going on if we look carefully enough), and featuring a superb wide-eyed "but I want to learn" perfornance by Chun as Gu... but once they get to those yellow-robed Buddhist monk bad-asses doing everything by self-defense and being so calm/cool/collected on that little mountain halfway through the story, doing so much to diffuse those sword-wielding dummies coming after the formidable lady Yang, I just had to come to the conclusion "yeah, okay, this is pretty friggin' great."

I know some of the elements of the story are things we have seen in other films, both from China/Taiwan and even to an extent from Samurai films from Japan - these bandits are on the run, there's a corrupt magistrate and it all goes up to the Emperor and so on - and coupled with a Hero's journey (and he starts from being a student of strategy so he isn't entirely a beginner) that you know has to unfold as soon as you see Gu being pecked at by his small-minded mother.

But what sets it apart as its own major beast in East Asian action cinema are the details filling the frame and what gifts he gives his actors space to play in; all of the smoke that gently but assuredly drifts in certain moments; how much he trusts audiences to watch characters fighting in the dark and know what's happening; the specificity in the costuming and how he directs attitudes and postures as much as lines.

How long did Hu and his team have to wait for the light to shine through just so in those woods with those bamboo trees to give that fight such gravitas? How many times to get the leaps and bounds off those bamboo? It seems like (according to imdb) it took years to film this. I don't doubt it! I also love when all those fighters are stunned by the various bells chiming at night when they're about to attack, and how Hu cuts from all the reactions and the places where the bells could be coming from and then their collective fright at what might be inside (humans can't fight ghosts, after all) and then there is another great burst of action.

A Touch of Zen is filled with stupendous stuff like that, where you are caught off guard by the fantasy and all of the tricks that Hu is playing, and he wants us to feel when characters are trapped and isolated and when the atmosphere may overwhelm certain small-minded men with swords. It is long and elaborate, but for as long as it is Hu isn't wasting time because all of those shots establishing places and spaces (sometimes grand, sometimes in the shadows of the night, sometimes in ruins) get us acclimated for what is to come. And when it has to get to the swordplay... it gets with sublime choreography.

This is such a richly executed, lively slapstick comedy that also at times turns to musical numbers that - not musically but lyrically - have the kind of bounce and distinct feeling that we are off our world of the film that the numbers in RRR did (though A Nous La Liberte is far less over the top when it comes to its social commentary).

What is so remarkable with Rene Clair is it will go very serious and sad and the film shifts that tone without a hitch (the scene where one friend helps bandage up the other's wrist comes to mind, though that eventually drifts into some absurdity as well). And while this is a Musical (wonderful score by Georges Auric) with enough songs to qualify, notice where Clair has his characters speaking and it becomes more like a silent film; technologically it is a transitional film, which makes that one long tracking shot of the conveyor belt where the workers are asked something one by one (and the shot goes a while, all the more special that they pull it off).

I'm just also blown away that this goes into being a heist movie for a good long chunk and it is extremely vibrant and funny while also keeping it's eye on the ball, which of course is showing modern Capitalism to not only make people trapped but to make competition where there should be done. And the art and production design (Oscar nominated, which was maybe a first for a foreign film I have to imagine) is extraordinary as well as things are heightened in spaces for how stark things look in the factory scenes alongside more realistically set ones.

A key thing too is the pair in the middle, Marchand as Emile and especially Cordy as Louis, have strong chemistry as friends. Cordy has the kind of face that can't help but get into comedy and he is the engine of laughs here for his timing and how quick his physicality is. But putting that aside is focus in things moving in frames. That seems basic, but there's something about how Clair films an entire line of people through a space or create the sense of monotonous repetition with the factory scenes that cuts through into an ecstacy of itself.

You know you're watching criminals go about their ups and downs, but for all of the mayhem and mischief at least one of these guys gets into over the course of the story (usually both), you still root for them because of how light the tone is, even as it's ultimately about a very bleak subject which is dehumanization in lives of work. If it feels timeless it is because of the humanity on display, in comic and less comic notes, not the message. Lastly, a historical note: while there was a lawsuit against Chaplin and Modern Times (Clair didn't join in though, he thought it a "compliment" if Chaplin did take from his film), the duo at the heart here actually calls to mind Laurel and Hardy, specifically The Second Hundred Years short (look it up).