We all love film for so many reasons, and one of them is the obvious visual element. I wanted, like these individuals, to highlight this idea but at the same time without completely taking and repurposing it.
Then I started to question what if the same progression we witness over the film’s complete runtime was able to be condensed into only a few images, but rather than being selective of those images make it completely structured? What would we notice now that we may not have while watching the film? And this idea is born.
The idea is this, take a film and take a snapshot every ten minutes (as close as possible with my feeble shakey hands on VLC) and play with the narrative and focus of the film. The inagural film will be the 1992 film Pushing Hands.
This was a fun experiment right?
Well I don’t know. This film, like a lot of Ang Lee’s early work, focuses heavily on the clashing of American and Chinese cultures. See as Lee is someone who exists in both cultures it’s not surprising. The first seven images all cover aspects of Chinese culture as either images from an American point of view or just sitting in the middle of the American culture. I’m quite stuck by the image of the tea by the mountain of papers of work. As the American thing is the work to get every drop of productivity out while China acknowledges the importance of rest and keeping the body and mind steady so as to keep productivity high when one does work.
Then we’re taken to the kitchen as the Chinese is asked to subdue himself to American work culture and it turns to a fight. Slowly returning to a natural state of teaching Tai Chi and remaining as we saw before, a natural state of peace.
Like most Asian cultures this film respects the balance of life. It shows us this by continually rocking itself out of balance in order to return to it; like the competition of Pushing Hands.
What do you see?
This was a film I found through Torrents as it wasn't easy to find. Especially as I think it's an important film since it is one of Ang Lee's finest. My favorite shot is Self vs. Chinese soul. Last year, I suggested that Criterion should release his first 3 films in a box-set w/ "The Wedding Banquet" and "Eat Drink Man Woman" as the Father Knows Best trilogy.
I actually never thought of putting together as anything other than the Chinese subculture of 90s America; but damn "Father Knows Best" sounds like an amazing title for that trilogy. I'm now only 2 films away from having seen all of Ang Lee's films and while he has a dud or two I adore his work overall.
What films of Ang Lee you haven't seen? I've seen all of them so far as I did an Auteurs piece on him last year.
I'm yet to see "Taking Woodstock" and "RIde with the Devil"… will be remedied in the next week or so.
I've actually never seen this film – it's one of the very few Lee films that I haven't.
The feeling I get especially from the first seven images is a feeling of stillness. Interestingly, that feeling goes with the latter few (especially the second one in the kitchen). Would you call it a "still" movie or is that just a co-incidence with those early intervals?
It is in a sense. The film sells its calmness well.