海洋天堂英文影评

1、movie review: ocean heaven source: global times 13:13 june 24 2010 comments by zhao kun chinese family drama ocean heaven opened at this years shanghai international film festival, and after fighting it up in movies for nearly 30 years, jet li takes a big turn by playing a terminally ill father desp

2、erately looking for a home for his 21-year-old autistic son, da fu (wen zhang).the lives of those with autism in china are almost always bleak due to the countrys unstable social safety net, which likely explains why the films kindhearted director decided to make every character in the movie a model

3、 citizen after realizing that the system wouldnt provide much help to da fu.as someone who volunteered for 14 years at an educational organization for autistic children, first-time director xue xiaolu wrote and directed ocean heaven with a meager 7 million yuan budget. its likely that li also volunt

4、eered his services for this film since the financing didnt even come to the amount li is paid to star in a film.but even while juggling several subplots ocean heaven will likely struggle to maintain the attention of its audiences. after lis character is diagnosed with cancer, we only see him teachin

5、g his son basic living skills, and most will likely become bored way beyond anyone on screen.and while inarguably talented at kicking ass and taking names, when trying for dramatic li tends to employ only basic emotive states which gives his characters sublime qualities that are just too kind to be

6、real.the young actor wen received his first acting award at the shanghai international film festival in addition to tons of rave reviews, but most seemed to overlook how overstated his performance in this movie actually was.wens mechanical characterizations of autism do not seem to have required muc

7、h effort on his part, and any other graduate of the central academy of drama would have done just as well to appear abnormal and neurotic on the big screen.nonetheless, on a scale of one to 10, ocean heaven gets a six.zhao kun is a writer for china drive on cri ezfm (fm91.5 in beijing). he can be re

8、ached at zhaokun123. china drive is a radio magazine show on the air every day from 5 to 7 pm.ocean heaven narrowly avoids getting water-loggedjet li gets serious in the latest family weeper, elizabeth kerr reports. in his continuing attempts to separate himself from his kung fu persona, jet li has

9、ventured into that most regional of sub-genres: the four-hanky melodrama. thats not to say that south korea, japan and china have any kind of monopoly on the weepie romance or weepie family drama; everyone does them. but no one does them quite like theyre done in asia. case in point? american televi

10、sions breaking bad, a series about a mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher whos diagnosed with cancer and his rise to ruthless drug lord status as a means to provide for his family after death. that series, and many of the films and television like it in western media, has a cynicism, gallows

11、humor and matter-of-fact acceptance of mortality that results in a (sometimes) more nuanced product. conversely, death from illness in asia is the highest form of tragedy there is - especially for the young - and the art reflects that. then theres the other kind of tragedy - that being the suffering

12、 handicapped person drama, which can be read as a blatant response to the general level of unease and intolerance disabled communities too often have to deal with in asia. characters afflicted with learning disabilities and autism and such are regularly rendered as trusting innocents that invariably

13、 showcase some hidden gift, meant to demand reverence from the characters around them as well as audiences. again, its not a purely asian phenomenon (rainman or forrest gump anyone?), and western cinema only reflects a moderately more enlightened social attitude. thats usually evidenced by disabilit

14、ies being a plot point designed to tell a story about intolerance. but the perceived innocence is front and center in asia, and thats what separates the two. occasionally, films combine the two narrative elements to sentimental and grandiose effect. ever since akira kurosawa splashed a bureaucrat wi

15、th a pre-death mission on the screen in ikiru in the 1950s, asian film industries have been regularly cranking out emotional tragic dramas for the masses (many of the best are on television). the list includes tokyo story, a moment to remember, funeral march, christmas in august, marathon, mother, a

16、nd a literal raft of tv series too lengthy to detail. its a uniquely asian phenomenon, of which writer-director xue xioalus ocean heaven is the canons latest addition to. in ocean heaven li plays wang xincheng, an aquarium technician and loving single dad of the autistic dafu (wen zhang). the story

17、begins with wang and dafu sitting in a rowboat in the middle of the ocean, with an anchor tied to both their ankles. he tips them both into the water and waits to drown. dafu, however, has other ideas, and being autistic simply reacts as best he knows - meaning he gets them out of the water. they he

18、ad home and its soon revealed that wang has terminal liver cancer and, fearing for dafus well-being after he dies, decided to off them both. when his suicide attempt fails, wang makes it his mission to teach dafu how to fend for himself and find him a long-term home. there is no doubt that ocean hea

19、ven is manipulative, hyper-emotional, and typically views the world through rose-colored glasses. in a (relatively) small provincial city, wang and dafu meet with zero intolerance, fear, and loathing from day to day. the community is supportive and the town is idyllic in its acceptance and understan

20、ding of wang and dafus difficulties. if its a realistic look at a single parent (also no big deal according to this film) struggling with the demands of an autistic child and the stress of impending mortality youre looking for, look elsewhere. ocean heaven is fantasy; the story unfolds in an idealiz

21、ed world where friends and neighbors pitch in to help, where employers are flexible with time, where doctors drop by the house with cancer medications, and where there are scores of welcoming institutions and residential options for the autistic. in the yellow pages. can someone please point me in t

22、he direction of this utopia? but in a way, thats all right. xue isnt making a documentary, nor is she trying to forge some sort of hard-hitting social critique. shes making a soft, vaguely uplifting movie about parental devotion for the masses. and for the most part, li, in his most straight ahead d

23、ramatic role to date, sells it. with the exception of a few histrionic flashes, li turns in a surprisingly modulated performance that swings from frustration with dafus inability to ride the bus to abject fear that hell be abandoned completely. xue, who wrote chen kaiges together and makes her featu

24、re debut here, give li and wang plenty of support, too. for the most part young actor wen rarely goes over the top in his interpretation of autism. tv veteran dong yong as wangs boss tang and stage pro zhu yuanyuan as his quietly enamored neighbor chai provide the kind of grounded balance that keeps

25、 ocean heaven from flying off the rails and becoming a blubbery mess. another thing ocean heaven has going for it is a vivid visual palette realized by an army of the regions best behind the scenes artists: the life-affirming watery blue tone that pervades the film is provided by cinematographer chr

26、istopher doyle, best known as wong kar-wais dop and a master of evocative, ethereal imagery; a potentially bombastic score is tempered by japanese composer joe hisashis (departures, and miyazaki hayaos go-to composer) customary restraint; and hong kong production design yee chung man (storm warriors

27、, perhaps love) lends the proceedings the kind of understated, uncluttered backdrop the story demands. for all its idealism and sentimentality, ocean heaven is remarkably unruffled, and its downright dispassionate given xues heavy hand on together. if youre allergic to this kind of cinema, chances a

28、re that the poster art alone is going to send you running from theater the box office anyway. but for those among us with a soft spot for an old-fashioned, unironic family tragedy, this could be your friday night. and if the defiantly happy ending despite wangs death (this is most definitely not a s

29、poiler) is just too much for your cynical worldview, well, theres always breaking bad. ocean heaven opened in hong kong thursday. review of ocean heavenstills from the chinese drama film ocean heaven, starring jet li, wen zhang and kwai lun-mei.if you have ever tuned in to american daytime tv, even

30、by mistake, youll be familiar with how the disease of the weekmovie typically plays out: a carefree (and pleasing to the eye) individual, estranged from his lover and/or family, discovers that he is suffering from a tragic affliction; as the story progresses, he slowly comes to see what is really im

31、portant in life. uplifting stuff, to be sure. but exciting? these days, when i have to sit through one of these generic sob stories, the tears i cry tend to stem from boredom rather than empathy.so, how did i feel earlier this week when i was invited to attend a special press screening of jet lis ne

32、w drama ocean heaven, about a guy dealing with terminal cancer? i wasnt exactly dancing for joy in my office cubicle. of course, the big gimmick here is seeing jet li in a weepy drama that doesnt involve a single kick, punch, chop or poke in the eye. for someone like me, who grew up watching the for

33、mer wushu champion kick shifty-faced villains into next week, its strange to think of a jet li movie containing no kung fu. can you imagine a movie starring schwarzenegger as a benevolent austrian doctor who contracts leprosy in the darkest depths of africa, or jean-claude van damme as a belgian aid

34、 worker humbled by polio? if yes, you have a greater imagination than i.in fact, the central focus of ocean heaven isnt really jet lis (non-violent) battle against cancer. instead, it is the relationship between lis character sam and his autistic 20-something son david, played quite realistically (w

35、ithout going over-the-top, i mean) by wen zhang. the more cynical among you will no doubt wonder whether the addition of an autistic son is a ploy for oscar (or golden goblet) glory. perhaps so. but ocean heaven, whilst recycling certain inescapable elements from other disease of the week movies (th

36、e main character trying to hide his suffering from those around him, swallowing a handful of pills to numb the pain, etc.), does its best to inject some freshness into proceedings.even the cynical among you will be touched by jet lis attempts to bond with his autistic son and educate him about the h

37、arsh world he has yet to fully experience and in which he will soon be left all alone. (to add to the misery, davids mother is dead perhaps by her own hand.) the aquarium setting the ocean heaven of the title also adds a fresh atmospheric twist to the story. throughout the movie, david swims with th

38、e various creatures of the deep; he seems at home in their world, untouched by the realities of human society. the final scene, involving david and a turtle, is truly inspiring. (i acknowledge how strange that last sentence sounds. but if you see the movie, itll all make sense.)one criticism of the

39、movie is its use of product placement. although the movie ended with many audience members in tears (and were talking about hardened journalists here), the inclusion of certain advertisements drew derisive titters and rightly so. this tiny yet repeated fault worked to undermine the mood created by t

40、he director and actors on a number of occasions. overall, the movie is more than the sum of its parts and certainly a lot more than i expected. happily, we avoid many of the pitfalls associated with such disease-related cinematic outings. so there are no long-winded hospital scenes with doctors tell

41、ing the disbelieving patient that he only has three months to live, for example. (big thanks to writer/director xue xiao-lu for that.) jet li does a fine job with his role (minus the repeated side-clutching and face-pulling), and wen zhang as his son is certainly a young actor to watch. the aquarium

42、 provides a wonderful location for some cute animal moments, which add to proceedings rather than detract from them. the only real downer, as i say, is the use of product placement.originally set for release earlier in the year, ocean heaven is now supposed to hit cinema screens around china on 24 j

43、une 2010. if you get bored of watching iron-encased businessmen and persian princes with dodgy english accents, give it a go. but be sure to take a tissue. perhaps even a box. i defy you not to be moved.jet li plays with heart in ocean heavenfor the first time in his 30-year acting career, jet li do

44、es not fight in a film.in ocean heaven (haiyang tiantang), which opened the shanghai international film festival, running until june 20, li plays a marine park worker who desperately looks for a shelter for his autistic son after he is diagnosed with cancer.xue xiaolu, a teacher at the beijing film

45、academy, wrote and directed the 7 million yuan (one million u. s. dollars) movie.the first-time director has been a volunteer for 14 years with beijing stars and rain, a non-governmental educational organization for autistic children.at first nobody was willing to take a risk on such a non-commercia

46、l script until film mogul bill kong, the man behind hero (yingxiong) and crouching tiger, hidden dragon (wohu canglong) stepped in.kong recommended the script to li and asked him help the new director. after reading the story, li said, i will not only help her, i will act in the film.the fathers sel

47、fless love for his son touched li, a father of four children himself. i cried a lot when reading the script, li says. at the end the boy swims with a turtle and thinks it is his dead father, he cries, and i cried too.all parents feel very satisfied when their children make even a little bit of progr

48、ess or give them back some care and love, but parents of autistic children get no such reward. with little hope, they are so courageous and accompany their children all through life, he says.li has not starred in any chinese film since the warlords (tou ming zhuang) in 2007. rather he has spent most

49、 of his time on his charity one foundation, which has frequently been one of the quickest ngos to arrive with aid at disaster areas and which is involved with many projects, including aiding schools for autistic children.i divide the films i do into four types, he says. first, those that really touc

50、h my heart that i will do despite the budget and result; second, those i have to do because i owe some friends; third, for money; fourth, i have something to say, like in fearless (huo yuanjia, 2006).he calls his new hollywood flick the expendables, in which he co-acts with sylvester stallone, a fil

51、m for fun and money. but ocean heaven is definitely the first type, he says.li helped gather a stellar cast and crew to work on the movie, including cinematographer christopher doyle, composer joe hisaishi and production designer yee chung man.when director xue had any difference with the cinematogr

52、apher or other crew on the set li would support her. a volunteer for 14 years, isnt that enough for trust? he says.li says that when he was promoting the film in hong kong recently a journalist told him that after seeing the film, he hugged his father for the first time.this film shows that filmmake

53、rs have a responsibility to do something for society. if we can raise peoples awareness of the issue of autistic children and their parents, thats enough.the film will premiere on friday.hello readers ! now, i have a special movie review for you. its about “ocean heaven”, a movie which shows us the

54、hard effort of a father for his son before he dies. what a sad movie.i cried when watching this movie movie review & trailerdirector : xiao lu xuewriter : xiao lu xuerelease date : june 6th 2010genre : dramacast : jet li, ren chen, lunmei kwaicompany : edko filmthe movie reviewthe story tells about

55、the effort of a terminally ill father, wang xin cheng (jet li) who attempts to teach his autistic son, da fu (wen zhang) the necessary life skill to survive on his own before he passes away. wang is the only family for da fu, because his wife was death 14 years ago. he is the one who takes care da fu for a long time.but, he knows that it cant be like this longer because he has chronic liver cancer. so he plans