By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Flora Lau
Starring: Carina Lau | Chen Kun | Lawrence Cheng | Stephanie Che | Tian Yuan
Country: hong_kong
Year: 2014
Running time: 96
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2852460/combined
Kyle says: “BENDS is the opening title of the seventh season of ContemporAsian screenings at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Most films offer so little that it is tempting to go overboard in praising something as wonderful as BENDS. It carries the imprimatur of numerous film festivals, such as Un Certain Regard at Cannes last May, Toronto, Vancouver and Hamburg in September, London and São Paolo in October, and numerous others. It marks an auspicious debut by writer/director Flora Lau, co-producerial mentoring by director, designer and producer Agnès B., a dramatically restrained but haunting score by Patrick
Jonsson, and beautifully modulated cinematography by Christopher Doyle. It is the sort of film that is likely to be appreciated by fans of independent cinema but unlikely to receive proper acknowledgment beyond the festival circuit.
“In a story of burgeoning cultural differences between Hong Kong and Mainland China, BENDS traces the somewhat subversive arc of a decidedly classist contemporary China, exemplified by a woman of the Bourgeoisie and her working class driver. Both face major challenges: Mrs. Li finds her life of shopping and socializing disrupted by her industrialist husband’s dumping her, cutting off her financial resources, and disappearing from her life, while her driver Fai desperately searches for a maternity hospital where his wife can give birth to their second child — a clear violation of the Chinese government-mandated one-child-only dictum. Fai, his wife and child live in a colorless utilitarian apartment complex, where he keeps reminding her to be careful about hanging up the washing outside to dry, lest the neighbors see the advanced state of her pregnancy and spread rumors resulting in a heavy fine.
“Many filmgoers will be surprised by the introduction BENDS offers to radically different Chinese lifestyles on either side of the border between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Writer/director Flora Lau develops her story carefully in small gestures and intimate moments that gradually accumulate to create a striking depiction of this tale of two Chinas. Her brilliant cinematographer Christopher Doyle seems to leach away colors from the drab existence in Fai’s shabby apartment complex,
creating stark contrast with the bright colors of the gaudy necklace and ring worn by Anna Li. Her apartment requires her hiring a Feng Shui expert for advice in proper placement of showy ornaments such as golden elephants, while Fai sells purloined auto parts and loses at gambling in increasingly desperate attempts to find a place for his wife to have their baby.
“The accumulation of details that create our empathy with Mrs. Li’s helplessness in the face of looming poverty is just as effective as the seemingly more pressing issue of imminent birth. Cineastes who are not moved by this film may take away the view that it is little more than a Chinese DRIVING MISS DAISY (or DRIVING MRS. LI), but that is their loss. In a climactic drive to Hong Kong, in which both driver and passenger barely contain their panic, basic human needs connect gently but firmly, and the film becomes immensely moving. Praise is due not only to Flora Lau for her outstanding direction, but also to the two actors — Carina Lau as Mrs. Li, and Chen Kun as Fai — who create memorable characters by investing themselves completely in the creation of moment-to-moment reality. I presume the unfortunate title BENDS is a reference to departures from a straight course in life or society; the original Cantonese translation CROSSING THE BORDER is more evocative. In any case, this movie is urgently recommended. 5 cats
“Seen Friday, April 25, 2014, ContemporAsian at Titus 2 Theater, Museum of Modern Art, New York.”