THE SUN ALSO RISES

China, 2007, 115 minutes, Colour.
Joan Chan, Anthony Wong.
Directed Jiang Wen

The Sun Also Rises is a lavish production by Jiang Wen, actor (appearing as Old Tang) and Venice Award winning director.

The film is lavish in its production, beautiful locations ranging from forests and rivers to the Gobi desert and the mountains on the Russian border. There is a lavish musical score as well. The cinematic style of the film is exotic, dreams, fantasy, surrealism as well as realism.

However, the plot is complicated with four intersecting stories. These may not be perfectly clear to the audience, especially the non-Chinese audience, and familiar with beliefs about ghosts, afterlife, magic, ceremonies, and the interconnection of stories. A film to be admired by most audiences - but baffling to most audiences.

1. The impact of the film? For Chinese audiences? Non-Chinese? Chinese mysticism? Traditions?

2. The beauty of the landscapes? The river, the woods, the deserts, the mountains? The style in which they were filmed? The musical score?

3. The background of ghost stories, afterlife in Chinese understanding?

4. The four stories and their interconnection: the story of the young widow, her son, her dreams, the embroidered shoes, climbing the trees, fancy and delirium? The trip to the island, the cave, the photos? Her past? The son, his character, relationship with his mother? The second story, the college campus, the cultural revolution? The relationships between the students? The doctor? The molester? Binding them, separating them? The third story, the central character of the previous story, going to the village, the mad mother and her son? The men, the women, caressing velvet? Its impact on their lives? The fourth story, the desert, the wind and the mountains, the nomads? People converging? In this time and place?

5. The various themes, marriage, birth and death, destiny?