Tag: Liu Jian

Art College 1994

Posted on by victorfraga

QUICK AND DIRTY: LIVE FROM BERLIN

Chinese painter-turned-filmmaker Liu Jian’s third feature has the aesthetic trademarks of his two previous works: multiple textures, gingerly painted backgrounds and minimalistic faces combined vaguely dark and dirty imagery. His previous film Have a Nice Day impressed film critics and audiences alike six years ago at the Berlinale, by turning capitalistic Chinese dreams into a bloody nightmare. This is the very same festival where the premiered his latest creation. While still charming and affecting, Art College 1994 is not as powerful, sharp and subversive.

The story follows two male art students, Xiaojun and Rabbit, in the Chinese Southern Academy of Arts during the early 1990s as they collaborate on a painting. They discuss their ambitions, engage with Western art, challenge and debate with their professors. Two female music students, Lili and Hong, dream of performing together on stage. There’s a spark of romance of romance between Xiaojun and Lulu, however artistic ambition remains the main focus of this highly conversational and ruminative drama. Xiaojun and Rabbit could see their dreams slashed when a fellow student vandalises their work, and they seek to do justice with their own hands. This is more or less the pedestrian conflict that our protagonists experience.

These students witness their country undergo massive changes, including an inundation of foreign culture. They question the nature of life, the purpose of art, their school technique, while also pondering whether European and American artists are artistically superior. They talk about literature, philosophy, fine arts, music, and much more. They love Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, French composer Claude Debussy, German writer Immanuel Kant, Italian singer Luciano Pavarotti and American rocker Kurt Cobain. They are concerned that they are getting old too quickly, and that they have little prospect of recognition past 27 (the tragic age when Kobain, Winehouse, Morrison, Hendrix, Joplin and others died). They ponder what is it that makes a good artist: young age, suffering or poverty? Reflections fit for a restlessly creative mind such as the director Jian’s, one burning with both ambition and doubts.

This is a visually inventive and impressive film. The vaguely stylised human beings are juxtaposed against elaborate backgrounds. The director paints many of the landscape by hand and I would hazard a guess that he also utilises rotoscopic animation. Western symbols – a giant poster of Michael Jackson’s Bad, large Coca-Cola and McDonald’s signs – jostle with the towering Chinese architecture, a few derelict buildings and the occasional agitprop. Music is combined with delicate imagery, such as an insect climbing up a crumbling wall to the sound of Chinese music, and a montage of posters to the sound of Franz Schubert’s Ave Maria. The snow adds a soothing touch to the wintry closure of the story. These are the most beautiful and elegant elements of this 118-minute film, that gets lost in its extreme intertextuality, and a sometimes confusing and aimless plot. The action is just too discussive and reflective. While it might occasionally touch your heart and make you smile, Art College 1994 never quite hits you in the guts. Or in the face. It lacks the sharp political commentary, the absurd violence and quirky sense sense of humour that make its 2017 predecessor so memorable. These dirty qualities are suppressed by the constant attempt to convey a deep philosophical message about the nature of art.

This is a deeply personal, lifetime project. Art College 1994 is inspired by the 62-year-old director’s own experience at a prominent Chinese art school in the 1990s. The director had previously attended the Beijing People’s Army Art College at the age of just 18. It features a star-studded Chinese voice cast. They include actors Dong Zijian, Zhou Dongyu, Huang Bo, musician RenKe, comedian Papi, as well as internationally renowned filmmakers Jia Zhangke and Bi Gan.

Art College 1994 is in the Official Competition of the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival. It is very unusual for a-list festivals such as the Berlinale to pick animation movies for their main competitive strand, and I commend them for doing it.

Have a Nice Day (Hao Ji Le)

Posted on by victorfraga

Dilapidated buildings, cracked walls, chipped doors, neglected railway tracks, shabby cars, mangy dogs, plenty of rain and blood: this is more or less the filthy image of China that will you see in this highly imaginative animation and black comedy from the People’s Republic. Have a Nice Day premiered today at the Berlinale (when this piece was originally written, and it’s a breath of fresh air plus a welcome break from a streak of stern and languid pieces such as the Korean On the Beach at Night Alone (Hong Sangsoo) and the Portuguese Colo (Teresa Villaverde) in the Festival’s Competition).

The movie looks almost like a rotoscope animation due to the realism of faces and places, but a few dissonant elements effectively cater for the more ingenious and resourceful side of the endeavour. There’s a thin line of smoke coming up undisturbed from a cigarette, there are paintings with a very different texture and there’s a very plush allegorical montage blending dreams with symbols of pop culture (from which the image above was taken). And there’s cheesy Chinese music to top it all up, sometimes coming from bad quality speakers, as if you were in a student’s room.

The premise of the film is rather simple. A bag with one million yuan is enough to change the life of anyone who comes across it. These greedy Chinese commoners will lie, cheat, run and kill in order to keep the money and fulfil their capitalist fantasy: to give up work, to pay for your girlfriend’s plastic surgery or to move to the promising Shangri-La. Needless to say, their plans go terribly awry and these people one by one encounter a very bloody fate. Failed communist ideals turn into violence. These people literally go from red to red.

This is the parody of the ambitions of a country stuck between its communist legacy and a megalomaniacal consumerist dream – which turns out to be a bloody nightmare!

One of the most interesting dialogues of the film reveals the absurdity of modern Chinese philosophy, when a man lectures a friend about the three types of freedom: farmer’s market freedom, supermarket freedom and online shopping freedom. It does seem indeed that the life of the Chinese revolves around purchasing. No wonder they will do anything for one million yuan!

The film also jokes about our very own failed capitalism and ambitions in the UK, when a character asks another one: “Why do you want to go to England? It’s not even part of Europe anymore!”.

What’s most remarkable about Have a Nice Day is how it successfully transposes the aesthetics of an arthouse cinema into animation, thereby throwing in comedic elements. Some of the takes are long and still, as if there was a static camera capturing the mood of the external environment. The movements are harsh, almost spasmodic and cars drive past extremely fast, contrasting with the slow action otherwise. It’s almost as if a knife cut past the screen when vehicles and people begin to move. You will feel threatened and entranced.

Have a Nice Day was in the Official Competition of the 67th Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year, but it did not take the prize from jury led by Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven. This piece was originally written back then. The film was in the the 61st BFI London Film Festival taking place from October 5th to the 15th, and then the London East Asia Film Festival the following week. The film is out in US cinemas on January 26th, and then out in UK cinemas on Friday, March 23rd.