A Film a Week - Saturday Fiction / Lan xin da ju yuan

previously published on Asian Movie Pulse

After Ye Lou was the subject of controversy regarding his previous film, "Shadow Play" (it almost didn't the censors' board permission to be shown at Berlinale, see the review here), he is back with another effort that recently premiered at the official competition of the 76th edition of Venice International Film Festival. It seems that he is back in mercy with his country's cultural establishment and why he should not be, since "Saturday Fiction" is a handsome spy noir set in the "Solitary Island" period of Shanghai's history and is not even a bit controversial.

"Solitary Island" refers to the early period of Japanese occupation of the city between 1937 and 1941. The city was occupied by the Japanese army, but the British and French consessions (business and cultural institutions) maintained the widest form of autonomy. Needless to say, it made Shanghai it a major spy hub at the beginning of the World War Two.

The plot of the film, inspired by novels "Death of Shanghai" by Hong Ying and "Shanghai" by Yokomitsu Riichi, is set over the course of one week in December of 1941, just before the Pearl Harbour attack. The film, however, opens with the rehearsal of the titular play at Lyceum Theatre. The huge star of Hong Kong cinema Yu Jean (the poster actress for the Chinese 5th Generation movies Gong Li in her sensitively luminous mode) is back after the years of absence to work with her former partner actor/director Tan Na (Mark Chao) on the play. But she is a woman with multiple secrets...

Firstly, her ex-husband (Zhang Songwen) is captured by the Japanese under suspicion that he works with the resistance. Secondly, she also works for the French, personified by her father-figure Frederic (Pascal Gregory) and is on an official mission to extract some important information from the Japanese intelligence officer Furuya (Joe Odagiri) through an elaborate scheme based on her resemblance of his dead wife. Other people, including the play's producer, the sleazy hotel manager (Tom Wlaschiha) and the obsessive fan (Huang Xiangli) will also find their place in the plot as it gets more and more complicated before the bloody, action-packed finale.

While its setting makes it a possible prequel of sorts for Ang Lee's "Lust, Caution" (2007) that is set at the same place, just some months after, the story that includes love, friendship, political pressure and treason, as well as Zeng Jian's slick black and white cinematography call the ultimate classic "Casablanca" in mind. The most intriguing aspect, the one about the impending assault on Pearl Harbour, is handled masterfully by both the screenwriter Ma Yingli and the director Ye Lou. Too bad that he did not resist the urge to finish the film in a prolonged action sequence that works quite well on its own, but breaks the rhythm and the shroud of mystery established earlier.

Acting is competent to brilliant throughout (with Gong Li, Mark Chao and Pascal Gregory as standouts), but some of the actors like Zhang Songwen and Huang Xiangli would profit from a deeper character development. But nevertheless, Ye Lou manages to keep his film intriguing for the whole of its 126 minutes of runtime.

"Saturday Fiction" is by no means a masterpiece, but it is essentially a good film and quite a pleasant viewing experience, especially in the movie theatre setting, where its shades of grey palette of colours and its sound design coloured by the almost constant rain can shine. However, it would work quite well also on the small screen as the film of choice for a quiet evening.

A Film a Week - The Exception

We can all agree that television production has grown over the course of the last 10 or 20 years, improving significantly not just its quantity, but also its quality. With the recent TV series and films done by proven helmers and producers, I am not so sure if “TV-worthy” still stands as a negative comment in the terms of anything actually, writing, directing, acting, production values... Nevertheless, I am ready to take chances to be called obsolete, and call The Exception basically a TV film that has somehow smuggled into the theatres. And when I say TV, I do not have HBO or some such in mind. It is more like 90’s television, apt for a Sunday afternoon slot.

The screen debut by the British stage director David Leveaux, written by TV veteran Simon Burke based on a popular history novel by Alan Judd, The Exception is a WWII-themed espionage drama with more than a drop of melodramatic romance. The year is 1940. and the Nazis are invading Belgium and Holland where the last German Kaiser Wilhelm II (veteran actor Christopher Plummer) lives in exile since the defeat in WWI. A Wermacht captain and a veteran of Polish campaign Stefan Brandt (Jai Courtney) has been sent there to scout the terrain and to maybe prepare a plan for the Kaiser and his wife, Princess Hermine (Janet McTeer), to return to Germany under the wing of national-socialism. However, the rumor is there is a British spy in the mansion, so Gestapo is sniffing around and our captain, against better judgment, falls hard for a Dutch-Jewish servant girl Mieke (Lilly James). And, of course, the visit of Heinrich Himmler (Eddie Marsan) to the house is announced.

As it is obvious from the plot (and from the source novel), this is one of “those” films that try to juggle to many things and ideas and to wrap it all up in a candy-coating of period-piece countryside. Trying to hard to do so, The Exception is more often than not unintentionally funny, while remaining shallow. The reason for that is a silly romantic subplot between Mieke and Stefan that starts with a real “wtf” moment when he orders her to take her clothes off first time he sees her, only for her to turn the tables when they meet again. The utter lack of chemistry between the two does not do any good either.

Yet, The Exception is still watchable and even somewhat fun. The reason for that is not Burke’s TV-style writing, nor Leveaux’ lazy directing, but the acting of Christopher Plummer that nails the bitter aristocrat, the dethroned king trope in a great manner that lets him be amusing, but still cool and never even near to the territory of cartoonish. Obviously, he has got the best lines in the whole film since the kookiness of the Kaiser is the central thing in the novel, but the actor still deserves all the credit. Apart from him, an episode of Eddie Marsan as Himmler is also a highlight of the film especially because the actor had no juicy one-liners and had to take it seriously and make his character somewhat deadpan funny, while still monstrous.