Venice. The Sun Also Rises.

"If Emir Kusturica ever made a pic in China, it would look a little like Jiang Wen's The Sun Also Rises," suggests Derek Elley in Variety.

"Stunningly shot in widescreen and saturated colors by three of East Asia's top lensers, Jiang's third feature is closer in spirit to his sophomore outing, Devils at the Doorstep, than his debut, In the Heat of the Sun, though realized on a wider, more fantastic stage. Rather than reaching back into classical history for a setting, the 44-year-old multi-hyphenate has stayed with the period he knows best - growing up during the latter years of the Cultural Revolution."

Updated through 9/6.

"Five years in preparation and three years in the making, Jiang Wen's explosively energetic third feature film is a feast for the eyes and a delight for the ears," writes Dan Fainaru in Screen Daily. "But at the same time this may prove a perplexing, often infuriating experience for Western audiences, faced with a rambling narrative and a dreamlike logic clear only to the director himself."

Update, 9/6: "Flowers in bloom, intricately embroidered slippers, billowing curtains and a belly as soft as velvet are among the sensuous elements in a quartet of interrelated stories about characters who are variously addled, lecherous, vengeful and yearning in the four quadrants of China in the mid-1970s," writes Ray Bennett in the Hollywood Reporter. "Lavishly produced and imaginatively shot, the film will delight audiences who enjoy extravagantly gorgeous imagery without the violence that usually accompanies it."

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Covering the coverage: Venice 07. Index.

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Posted by dwhudson at September 5, 2007 12:46 PM