A movie still from "Gone with the Bullets." [China.org.cn]

Director and actor Jiang Wen’s new effort is an odd adventure filled with too many different genres in a magic realism Shanghai in the early 20th century.

"Gone with the Bullets" is neither a blockbuster nor an art-house movie. It is like something in between, but Jiang is trying very hard to make big money while achieving artistic ambitions, without intentionally pleasing the audience's taste.

It is a very rare and very outrageous work by Jiang, especially with a hungry but still lukewarm New Year movie season market in China this year, when all the theaters are eager to cash in on "Gone with the Bullets." Jiang's pride, confidence and personality prompted him to take the risk, and walk a path that no one has the nerve to tread.

"Gone with the Bullets" had been hyped as probably "the best film ever in Chinese history" for four years since Jiang started rolling his camera, as he made a very successful blockbuster movie "Let the Bullets Fly." The film grossed 659 million yuan (US$107.2 million), to become one of the highest-grossing movies in China's history, winning over audiences and critics.

When Chinese audiences eventually recognized Jiang's genius, energy and dark humor in 2010, they seemed to forget that the movie before "Let the Bullets Fly" was "The Sun Also Rises" (2007), a film winning over critics but which confused the average moviegoer, and failed miserably in its commercial release. But something in his blood still wanted to speak up with his own trademark. Let's put it this way, "Gone with the Bullets" is more of a sequel to "The Sun Also Rises" than a sequel to "Let the Bullets Fly," which everybody loved.

That's how "Gone with the Bullets" came about. Unlike Jiang's other films which were adapted from actual great novels, he created "Gone with the Bullets" himself, with eight screen writers, including stage drama script writer Liao Yimei and the elite writer and social critic Wang Shuo. The nine writers have different styles and it was very hard to integrate them all.

"Gone with the Bullets" is based on the true story in 1920: "Yan Ruisheng killing a prostitute." At that time, when playboy Yan was desperate after losing all money in a casino, he robbed and killed a popular prostitute at that time named Wang Lianying in suburban Shanghai. The man was caught and sentenced to death. His urban legend was adapted into plays, books and movies.

Jiang and his team toyed with this idea and made this story even more vivid and wild. The movie begins with a scene mimicking the opening scene of "The Godfather" directed by Francis Ford Coppola, in which main characters Ma Zouri (Jiang Wen), Xiang Feitian (Ge You) and Wu Qi (Wen Zhang) are discussing how to establish a beauty pageant called the "Flowers Competition" in order to launder money. Later, all of the world's elite attend this live-broadcast gala event, but when Wanyan Ying (Shu Qi) unexpectedly wins, it triggers a series of tragic events that changes the characters' destinies. Ma causes Wanyan Ying's death and is then hunted down by police, while the drama of Wu Liu (Zhou Yun)'s love for him unfolds.

Jiang Wen delicately handcrafted the details of the movie. From the beginning to the end, his adrenalin is always running. He threw in too many symbols, genres, metaphors, philosophies and all his favorite elements into this mess. After precisely mimicking "The Godfather," Jiang and the other leading actor Ge You brought in something like a modern day talent competition TV show with a prolonged, sluggish but stunning 30-minute "Moulin Rouge" and "Chicago" styled dancing and singing section, which resembles a grand gala or Broadway musical.

Besides that, other tributes, homage, references and technologies are also thrown into this mix, such as Shakespeare, Federico Fellini, Emir Kusturica, "Bonnie And Clyde," Chinese opera, Verdi opera "La Traviata," stand-up comedy, talk show, black and white silent film, documentary film, film in film,  stage play, love story, film noir, theme from "2001:A Space Odyssey," various foreign languages and dialects, IMAX 3D,  and the most dreamlike, beautiful, magic realism scene of the year when he and the woman who loves him Wanyan Ying drove a car and then flew to a big moon (after they are actually high on drugs in the film). All these things are too much for just one film.

Jiang Wen's "Gone with the Bullets" may be his most personal film which tells a twisted love story with regret while playing ironies directly at bureaucrats, society, politics, betrayal and media power. Leading actors Jiang Wen, Ge You, Shu Qi and Zhou Yun gave solid performances, while Hong Huang, Wang Zhiwen and Wen Zhang also surprised audiences with their talents in supporting roles. However, even though Jiang has boldly experimented with many elements and ideas in one film, which is groundbreaking and unique in Chinese film history, it doesn't mean it is good enough to make it classic or even a decent movie.

"Gone with the Bullets" is a crazy motion picture fun that is overdone by a director afflicted by narcissism and ego while lacking in emotional depth, though Jiang tried hard to portray himself as a child "with pure heart and hot blood" and make the film "a romantic fable." The film is full of boring, flat, uncomfortable tones, rhetoric, voiceovers and dialogues which should only belong to a small art theater, as well as too many unnecessary scenes and plots that do not make the film entertaining. Jiang waywardly wants his audiences to immerse themselves in his bizarre, wild and ambitious dream and to feel his soul; his sadness and artistic vision of love and the world. But he never asked you if you were enjoying it or wanted to escape from it.

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)