Duckweed

I went to see this film on a Wednesday afternoon with a friend. He said he went to see Deng Chao, but I went there because of Han Han. The film is quite good, better than I had expected. The film depicts the China of 1990s,as Han Han understands it. Though a nostaglic mood is a little too early for a 35-year-old writer, the 1990s plays a very critical role in Han's growth and thus must impress him very much. In contrast to the cynicism and social criticism represented in his precessor,Wang Suo's works, Han's works permeat more with rebelism and energy. Han han comes from a small town near Shanghai, so the town presented in this film must be Han's replica of his hometown on a big screen. I hadn't expected Han would make a light comedy, but the production is very funny. But it seems to me the year 1998, which the hero travelled back to is not a good choice. The numerous social events presents in this film seems to be occurring around 1996, not 1998. In that decade, nearly each new year presented a different China, so the accurate selection of the year is very important. While watching the film, I kept thinking of Back To The Future, the American film that impressed many Chinese.I don't know whether Han had watched it, but the plot and style of two films are very similar. But the American film stands the si-ci out very much while the Chinses basically neglects it, only retaining the concept of time travel.

A thorough mediocrity is more scattered in form and spirit. The two main male characters are all poor actors. In addition, did the director have any misunderstanding about the town in 1998? Did you wear it back in the 1980s?

Overlooking Péng's poor age makeup and the disappointingly unexpected state of his and Deng's characters in the final before-credits scene, this was an enjoyable seven-star comic drama (dramady) about a man getting the opportunity to know his father when he was his age, but the poignant scene a minute after the credits start earns Duckweed an extra star. Han made a wise choice pulling this emotional scene from the middle of the movie and placing at the end, bookmarking this movie between two of its best highlights, which allows you to forgive the poorly conceived action scene in the final act. I would have preferred a different conclusion to this story, but overall this movie's strengths far outweigh its weaknesses.

As for me, this movie is pretty satisfying as a comedy. There are a lot of high-grade jokes among this movie while jokes are very embarrassing in other comedies these days. Except for the humor, the flashbacks amused me very much and I believed this part had been edited surprisingly well. These flashbacks drew a clear and interesting outline of the character's previous life: abused by father, involved in love, betrayed by girlfriend, discouraged by father. Generally, this is a corny movie in which time-travel helps characters clear the misunderstanding of family or friends. However, this movie focus on the sense of humor and thinking of life instead of the science fiction part. In my opinion, the ending is the biggest flaw because there is no intact logical circle. It isn't based on any theory of time travel. The father knew the gesture because the son taught him. However, the son didn't really appear in the father's early life, and therefore, the gesture shouldn't be known. I know that Han Han wanted to write a mysterious ending, but I think it turns out to be the very flaw.