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Outsourced (2006)
Intelligent film peters into cliché
"Outsourced" is a romantic comedy inspired by Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) experiences of Americans in India. The authenticity of Indian cultural life depicted in this movie has to be largely commended. It does seem to be mustered out of sharp observations. However like many other Hollywood movies, it is also a victim of viewing Indian culture with hackneyed western glasses cows, curry, and caste crap - and this consequently results in ridiculous turns in the story.
The film is written and directed by John Jeffcoat and it is obvious that he has produced it for a western audience. Western audience is fascinated by Indians' reverence for the cow. Catering to this fact does not go unnoticed in the movie. It is so exaggerated that in the midst of a naturally flowing sequence, a cow joke stands out like a deliberate farce. No, cows do not walk into office buildings! Stray dogs perhaps, but certainly not cows! The setting of the outsourced office in a rural outback completely belies facts. BPO offices are located in very large cities; they are constructed with state-of-the art infrastructure and employ very metropolitan young men and women fluent in English.
But those are just minor annoyances. Where the film fails miserably is in its depiction of romance between the American executive Todd and the bright female employee Asha. The film does great disservice to Indian women and to its intended western audience in depicting the emotional and mental constitution of Indian women. The affair between the executive and female employee is depicted as casual, emotionally detached and liberating. That is sheer rubbish. That a woman like Asha would indulge in casual sex and talk of her impending wedding to another man while going at it is thoroughly incredulous. While Indian society has become relatively permissive about sex, free sex is still not an all pervasive reality. They certainly do not view sexual encounters with so much detachment. It is highly unlikely that Todd would get laid like the way he managed. Sorry, but that simply does not cut it! And here is where the movie even gets subtly condescending. This has to do with another western obsession with Indian customs arranged marriage! Asha's sexual affair is depicted as liberating. In relation to her approaching "arranged marriage" Asha confides to her American lover that she had all her life been coaxed into doing things per her parents' wishes. We are made to understand that Todd in telling her that she was capable and free to do whatever she chose opened the door to some unknown self-realization. Sheer BS! Talk about the clichéd white man's burden. That the white man must come and expose a naive Indian girl to the joys of exercising free will! Branding Jeffcoat as a white man on a civilizing mission is harsh. But clearly he did not understand an important dictum he advocated in the film. In one scene, Asha suggests to Todd, "You must understand India". Indeed Jeffcoat must. Arranged marriages are viewed in the eyes of the western world as an archaic custom that devalues individual prerogative. As a contrast, exercising free will in the choice of a life partner is professed as somehow morally superior. Often westerners ask Indians, how they can have parents decide who they marry, just like Todd asks Asha in the movie. It poses the question cloaking the air of wretchedness while presenting a facade of innocent inquiry. Such sharp questioning makes Indians defensive. It does not yield an honest answer. The result is the concept forever remains misunderstood.
The fact is modern urban arranged marriages are hardly as how westerners visualize. Boys and girls are very well versed with the virtues and weaknesses of "arranged" and "for love" marriages. In modern day India parents act as dating agencies, arrange meetings between the boy and the girl based on suitability. Girls meet several boys, and boys meet several girls over the course of many years before proposing marriage. Boys and girls are also free to attract and fall in love with the opposite sex. In such instances, they present their choices to their parents, just like parents present their choices to their children.
It also seemed unimaginable that Asha would have been promised away in marriage at the age of four or she did not have a college education. Child marriages have been outlawed since the nineteenth century. They may still be practiced but only in very fringe and closed rural societies, if at all. Asha did not appear to be from one such. She also spoke flawless English, "convent school English" as Indians would say. Such schooling is considered "posh" and it is inconceivable that coming from a convent (Catholic) school, Asha did not attend college. One must remember, unlike in the US, in India attending college is not a big deal. It is just a matter of progressing to a higher grade. Most working class children - even households where income is meager - attend college.
After having done such fine job of understanding Indian idiosyncrasies Jeffcoat had an opportunity to unravel the mysterious "arranged marriage". Instead he plays upon suspicions his audience already brings. I am sorry; the whole Asha-Todd affair was very poorly portrayed. It was terribly ill-conceived and shamelessly uncomplimentary. Yeah, a young Indian girl finds liberation in discreet sex with an American before resigning to life-long misery of arranged marriage to a stranger who she will grow to love. Oh puhleeeze!
Many Indians would recommend the movie to fellow Indians fawning at how wonderfully a westerner had understood intricate Indian customs. But at the end of the day they will also feel sick in the stomach that they have yet again been ridiculed and caricatured by a disingenuous "foreigner" for simply living the only way Indians know life is to be led.
The Village (2004)
The Village: Persuasive theme, uninspired narrative
I watched "The Village" on its opening night. The film is based upon a premise that had been worked in Hollywood some ten years back with a very big star. That film is considered a tour-de-force for the actor who was cast previously in very predictable roles. However, M. Night Shyamalan's approach in addressing the same premise focuses on strengths that he himself possesses - educe fear and then stun the audience. But trudging thru the same formula, in movies prior to "The Village" ("Wide Awake", "The Sixth Sense", "Unbreakable" and "Signs"), Shyamalan was able to embed in his stories, a content that almost had a mystifying quality. The narration therefore rivalled a spiritual discourse.
In terms of content, "The Village" is by far Shyamalan's most meritorious commentary on people's entreatment of basic human nature. But in presentation Shyamalan's narration for the film fails in elucidating that human nature sympathetically. He is also failed by his actors in key roles.
"The Village" contrary to its advertising hype is a love story. The movie I mentioned earlier that worked on the same premise, never left focus on the innocent love that made the crux of the story and therefore in the end succeeded in the audience rooting for its protagonist. In "The Village", the fear factor only contributes to diverting the attention of the audience, in the process making the young couple in love look quite foolish. Unable to generate sympathy for the romantic lead lends the audience to also be unforgiving towards the holes in the premise of the film itself. The young couple (Joaquin Phoenix and Bryce Dallas Howard) work well, but veteran actor William Hurt in the key role of the village chief appears Shakesparean preachy, when the demand was that he shepherd the film thru its innumerable plot twists. Perhaps the writing itself is to blame for this mis-performance.
There is also an expectation from the audience that a Shyamalan film will bowl you over in the end. That expectation is very hard to live up to when constantly compared with the cardinal "Sixth Sense", where the twist came as a gratuitous topping. Any Shyamalan film is by nature countenanced with a fanciful, varied and incessant postulation of the audience's own. No amount of ingenuity can therefore be satisfying across the board. A lesson perhaps for Mr. Shyamalan to gracefully bow out of the genre of plot twists that he successfully created and enjoyed the audience support for. Given his genius I am sure he is capable of contriving a completely fresh narrative all over again.
To sum up, the content of the "The Village" is M. Night Shyamalan's most persuasive as yet. In its presentation, Mr. Shyamalan crawls back to his successful yet stagnating and increasingly dissatisfactory savoir-faire.
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The presentation of the subject in the similarly themed "The Truman Show" in my opinion was far more compelling.
Wo hu cang long (2000)
See 36th Chamber of Shaolin.....
Crouching.... has great fight sequences, great music, but then I'll stop at that. The fight sequences are few and far in between. The "in between" is really boring. You are once treated to a edge of the seat fight scene followed by long melodramatic scenes.
But that is not the worst part. The story. The story is such typical run of the mill Asian movie fare, it is not even funny. Cliché stuff such as brotherhood/sisterhood, rebellious love affair, revenge, unrequited love, feminism, lofty romantic dialogues (Take a leap of faith and your desire will come true), the lengthy dramatized death of the male protagonist all packaged in the film with no interrelations. The scene in the restaurant although greatly performed, really was there for enticement purposes. Can anybody give me a justification for that sequence or it's bearing with the story?
The Character played by Zhang Ziyi: I could not figure out if I should like her, despise her or sympathize with her. She is brash, she is skillful, but not disciplined. But she doesn't get disciplined even in the end. So I am to assume that although she is undisciplined she can do all the feats of the masters that they have achieved with years of meditation and practice. She realizes Jade Fox is really evil and cunning, but she is mad at Li mu Bai and the character played by Yeoh. She goes from Yeoh's sister to foe before you can read the subtitle (literally one sentence). I could understand what she did not want from her life but I still cannot fathom what she wants in life. She does not want to be a student, something Jade Fox gripes about that she was not given an opportunity, because she was a woman. She does not want the lover she found of her own means. She is really not a protector of the underprivileged masses, she only beats up people who disturb her meal. Can anybody explain to me what she wanted in life?
Character played by Chow Yun Fat: The guy went into meditation and reached a place where there was much disturbance. He realized he needed to avenge his masters death and find Jade Fox. Oh well so much for meditative ways of non violence. So he is back into his role as a warrior. But then why relinquish your weapon. You relinquish your weapon and take up full time meditation or vice versa. How can you do both?
Character played by Michelle Yeoh: We understand women were not trained to be warriors, then where the hell did she get her education?
The movie is typical Asian movie fare where you have piecemeal slices of the various contexts, namely love, action, emotion, etc. Humor was evidently missing from this cliche ridden movie, but I am sure director Ang Lee may have toyed with the idea of pushing a comedian in there somewhere (characters in restaurant and their American football team names).
The western media and audience do not see very many Asian films and hence the movie looks refreshing. There is a long-established genre in Chinese film and literature called "Wuxia." The Wuxia were a class of knights during the time of Confucius, who in this fantasy-based fiction often have magical abilities like flight (actually more like gravity-free leaps), and speed, reflexes and strength of superhuman levels. Chinese movies about them, called Wuxia Pien, have been made for decades, but few have had the budget or the expected worldwide release that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon has had. One of the best movies I have seen in the Kung-Fu genre (and even as a film) still remains (As released in the country that I saw) "The 36th Chamber of Shaolin" (originally titled "Shao Lin san shih liu fang"). Yeah, typical kung fu fighting movie, perhaps even lacking in form compared to CTHD, but in terms of content, "Par Excellence".
Ask yourself after you see CTHD, if those fight sequences were to be removed and replaced with run of the mill martial arts action sequences, would you still call it a great movie (Love story)? On the other hand if the romance was removed, would it still be a great Martial Arts movie? The two aspects were incongruously placed in the film and overall the story lacked sense and reason. CTHD has been touted as "Sense and Sensibility" meets Martial arts. I found it more as "Sense and Sensibility" incoherently interspersed with Martial arts. Crouching... is as lousy as it can get. It's characters are uninspiring and the film unlike other Wuxia movies is really spiritually hollow.
Shao Lin san shi liu fang (1978)
The Perfect Martial Arts Movie
I have a hard time accepting Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as such a great
movie when I know I have seen 36th Chamber of Shaolin. Without such fanfare
filled worldwide release and special effects, this movie remains the
best(Martial arts film) I have seen in 25 years. the martial arts is great
and the story is extremely absorbing. The spiritual element is much higher
as opposed to CTHD. Guys, if you liked CTHD so much, please see this movie.
You will be thankful you saw it, maybe get it a more deserving rating than
the 8.7 it currently has on IMDB.
Shao Lin san shi liu fang (1978)
The Perfect Martial Arts Movie
I have a hard time accepting Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as such a great
movie when I know I have seen 36th Chamber of Shaolin. Without such fanfare
filled worldwide release and special effects, this movie remains the
best(Martial arts film) I have seen in 25 years. the martial arts is great
and the story is extremely absorbing. The spiritual element is much higher
as opposed to CTHD. Guys, if you liked CTHD so much, please see this movie.
You will be thankful you saw it, maybe get it a more deserving rating than
the 8.7 it currently has on IMDB.