Hey man I just wanted to say this was a really thorough and engaging video! In my experience it seems like a lot of the film analyses on TH-cam are preoccupied with finding concrete answers and singular meanings to these works. I really appreciated your approach because it’s a process of deconstruction that doesn’t aim to find “the one true meaning,” of a film. I love Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s films, such a great and interesting artist!
Thanks so much! Yes I agree that there is a lot of analysis like ‘the secret behind XYZ’ which doesn’t work for me. I especially find that with Lynch’s work weirdly which to me deliberately rejects easy interpretation / the idea of a concrete single meaning! I think we can sometimes understand a single intent from the creatives behind a film, but of course, that’s not the only meaning, and even the most didactic, functional films have additional readings creep in at the edges 👻 p.s. there are whispers of new HHH remasters coming soon - i noticed a few inc Millenium Mambo and Flowers of Shanghai exhibiting in the US so hoping for a City of Sadness remaster in the UK!
Interesting analysis, but I notice you've selected basically the most interesting part of the movie to discuss. 😂 I just saw this lately, and have been struggling to find any real point of interest to it (beyond how wildly stunning and compelling Shu Qi is on screen). I generally really appreciate movies w/ long, thoughtful shots that foreground the experience of time in a deliberate way (Tarkovsky, for ex.), but this one just really bored me. We know from the beginning that this all happened in the past, so there's not much room for suspense there; large bits of the story are given through voice-overs (often w/ her narrating something right before we see it happening)--even this same bit of voice-over exposition at the beginning gets repeated (unnecessarily) later on. There's some charming, hypnotic music, but it gets played over and over and became kind of irritating to me.
So for me I see the interest *in* the repetition - there’s multiple instances where whole shots get reused with different action etc - and how that reflects cycles of violence Shu Qi is trapped in. The retrospective narration is part of that for me too- i remember she tells you about a watch being stolen, and then you see it happen later on- it introduces a sort of fatalism to the movie! BUT you’re not alone, and this is often seen as a minor note in HHH’s filmography. Have you seen any of his other stuff? A City of Sadness is amazing, and Shu Qi also does great work in Three Times.
@@Indietrix I think I've only seen a bit of Flowers of Shanghai, which got interrupted but I remember really enjoying. He's clearly a skilled filmmaker and I'll definitely want to look at more of his stuff, but this one just left me rather cold. It's also made clear at a few points that Vicky *could* just go back to her hometown w/ her family- she's not really trapped, just sort of listless. It's hard to take much interest in a character who doesn't seem to want anything, but just smokes endless cigarettes and gets progressively more drunk. Trying not to veer too much into judging the character here, but she is what holds this movie together and she's a mess! Also, I think the retrospective voice-over device sort of encourages the viewer to see it this way, adding to the frustration: she knows her life at this time was crazy and unsustainable, but it's not really clear how she got past it all and what happened next. I can see what you mean about the fatalism, but then, we also see that she did in fact get past this part of her life, just not why or how. We sort of have to fill in the blanks for the most pressing plot questions.
Hey man I just wanted to say this was a really thorough and engaging video! In my experience it seems like a lot of the film analyses on TH-cam are preoccupied with finding concrete answers and singular meanings to these works. I really appreciated your approach because it’s a process of deconstruction that doesn’t aim to find “the one true meaning,” of a film. I love Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s films, such a great and interesting artist!
Thanks so much! Yes I agree that there is a lot of analysis like ‘the secret behind XYZ’ which doesn’t work for me. I especially find that with Lynch’s work weirdly which to me deliberately rejects easy interpretation / the idea of a concrete single meaning! I think we can sometimes understand a single intent from the creatives behind a film, but of course, that’s not the only meaning, and even the most didactic, functional films have additional readings creep in at the edges 👻
p.s. there are whispers of new HHH remasters coming soon - i noticed a few inc Millenium Mambo and Flowers of Shanghai exhibiting in the US so hoping for a City of Sadness remaster in the UK!
So interesting I think I have been doing this close reading all my life with amusing, films, art .. what people say
One of my all time favorite films. Great to see it getting love!
Great video, feels like a good lesson for a film studies class
great, that's exactly what I was going for so fingers crossed it helps some teachers out there!
No way! This is my GOAT opening and this is the first time someone else shares this opinion. Congrats on the great taste!
oooh i’ll take that congrats haha
This was a good analytical exercise. Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed, hope it was useful!
Thank you very interesting analysis
cheers!
Thank you my friend.
Thank you!
Interesting analysis, but I notice you've selected basically the most interesting part of the movie to discuss. 😂 I just saw this lately, and have been struggling to find any real point of interest to it (beyond how wildly stunning and compelling Shu Qi is on screen). I generally really appreciate movies w/ long, thoughtful shots that foreground the experience of time in a deliberate way (Tarkovsky, for ex.), but this one just really bored me.
We know from the beginning that this all happened in the past, so there's not much room for suspense there; large bits of the story are given through voice-overs (often w/ her narrating something right before we see it happening)--even this same bit of voice-over exposition at the beginning gets repeated (unnecessarily) later on. There's some charming, hypnotic music, but it gets played over and over and became kind of irritating to me.
So for me I see the interest *in* the repetition - there’s multiple instances where whole shots get reused with different action etc - and how that reflects cycles of violence Shu Qi is trapped in. The retrospective narration is part of that for me too- i remember she tells you about a watch being stolen, and then you see it happen later on- it introduces a sort of fatalism to the movie!
BUT you’re not alone, and this is often seen as a minor note in HHH’s filmography. Have you seen any of his other stuff? A City of Sadness is amazing, and Shu Qi also does great work in Three Times.
@@Indietrix I think I've only seen a bit of Flowers of Shanghai, which got interrupted but I remember really enjoying. He's clearly a skilled filmmaker and I'll definitely want to look at more of his stuff, but this one just left me rather cold.
It's also made clear at a few points that Vicky *could* just go back to her hometown w/ her family- she's not really trapped, just sort of listless. It's hard to take much interest in a character who doesn't seem to want anything, but just smokes endless cigarettes and gets progressively more drunk. Trying not to veer too much into judging the character here, but she is what holds this movie together and she's a mess!
Also, I think the retrospective voice-over device sort of encourages the viewer to see it this way, adding to the frustration: she knows her life at this time was crazy and unsustainable, but it's not really clear how she got past it all and what happened next.
I can see what you mean about the fatalism, but then, we also see that she did in fact get past this part of her life, just not why or how. We sort of have to fill in the blanks for the most pressing plot questions.