Ocean Heaven

The marketing for this film went into overdrive with its touting of this being action star Jet Li's first dramatic role. Unless you count his appearance in a non combative role in Founding of a Republic and the various attempts to balance his action status with more dramatic acting chops such as Danny the Dog, then Ocean Heaven will be that maiden effort. Written and directed by Xue Xiao Lu, this modest effort is by no means small in ambition, having the likes of Jay Chou and Kwai Lun Mei lend their vocals to separate title tracks (with Kwai also starring in the film), as well as being lensed by the renowned Christopher Doyle.

Jet Li stars as Wang, a middle aged technician at Qingdao's Ocean World who discovers that his liver cancer is at its 4th stage, and a medical death sentence has been passed, giving him 3 to 4 months to live. His prime concern will be that of his autistic son Da Fu (Wen Zhang) because this means as the main caregiver, he has to find an able, trusted replacement, most likely an institution, but as any single parent can attest to, this effort is none too easy in the absence of direct family support, with places like mental institutions being totally out of place, and Da Fu being too old for an orphanage, and too young for a senior citizens' home. The film opens with a father-son suicide, only for the latter to inexplicably save the both of them, and bringing them back to the drawing board.

It's interesting to note (at least for me) that the Chinese language term for Autism is "Gu Du Zheng" which directly translates to a condition of loneliness. Through the film, Wang cannot shake off the fact that this figuratively applies to him, being alone in his care of his teenage son for many years since the passing of his wife, and not wanting to impose his troubles and issues on others, such as his neighbour and provision shop owner (Zhu Yuanyuan) who undoubtedly has affections for Wang himself. Wang is the classical stoic Chinese man who bottles up his troubles, seeking instead to source for solutions himself than to rely on the graces of others, although help does come from an understanding boss, as well as Da Fu's school principal.

Xue spends considerable screen time in outlining the father-son relationship, albeit that it's not quite the norm because communication almost always seem like a one way street. Wang, with his limited, time, wants to train Da Fu in performing simple tasks in looking after himself, from cooking to taking the public bus, and through many of these scenes, Xue has allowed for an awareness of autism to ring through without resorting to over-reliance on melodrama to do so. Tasks are to be explained with extreme patience, and knowledge imparted through constant rote learning and praising. It's not easy, but as any parent, this unconditional love is something that's quite innate.

Both Jet Li and Wen Zhang share great chemistry, which helps make their individual performance credible. You'll for once feel as exasperated as Li since this time he cannot kung-fu kick his way out of challenges and troubles, and have to rely on perseverance and love to educate his son. You'll feel his pain, and share his pessimism and slim hopes that he'll be able to impart, delegate and leave behind enough for his son not only material wealth, but emotional stability as well, which comes in the form of a sea turtle motif, known for its longevity, Wen Zhang too has this child like quality in his portrayal of autism which endears, and is able to bring out the confusion, fear and anger when he is not understood by others.

The only peculiar performance here will be that of Kwai Lun Mei's Ling Ling, whose role is that of a clown who juggles. I can't place her role anywhere other than to solely beef up the star attraction to this film, because her role and the subplots involving her character all seem a little out of place and useless, and can be done without. Perhaps it is just there to balance that sense of bleak from Wang's point of view, since scenes between Ling Ling and Da Fu mostly hinges on play and friendship, providing that lift to the audience, unbeknownst to Wang, that his son is capable of making new, genuine friends, and that he need not worry that Da Fu will eventually be alone in this world after Wang's own passing.

I won't say this is a tearjerker, but there will be those who will inevitably be touched by Father's love, going by the amount of sniffles in the cinema hall. I suppose Jet Li's foray into a purely dramatic role is quite successful, although personally I can't wait to see him kick serious ass in The Expendables with an ensemble cast of action heroes where he belongs. But of course one can't go on forever in such a role. Maybe he too can adopt the Jackie Chan direction (I'm pretty sure they would have exchanged notes during their pairing in The Forbidden Kingdom) where a film role balancing drama and action is possible ala Chan's Little Big Soldier, or even following what Clint Eastwood is doing in going behind the camera to tell heartfelt stories.

I read the plot outline on the box. A man with an autistic son, who is terminally ill tries to figure out a way to ensure his son will be cared for after he dies. That is quite a punch right there.

The movie really grabbed me emotionally with repeated small acts of kindness, not just from the father but from everyone in his community. You will need a box of Kleenex. The father has totally dedicated his life to his son's well being. His gentle kindness transforms everyone around him and brings out the best in them.

The movie completely worked until the very end when Dad tried to create a simple religious myth to explain his impending death to his son. It was bathos. It spoiled the end of the movie for me. The movie suddenly went Disney on me. It was just too goofy. I suppose I could reframe it as insane last ditch desperation.

It has an intense bitter-sweet ending.

My sister has a 7 year old son who suffers vaccine injury leaving him autistic. I bought the DVD already knowing of the burden for parents having one of their five kids who'll most likely never leave their nest. There were a lot of details that this film got right: the attention span, the distractions, the stimming, the frustration of sensory overload. It's very painful to see someone repeatedly smash their head into a wall because the impact is actually giving them relief from their thoughts and over stimulated brain.

As the film developed I found it emotionally crushing to see how the hearts of the characters themselves are all melted converts to a father's simple love in spite the inevitable conclusion of mortal separation. Everything of the film was superb except perhaps the blurry picture quality...no wait. I'm sorry, those were my tears that got in the way. The DVD played just fine.

(2010) Ocean Haven/ Ocean heaven/ Ocean Paradise (In Mandarin with English subtitles) DRAMA

As a fan of Jet Lee or Jet Li's martial art movies, this is quite a transition for him, but at the same time I was never a fan of movies about people suffering from down syndrome or people with mental disorder films since they're the easiest thing to do if anyone were to become an actor as I always thought even before seeing Lars Von Trier's controversial film "The Idiots" saying that it involves more peculiar movements and less thinking dialogue. Besides "The Idiots", the only other films that demand recognition in terms of less dialogue acting roles are probably "The Miracle Worker" with Anne Bancroft and "My Left Foot" which their minds are intact but their bodies are not. The reason I say this is because everybody regardless who you're can act or verbally talk irresponsibly and carelessly once in awhile including me. Therefore, down syndrome or other mental disorder films can on some level or another can be an everyday occurrence and is not hard to do saying that anyone can do it- just be self absorbed, selfish and inconsiderate of others while allowing others to help you. Anyways, I had to see this movie because I like Jet Lee and stereotypical I did not know he can be in a drama film. The film is written and directed by Xue Xiao Lu, which may be a personal film based on actual experiences. At the beginning, Jet Lee as Wang Xingchang or as the characters in the movie call him Old Wang ties a rope to his son's leg along with his while sitting on a boat for it's very evident that his teenage son doesn't have any normal tendencies. Old Wang jumps into the water from his boat for the intention of killing himself as well as his only teenage son his name is Dafu. We assume at this point that it's one of those movies which the beginning is the end. But that is not the case at all for his son, Dafu saves him since he must be an excellent swimmer. The next scene has both of them coming into their apartment, and are not wet anymore but smell quite badly as acknowledged by his young female next door neighbor who's just stopping by to drop off some eats. And it was at this point he reveals to the audience that his son is autistic. That the reason he was attempting to kill himself by means of drowning along with his son was because he is dying of cancer for his son is unable to take care of himself and felt that it would be unfair to him if he couldn't get the proper care that he needs. Now because the setting takes place somewhere China, we get to witness some of the customs regarding how autistic people are treated in some areas. For instance, Old Wang is allowed to take his son to work which is maintaining the 'ocean resort' which includes janitorial and electrical, while his son is allowed to swim in the pool with the sea animals which is where he learned to become a great swimmer. This movie makes the possibility that although it's possible to take your child with you when you go to work, it's not possible to find the proper care he needs if that person happens to be the only parent who can look after him and that it'll be much harder if that specific parent is not around anymore. What I liked about this film is that it's not so much about the son as much as it's about whether or not one can find the proper care for him if anything were to happen to the parent which can be any parents dilemma. For it's generally harder to look after someone who is mentally disabled than it would be to look after a cat or a dog which owners don't have to worry too much about them all the time in comparison to a child who's suffering from mental disabilities. What prevented me to like this film even more is the expected cliché scenes of Old Wang training his autistic son to cook for himself and so forth... for it's different with each person and in my opinion didn't need it since the gov't can also provide some of the help too.

I always been a great fan of jet Li and the martial arts cinema and this film just prove something that I knew for long time, how great actors some martial artists can be. but beyond the amazing performance of jet Li, this movie is a beautiful story about a terminally ill father and his autistic son, and how the real love is beyond everything even death...the performance of the rest of the cast is perfect,specially wen zhang, who plays jet Li's son, his performance is brilliant, this guy is going to be a star.All the cast shines on this beautiful tale.this is the kind of stories that make cinema so great and in my opinion this film is much better movie than any of the nominees to best picture movie of this year...