two_truths

I think part of the difficulty was caused by the difference in culture (Chinese), and my own tiredness, because it was quite difficult a lot of the time to distinguish between different characters (particularly the women). It was quite erratic as well; with a loose miss-match of flash- backs, fantasy scenes, and quotes; which together depict an equally loose interweave of plot-threads. The film had some rather grand moments; when it's general chaos was dispersed to reveal a rather pleasing clarity about any one of a whole series of concepts which the film tried to express. At these moments, I found myself sitting up straight and paying attention, rather than slumped and gently passing the time.

I would summarise this film to be Asia's equivalent to the French "Before Sunset" (and probably "Before Sunrise" albeit I have not seen the film yet). I think that I relate to the French mindset better than I do the Asian one.

This is a German film (subtitled) about a school project looking at autocracy (a la Nazi Germany). In order for the teacher to persuade his pupils that autocracy remains a real threat to democracy, he persuades them to take part in a class dictatorship. The key difference between this and your average school classroom is that he convinces the pupils not just to obey but also to want his every command. Of course the project turns bad and things get scary.

What I liked about the film was that it did not treat the pupils as "just kids"; they had brains, opinions, and their own ethics too. It is not a very black and white in it's opinion, you could draw some distinct opinion from the film but I suggest that there are several different opinions that are equally as valid. It keeps you guessing what is going to happen & even deliberately misleads you.

This film is much alike to the Bourne films, including that the main character is a US secret agent who is very much alone as he takes on impossible numbers of heavily armed bad guys. I would have rated it four stars except for a few glaring faults; My initial reaction to this was that it was quite good but was a little heavy on the violence and bloodshed. Unlike Bourne, it seems like the main character in this film would rather kill or torture rather than talk his way out of situations & actually takes some joy in hearing people scream. I am not sure how it got away with PG-13 in the States & I actually think that the UK's 15 rating was a little slack too.

The violence begins with the agent entering France and ends with his departure. That was a bit disturbing, especially since when he returns people are acting as if life is back to normal and that nothing really happened in-between. There are a few other loose ends which the film glosses over poorly as well.

The film is almost written as an anti-Bourne. Whereas Bourne takes on the corrupt CIA and battles against mostly US agents, this film features a "who's who" of people that the US does not like. The baddies include French, Eastern Europeans, and even Arabs. The way that the film portrays the French authorities in particular is pretty insulting.

This is an excellent movie, which sold out several-fold at it's opening premiere in Edinburgh.

It has it's faults, sure - too many references to the Firefly series before it, and that flawed Joss Whedon sense of humour. However, overall, this is the best piece of space opera that has hit the big screen for a few years.

A lot of people are hoping for a second season of Firefly, whereas I would be far more interested in a sequel to this movie.

IMDb - get it together - put this film where it should be, in the Top Movies list. More than enough people have rated it highly enough to deserve it's place there.