TOGETHER A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 2003 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): **
The films by director Chen Kaige (TEMPTRESS MOON and THE EMPEROR AND THE ASSASSIN) always have a bright surface gloss which most critics confuse with substance. TOGETHER (HAN NI ZAI YIKI), Kaige's latest picture, is another handsomely shot film which has a luscious soundtrack. The sappy story, however, is much less successful.
Real life violin prodigy Tang Yun stars as a fictional prodigy, 13-year-old Xiaochun. The problem in the movie could easily be attributed solely to Yun, who is an emotional cipher. He approaches every scene with a single glazed look, which makes it difficult to care about him one way or the other.
To be fair to Yun, the professional actors don't come across much more effectively. Hardest to stomach is Liu Peiqi, who plays Liu Cheng, Xiaochun's obnoxious father. A comically dressed country bumpkin, Cheng is a doofus dad who ends up charming the other characters with his folksy ways. Something of a Jerry Lewis type, Peiqi will either have you loving him or loathing him. Personally, I was happiest when he was completely off the set.
The clichéd story of the country boy attempting to find success in the big city moves toward a big ending conclusion set during the big game, oops, I mean during the big concert competition, for which Xiaochun is being trained by Prof. Yu. The professor, the only really genuine character in the movie, is played by the director. The last scene uses violin strings to tug at our heart strings, but, since there aren't any compelling characters, save Prof. Yu, I didn't care.
While I can't recommend the film itself, the same doesn't hold true for its music. Save your money on the mediocre movie and buy the sublime music CD instead.
TOGETHER runs too long at 1:56. The film is in Mandarin with English subtitles. It is rated PG for "mild language and thematic elements" and would be acceptable for kids of all ages.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, June 6, 2003. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the Camera Cinemas.
Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com
Want free reviews and weekly movie and video recommendations via Email? Just send me a letter with the word "subscribe" in the subject line.
========== X-RAMR-ID: 34968 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1156825 X-RT-TitleID: 1122883 X-RT-SourceID: 703 X-RT-AuthorID: 1271 X-RT-RatingText: 2/4
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews