The Hand *1/2
Director- Wong Kar-Wai
Wong Kar-Wai's The Hand makes a revolution from his incomprehensible second film Days of Being Wild only to land him back where he started. This obnoxious look at eroticism trades a challenging tragedy for a piece of oversimplified lusty entertainment. Instead of ambiguity, Kar-Wai lays the cards flat.
A wanton woman weaves a spell on puerile master tailor by favoring him with a hand job. Enchanted, this tailor perfects his craft in hopes of receiving more favors from her. She takes advantage of the free clothing, clearly the extent of her involvement.
The manipulation of the tailor and his pathetic servility to the woman create the perfect scenario for a tragedy. Instead, the film glorifies the erotic lust with sensual scenes and visual splendor. The only tragedy here is a missed opportunity by a director capable of more.
As the first segment in a collection intending to explore erotic love, The Hand directs the viewer to feel lust instead of provoking reflection on the manipulation and disrespect shown by both parties. The tailor remains closet scumbag, while the woman destroys herself with her extravagant habits. And instead of portraying their downfall, Kar-Wai reverts to sensuous pleasure.
The actual hand job is filmed as imaginative soft-core porn meant to incite a steamy reaction in the viewer. Other scenes contain this same erotic nature.
Although this has one of the most obvious plots of any Kar-Wai film, the editing is abrupt and rough. Some cuts are awkward, and the visual flair is a rehash of his other works.
Kar-Wai captures eroticism but fails to comment. He will do best to return to his happy medium of ambiguity and clarity as seen in In the Mood for Love and 2046.
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Equilibrium ***1/2
Director- Steven Soderbergh
Easily the best short in this collection, Soderbergh manages to capture erotic love without pornographic sensation or obscure notions (see The Dangerous Thread of Things). Equilibrium comically explores psychological paranoia, playing on the stereotypes like- psychologists do not actually listen to their patients, and mens fantasies of beautiful women- to create a light hearted but pessimistic darling look at love.
A shrink calms down a husband, played by Robert Downey Jr., concerned about his dream fantasy and alarmed about alarm clocks with half hearted replies like "Yes" I see" and "Go on". While Robert Downey Jr. concocts alarm clock innovations and recalls the vivid fantasies, the shrink pursues a mystery woman.
The film shows the sensuous nature of dreams, how they intertwines with reality, as well as the temporary pursuit of women. Here, erotic love is a temporary pursuit, only a fatal attraction. There is hope for a lasting marriage that is equally sensuous. But also, there is pessimism with the shrinks fleeting erotic love.
Brilliantly written and cast, this gem has me laughing and thinking days later.
Where can we really go from here?
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The Dangerous Thread of Things **
Director- Michelangelo Antonioni
Where Kar Wai is cut and dry, Antonioni remains as ambiguous as ever. Sure, this work can and has been described as "esoteric", but it is so much so that it takes a persons wildest guess to analyze what Antonioni is after.
The story begins with a man and woman bickering about their relationship. The dialogue is awkward and sounds like a typed essay on love. The characters are secondary to the ideas. All the while, the ideas say nothing new, but have enough merit to entertain the viewer.
That is, until the plot is discarded for two naked women dancing. This ultra-pretentious finale embodies (in some ways) the failures of art films. The images are beautiful but they have lost value. This lifeless art fails to incite any reaction in a viewer (except confusion).
What does this film accomplish? I am not sure. What does this film say? I am not sure. But I am sure that the film does nothing for me as a viewer, and it will take a most patient type of person to tolerate this string of empty turns.