tadiv Blog

Under discussion:

Finding Forrester  (2000)

Blood Diamond  (2006)

Manda Bala  (2007)

Out of Balance  (2007)

City Lights Pictures, in association with Whitest Pouring Films and Kilo Films, presents Manda Bala (Send a Bullet), a film by Jason Kohn. The film runs 85 minutes and is not rated by the MPAA.  Based upon some of the hostage video content, this film would likely be rated NC-17 by the MPAA.

 Manda Bala is a documentary film covering several social and economic issues in modern Brazil.  These issues include political corruption, the kidnapping of the wealthy by the poor, and resulting industries such as frog farming, specialized plastic surgery, Helicopter taxi service, and the retrofitting of automobiles to make them more or less bullet-proof.

Very well photographed and cleanly edited, Manda Bala, to a great extent, lacks a central theme.  This picture has a good, complimenting soundtrack.  Because of a mixture of translation and subtitles, the presentation is at times awkward for the viewer.

Manda Bala greatly benefits from stunning cinematography.  However, while watching this film I recalled a scene from Finding Forrester where the audience reads criticism that says “Where are you taking me?”  And so, while there is stunning cinematography, there is a similar magnitude debt in the way of communicating the central point.  There is a lack of content that ties everything together. 

Stunning cinematography is the highlight of this picture.  Without making a study of Brazil, one would never imagine that its modern cities are so very beautiful.  To contrast the beauty of the modern high-rise buildings and seemingly clean streets, we see the slums at the edge of the metropolis falling away from the center like the crumbling slopes of a pillar in Monument Valley.  Suburbia does not seem to exist around these mountains of wealth, just poverty and squalor.  All of this is richly photographed and presented.  The only portions of the film that do not stand out from a cinematic perspective are some of the views of the frog farms and some views of the poorer areas of the country. 

The picture, after a view of a modern Brazilian city, starts in the country at a frog farm.  One of the two who run the farm is interviewed and is reluctant to talk about “the scandal”.  Farther in the presentation we find that the scandal was a corrupt politician’s alleged embezzlement of public funds intended to be seed money for new frog farms in poorer areas of the country.

From the frog farm, we are transported into the city of Sao Paulo to meet “Mr. M.”  He is identified as a businessman and sounds like a transplanted American.  He tells of being robbed at gunpoint on the streets of Sao Paulo while stopped in traffic.  He discusses the crime faced in the city every day and methods used to foil the criminal.  These include carrying his real wallet in a hidden pocket and a criminal’s wallet that has only a bit of cash in it.  Also in his defense, he has a bullet-proof car.  His car is a turbo-charged Porsche 911 – maybe he would less of a target were he driving a Ford Taurus…  The Porsche, it seems, cost Mr. M about $415,000 US.  I don’t know why we are not told how much ear reconstruction surgery costs.

Moving on, we meet a pretty young woman who was a kidnapping victim.  Then we meet the plastic surgeon who replaces severed ears.  It seems that removing an ear is the kidnapper’s method of choice in making their point that they are not fooling around.  Then we meet a policeman who is part of the eighty-strong anti-kidnapping squad.  Then we meet a civil lawyer who has had the fortitude to sue an alleged corrupt politician, then back to “M” again.  He explains that the really wealthy travel by helicopter since nobody can walk up to you and demand money at gunpoint, and so we see the world’s largest fleet of privately-owned helicopters. 

On and on it goes – we move between the Dr, the victim, Mr. M, an assistant Attorney General, the policeman, a kidnapper, and, of course, the frog farmer.  During one of the frog farm sequences, we see a huge shipment of live frogs departing for JFK.  With a hint of related guilt, as in Blood Diamond, there is an inference that the United States supports the political corruption in that it purchases the product from the frog farms. 

While Manda Bala is a technically high-quality production, the presentation falls short in connecting the themes addressed.  We meet many Brazilians.  While they all have stories to tell, there is not a complete thread connecting them all.  Is the problem the political corruption? Or is it the crime that the leadership seems to choose not to address?  A presentation is made on the colonization of Brazil – is there an ingrained culture of raping the wealth?  Like Out of Balance, Manda Bala ultimately fails to pinpoint the issue; it fails to deliver a summation of the issues presented.  While it is very worth seeing, I’m not sure that it really gets the job done when it comes to making a solid point.  So there is evil hidden within the great beauty of modern Brazil – what a surprise!

Under discussion:

Forrest Gump  (1994)

Summer Palace  (2008)

Palm Pictures presents a film directed by Ye Lou.  Summer Palace was written by Ye Lou, Feng Mei, and Ma Yingli.  This picture stars Lei Hao as Yu Hong in the lead role.  Supporting roles are cast with Xiaodong Guo, Ling Hu, Xianmin Zhang, Long Duan, Lin Cui, and Xueyun Bai.  Summer Palace runs 140 minutes and is not rated by the MPAA though the content would clearly receive an “R” rating from the board.  None of the content seemed to be beyond that of the “R” rating.

Yu Hong, a pretty young woman from a small peasant town in rural China, is accepted into Beijing University in the late ‘80s.  The next 18 or so years of her turbulent life unfold on screen as she struggles with her political, social, economic, and romantic situations. 

Well-filmed and edited, Summer Palace was an official selection for the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. 

Summer Palace seems to be the story of a woman who just can’t decide what she wants to do.  Yu Hong’s life is a mess.  Beyond entering Beijing University, she does not seem to make any good choices.  Her story, like that told in Forrest Gump and its portrayal of notable events in recent US history, follows the major social milestones in Eurasia following the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.  While the film covers this unsettled timeframe, Yu Hong is more an observer than the participant that Forrest Gump was in his film. 

I like going into a film knowing as little as possible.  Prior to seeing Summer Palace I knew almost nothing of the story line.  Hindsight, so it is said, is 20-20.  At the end of my DVD screening, I thought to myself “What a mess.”  Then I watched some of the bonus material and the metaphorical light bulb turned on. 

I’m probably not as good as some in recognizing a “reflection of the current climate.”  Also, I have to admit that I have not kept up on the last twenty or so years of change in China.  However, given a hint or two I can see the allegory between how Yu Hong’s life unfolds as compared to the recent changes in China.  Given that I required some hints from the bonus material to “get it”, I have to count the film not as effective as it might have been.  The filmmakers should have devised a mechanism or technique in the storytelling to bring the allegory forward.  Perhaps it was there and I missed having not lived through the times and events depicted.

Summer Palace, given the benefit of the bonus material, is better in hindsight than I initially thought.  Should you recommend this film to your friends, give them the little bit of information that Yu Hong’s life is a parallel to the unfolding of recent events in China and they will have a better appreciation of this film.