Third Country (2017)

Just too short...

Aya, this left me with such mixed feelings! There was a whole lot I liked about this tale of a man going to Yunnan to try and find himself and of course finding love:) The visual mood and beautiful scenery of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain massif for one. But then, you can't really have both internal and external conflicts with such a short runtime and resolve everything in a satisfying way ...or not make the plot feel a bit contrived.

I wish Qingyu and A-ren were given a chance to decide on their own what they wanted to do with their lives, before outside forces interfered. There's enough tension in a love story between a man trying to find his own path in the sudden absence of his father's strict guidance - dealing with both the unlimited freedom and emptiness that followed, and a man who has a responsibility to a tight-knit community he grew up in. The film never made it as far as choosing between tradition and love. It was more like one blockhead with prejudices against outsiders, finally found a convenient excuse to go after the person he'd been gunning for from the start.

From what I've read, this movie references an old legend of the Naxi people about Jade Dragon 'disanguo' - the guardian spirit of people in love. According to the legend, couples whose love clashed with traditional social ethics, and who found it impossible to face reality, could choose to sacrifice their lives to gain access to another living space - an ideal/dream country. Leaving aside cultural implications, this was just too short to convincingly set up such a dramatic finale. Fortunately, the ending is quite ambiguous and really depends on your own interpretation of events and the titular third country.

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The image of the original series in the form of a film (thanks to karcikarl for that, because it's just not there), stabbed me in the soul. I didn't even expect such a visceral film. And instead of singing praises here, I am actually sorry that China, where there is an absolutely huge potential in terms of human, cultural, religious and population, is suffocated by the lid of censors and regulations. Still, I admire that they made this.
STORY: ten. The creators circumvented the bans, for example, by having A Ren (his character impressed me the most, also acting) "kissed" Lin using mouth-to-mouth breathing, when smoke from medicinal plants was injected into his lungs, and in order for the two men to be together, unfortunately they had to "leave" to the Third Country. The desire of the Chinese for the relations of minority orientations to be given equal rights in the film can be seen here, and I appreciate that. And Ren yells at the villagers (and this is actually referring to Chinese society and its infallible red side): "Who gave you the right to decide for me!"
ACTING: solid for the main characters, but the creators could have worked more on the extras ("village people" really looked like a bunch of thickets).
SOUND: very nice music corresponding to a remote mountain village.
PROCESSING: original rating 6 (reduced for the extras, the violin playing, when they couldn't even explain to Lin how to move the bow to the "played" music, when the "school fell", they just threw a few sticks and straw stubs on the "stage") I promoted for beautiful shots of nature, remote villages and traditional customs and traditions.


Snímek původního seriálu ve formě filmu (díky karcikarlovi za to, protože to jen tak někde není), mě bodl do duše. Tak niterný film jsem ani nečekal. A místo toho, abych tady pěl chvály, tak mě vlastně mrzí, že Čína, kde je naprosto obrovský potenciál lidský, kulturní, náboženský a nebo i co se počtu obyvatel týká, je přidušená poklicí cenzorů a nařízení. Přesto obdivuji, že toto vyrobili. Ve filmu se mluví čínsky, ne mandarínsky, to jen slepě opisujeme od našeho vzoru IMDb.
PŘÍBĚH: desítka. Tvůrci zákazy obešli např. tak, že A Ren (jeho postava mě nejvíce zaujala, i herecky) "políbil" Lina pomocí dýchání z úst do úst, kdy mu do plic vpouštěl kouř z léčivých rostlin a aby mohli být spolu dva muži, bohužel museli "odejít" do Třetí země. Ta touha Číňanů, aby byly i ve filmu zrovnoprávněny vztahy minoritních orientací je tady znát, a to oceňuji. A Ren křičí na vesničany (a ve skutečnosti je to myšleno na čínskou společnost a její neomylnou rudou stranu): "Kdo vám dal právo rozhodovat za mě!"
HERECKÉ VÝKONY: solidní u hlavních postav, tvůrci ale mohli zapracovat více na komparzu ("vesničtí lidé" tam vyloženě působili jako toporné křoví).
ZVUK: moc hezká hudba odpovídající horské odlehlé vesnici.
ZPRACOVÁNÍ: původní ohodnocení 6 (sníženo za komparz, hru na housle, kdy nebyli schopni Linovi ani vysvětlit, jak má ke "hrané" hudbě pohybovat smyčcem, když "spadla škola", tak poházeli po "jevišti" jen pár kůlů a otýpek slámy) jsem povýšil za krásné záběry přírody, odlehlé vesnice a tradičních zvyků a obyčejů.

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STORY: A guy falls in love with another guy in a small rural community in the mountains. This is a bit of a slow-paced tragedy. Qing Yu is a city boy commissioned to be a teacher and struggles to fit in.

ACTING/CAST: They did their job. The guy playing the violin even looked like he kinda knew what he was doing though.

MUSIC: Not much here really. It's too bad that they dubbed over music instead of really getting to listen to the character play the violin or the characters singing.

REWATCH VALUE: I don't mind a tragedy so much but it was just too slow to see again.

OVERALL: The two guys are cute, there's a ton of pretty scenery, there's the strangest and most flimsy excuse to get the two guys' shirts off for a sex scene that I've ever heard of (you will chuckle when you see it). Otherwise not much else.

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