Foreign Language Films 10 & 11: Ip Man (China, 2008); La Vie en Rose (France, 2007)

Ip Man

Plot Intro

Unassuming martial arts expert Ip Man (Donnie Yen) and his wife Cheung Wing-Sing (Lynn Hung) lead a quiet life in Foshan during the 1930s. But when a group of outsiders arrive and attempt to assert their authority by defeating and humiliating all the martial arts school leaders, Ip Man is forced to prove his prowess to save his city from disgrace. And then the Japanese invade…

Paul says...

Here’s a rollicking, fast-paced fight fest that will spoon-feed you the entire plot on those sleepy, takeaway-fuelled Saturday nights. Ip Man is actually the first in a series of films which, together, chart the life of the titular character, who was not only a real life Wing Chun grandmaster, but was also Bruce Lee’s teacher. The critical acclaim it achieved on release has led to the successful production of two sequels, and another fourth instalment is being released this year. 

Admittedly, it wasn’t quite the historical biopic that Wikipedia made it out to be. It only charts a few life events between the the mid '30s and early '40s, so there is no reference to Bruce Lee except in the closing statements. It’s actually not that historically accurate and most of Ip Man’s actions were made up. And the Japanese are presented as such a one-dimensionally sinister embodiment of evil that they make the Brexit Party look like Yul Bryner’s children in The King And I. Really, it’s a martial arts action-movie that’s inspired by some elements of history.

But it’s bloody entertaining stuff. The fight scenes (and there are many of them) are intricately and spectacularly choreographed, and they get more and more inventive as the film progresses. Starting with Ip Man’s cool-headed defeat of a hot-headed challenger, leading into his frantic defeat of 10 Japanese henchmen at once, and culminating in his training of a group of factory workers who eventually use their new-found skills for inspirational and often comical effect. The film never loses momentum, and I spent all the intermediary scenes looking forward to the next battle.

The film also boasts strong performances from Donnie Yen, who acts with calm but authoritative charisma, and also from Lynn Hung as his stoic and strong-headed wife. The film cleverly ends on something of a cliffhanger too, which left me eager to check out its sequels, although I’m not sure they have lived up the success of the first instalment.

At just 108 minutes, the film is far from “epic” and it does have the historical insight of a Jacob Rees-Mogg novel. But it’s an involving, inventive and invigorating thrill-ride. Is it the finest example of Chinese cinema? I suspect not. Would I watch it again? Hell yes. And I might break a few vases trying out the battle moves.

Highlight 

Pick a battle scene. Any battle scene! 

Lowlight 
The depiction of the Japanese is….well, if it’s not “racist” it’s at least Chinese nationalist propaganda.  

Mark 

8/10

Doug says...

There’s a lot to be said for a film that packs in lots of gripping action scenes, has a crack at some characterisation and keeps it all under two hours. I enjoyed Ip Man vastly, and it’s the perfect film to wind down with at the weekend. Thinking is not a requirement, as they spell out the goodies and baddies immediately (the baddies are all Japanese caricatures with tiny glasses and teeth and generally ‘cruel’ demeanours). 

I do have to say, it made me google whether there’s still anti-Japanese feeling in China and apparently it’s absolutely rife. Whether stirred up by the government or no, about 75% of the Chinese population actively dislike the Japanese, according to a recent poll. If even half of this film is true, it’s not difficult to see why. It’s all very Handmaid’s Tale with the invading Japanese forcing the Chinese to fight each other for their amusement, and occasionally shooting them as the fancy takes them. 

Biographically I’m sure it’s not at all correct, but why let that spoil a good film? I liked Donnie Yen’s calm portrayal of the eponymous hero, the stillness with which he acts makes his quick moving fight scenes all the more thrilling. A sort of Mrs Danvers of the Wing Chun world. I’d’ve liked to have seen more from his wife, but the actress still manages to convey the general annoyance that having a martial-arts-fanatic for a husband could hold. 

I’d watch the sequels, if only for more of the same. But in terms of artistic merit, I doubt it has much staying power. But this is cracking entertainment and sometimes that’s more than enough for a good evening in. 

Highlight

I particularly liked the fight scene as Ip Man fights off ten men in one go and then forgoes the reward of ten bags of rice. It’s beautifully lit and cheerfully uncomplicated. 

Lowlight

I thought it felt oddly rushed towards the end, particularly with a set of titles quickly telling you about the rest of Ip Man’s life. If they knew they were doing sequels why bother? 

Mark

8.5/10



La Vie en Rose

Plot Intro

A non-linear dissection of the life of Edith Piaf, one of France’s greatest national treasures.

Paul says...

A lot was hanging on us watching this film. It’s Doug’s absolute favourite (he’s told me enough times that it is, anyway) and if I gave it anything lower than an 8 we’d be in marriage therapy quicker than a Kardashian couple.

Thankfully, this was a moment where our tastes in art intertwined. La Vie En Rose is utterly superb. It’s one of those films where the tone, the structure, the direction, script, acting work like a jigsaw puzzle in that they all slot together with mind-boggling intricacy to create a magnificent, gorgeous, slightly-surrealist whole.

The biggest selling point, for me, is Marion Cotillard as Piaf herself. She won the Best Actress Oscar for this and it’s one of the very few foreign-language performances to do so. She is totally unrecognisable, and utilises her entire body to encapsulate the way Piaf walked, moved and talked whilst also conveying a sense of heart-rending pity and admiration of this extraordinary woman. Even in youth, Piaf had an awkward, hunched, and jittery gait to her that got worse and worse as she aged and faced horrendous ill health. I felt so sorry for her right from her childhood where her father left her at her grandmother’s brothel to live, then reappeared years later to take her away again; to her life desperately trying to pay rent by singing on the streets; to her doomed affair with a married man; to her painful, sickly dying days at the tender age of 47, played with climactic gusto to the rousing trumpets of her most famous song, Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien. This complex finale reminds us that Piaf worked so hard in her difficult life, that she regrets nothing, but ultimately her life was still a tragedy.

I won’t gush anymore than that. Movie reviews are boring when there’s nothing to criticise. Just rest assured, no matter what your attitude may be to foreign-language films, or biopics, or French cinema, this is a film that will lift you up and tear at your heartstrings.

Highlight 

There are many things to choose from. But the one-shot scene in which Piaf receives horrible news about her lover, then, in a dream-like state, runs through a door onto a stage to keep her star-status going despite her heartbreak, is a stunner.

Lowlight

Rien!

Mark 

10/10

Doug says...

This is one of the greatest films ever made in the history of cinema. 

Now we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about why. The first reason is Marion Cottillard. She effortlessly shows you the same woman from her late teens through to her death. It’s a physical masterclass in how to subtly show the ravages of a drug-addled existence, even at her most glamorous there is a hunch in her shoulders, and by the end she can barely bend her spine away from the floor to look at someone. She is utterly unrecognisable. Everyone else in this film sees this - it feels like every actor is bringing their A-game purely to stay visible. 

Cottillard is also just extraordinarily charismatic. As she declares in one scene, when told she can’t do something, ‘I can’t? Then what the point of being Edith Piaf?’ It’s a triumphant, Icarus-flying-to-the-sun, champagne-fuelled performance. And yet, despite her tragic end, we’re left uplifted by the idea of this glorious, forceful personality. 

And that’s the second reason why this is so good. Director Olivier Dahan doesn’t play a Hollywood game. This is a non-linear film that rather than show the decline of Piaf, shows you all of her at once, at every age. A scene of her as a young girl being abandoned by her father is followed by another of her at the height of her power recording ‘Padam’ in a glossy recording studio. Her stumbling - jaundiced - to a nurse chair, is followed by her attracting suitors at parties and stealing the focus from all other party-goers. This is Piaf, all at once, immediate and unstoppable. 

And then there’s the third reason. Because on another level this goes beyond a biography. At the very end, as Piaf lies on her dying night in bed, she remembers scenes and people that we have seen all the way through. Only here, the ‘vie en rose’ - or we might say ‘rose tinted glasses’, are gone. The protective prostitute of her youth is seen instead drunkenly dazed at the edge of a party. Her cruel father is shown to have actually given her a doll. A whole tragic episode from her teenage years is suddenly alluded to. 

What Dahan is doing - so extraordinarily - here, is examining the very idea of memory. How a person can be constructed of fragments and perceptions, non-linear and gathered from any and all periods of their lives. And yet these fragments can be wrong, or seen without a full understanding. He enforces this practically, with metaphorical shots like Piaf weeping in a corridor and opening a door and suddenly being on stage, and other huge tracking shots. One follows Piaf as she walks through her apartment, other people drawn into and then expelled from her wake - one plays a song, another begs her to be on time. Through this sense of time and memory, we gain the sense of a person intent unconsciously on destruction. The scene when she expels her greatest friend and supporter Momone is done so casually and with such cruelty that it’s hard to stand Piaf in that moment. And yet you do. 

The film concludes with Piaf’s best known song Non, je ne regrette rien. And the true power of Dahan and Cottillard’s work here is that when you hear the lyrics, they apply so thoroughly to Piaf’s madcap, whirlwind life, that the effect is breath-taking. When the song ends, even though you know she dies a handful of years later, Piaf in her inescapable pursuit of love, power and success seems invincible. 

Highlight 

Towards the end, Piaf is interviewed on a beach by a young female journalist. Her answers are kind, poetic and lasting. ‘Do you like the dawn?’ ‘With a piano and friends.’ ‘Do you like the evening?’ ‘Ah for us, that’s dawn.’ It’s a beautifully played quiet moment amid the chaos, and really supports the idea of Piaf as a poetic, lonely soul. 

Lowlight

There is literally nothing. I will fight you. 

Mark 

100/10