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18 Nov 2010

Spring Fever

A film pregnant with weighty lyricism on a subject of no consequence, Spring Fever is a paradox in itself.

Original Title: 春风沉醉的晚上

Rating: R21 (Homosexual Content) (edited)

Director: Lou Ye

Screenplay: Mei Feng

Cast: Qin Hao, Chen Sicheng, Tan Zhuo, Wu Wei, Jiang Jiaqi

Release: 18 November 2010

Awards: Best Screenplay, Cannes Film Festival 2009


I have nothing but respect for guerilla filmmakers. You know, people who shoot films on the sly without any permission or film permits. In an earlier recession, I tried that once with a group of newly graduated (and hence unemployed) classmates. A concerned citizen spotted us, called the police up and minutes later at around 4 am in Shenton Way, a police car approached our crew. The very nice boys in blue told us that there’s no law against filming on the sly in Singapore, but we do need a permit if we intended for our film to be commercially distributed. We shrugged, they shrugged, and they left us to continue our filming – much to the annoyance of Mr Concerned Citizen who was spying on our encounter from a distance.

Lou Ye is a guerilla filmmaker par excellence. Unlike us, he was actually banned from making films when he made Spring Fever. I understand that since his film went into the world, the Chinese have extended that ban on him. How do you make a guerilla film? It’s easy and difficult at the same time – so as not to arouse attention, you employ very humble handheld prosumer equipment (no additional lights, no dollies, no tracks, no director’s chair!), film what is completely ordinary.

The look of your film, the angles and shots you employ will all be constrained by the fact that you were shooting all this on the sly. To anyone on the street, you were making an uninteresting film about an uninteresting subject, filmed in an uninteresting way – either extreme close ups or voyeuristic long shots. The story comes together only in post-production, where the ordinary is reconstituted, where the voice of the director is reinstated.

What does Lou Ye want to say to us via Spring Fever? It turns out it’s the same things his previous films are preoccupied with – a phenomenological account of everyday existence, the everyday lust for life (or lust itself) of everyday citizens, and ultimately the realisation of a futile, furtive existence. The players are a gay man, his accidental bisexual lover, and that lover’s girlfriend. The story is Jules et Jim with the love triangle and sexual politics inverted.

One gathers that years of state-imposed silence has made Lou Ye’s desire to speak more desperate. Truth be told, his cup runneth over in this film. Despite the slice of life format and the meandering twists and turns that are destined to lead nowhere (and wouldn’t work otherwise in this genre), we get the sense that Lou Ye wants to say so much on so many subjects and that it might not all fit into the same film.

The result is a film that feels out of place with itself. Moments of existential nihilism jostle uncomfortably with soap opera queer melodrama complete with characters screaming at each other. A laconic, just-so narrative that Camus would have flinched at is also host to impossibly overwrought and precious lyrical scenes where characters recite moody poetry to each other about the futility of existence or sing karaoke songs about the beauty of life.

At two hours, you gather that there’s 80 minutes of a good, well-focussed arthouse film in there – but Spring Fever is not much of a gay film and not so much an arthouse film as a guerilla film made by a guerilla filmmaker who has been silenced too long to constrain himself, even artistically.

讀者回應

1. 2010-11-19 23:12  
trust me,not worth watching ! 5 people walk out half way through the movie.I should have watch Harry Potter !
修改於2010-11-19 23:13:58
2. 2010-11-20 12:44  
Come on , let's be more encouraging. I have not seen the movie and I do not think I will have the chance knowing the remote location I am in right now.

What you like may not mean others may like and vice versa . I respect your opinion anyhow.

Kudos to the film makers for their aspirations , their dreams and their ideals. If it's really that bad , better luck next time ! :)

Everyone deserves a second chance !
3. 2010-11-21 07:29  
This movie is worth watching--if only for the hot sex scene. ;)
4. 2010-11-21 11:14  
Go into it expecting something different. It's not bad, I just found the characters to be a little dull and empty. Otherwise, interesting story and motivating sex scenes. Main character turns me on.
5. 2010-11-21 16:23  
How can I watch this?
6. 2010-11-23 04:15  
I think from the cinema which screen this movie and a 'Cannes Film Festival' label you should know you're not suppose to expect this will be similar like Harry Potter..
IMHO, if you're not into arty movie with heavy story and deep understanding, maybe better don't watch it, than anyhow says it's bad..
7. 2010-11-23 17:52  
wanan watch this movie with my bf :P
8. 2010-11-24 23:26  
Watched this tonight with my partner and he promptly fell asleep 30 mins into the movie.. (but then again, he also slept thru Transformers... Hehe..)

Anyways, Vernon is spot on with his review... For me, it was pretty focused in the first one-third of the movie.. I have interacted with many married Mainland Chinese Dong Zhi in China and I could feel the anguish of the married gay lover in the movie.. It's real, it's happening in every day China and it can be really sad.

But after that, like Vernon said, Lou Ye went hay wire and I started wondering where the he'll he was heading with the development of his story...

Watch it only if you are into character acting and very subtle display of emotions...
9. 2010-11-24 23:26  
Watched this tonight with my partner and he promptly fell asleep 30 mins into the movie.. (but then again, he also slept thru Transformers... Hehe..)

Anyways, Vernon is spot on with his review... For me, it was pretty focused in the first one-third of the movie.. I have interacted with many married Mainland Chinese Dong Zhi in China and I could feel the anguish of the married gay lover in the movie.. It's real, it's happening in every day China and it can be really sad.

But after that, like Vernon said, Lou Ye went hay wire and I started wondering where the he'll he was heading with the development of his story...

Watch it only if you are into character acting and very subtle display of emotions...
10. 2010-12-12 21:54  
I really expected it a lot while felt a little disappoint to watch it.

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