South of the Clouds (Yun De Nan Fang)
 

I saw an excellent Chinese movie last night that, among other virtues,
uses tea drinking and preparation dramatically to suggest character.

_South of the Clouds_ doesn't seem to have an American distributor,
and I've no idea where else it can be seen normally in a theater,
except of course in China. I saw it at a sort of film festival called
New Directors / New Films at Lincoln Center in New York.

The main character is a 61-year-old recently retired man living in a
northern city, a widower with three children. It becomes clear that
he has regrets about the life he's lived there for decades. For
reasons that aren't understood until later but are clearly important
to him, he takes a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Yunnan, where the second
half of the film takes place. (The title of the movie is an echo of
the word "Yunnan".)

The main character is seen in the first part drinking from a drab
lidded mug, and it accentuates the mild anhedonia of his life in the
north. In the Yunnan part, where, for reasons I won't explain, he
becomes mixed up with the law, he meets two tea drinking cops:

- a lazy, crude middle-ranking officer, who drinks a fairly dark tea
(cooked Puerh, maybe?) from a screw-top glass jar;

- a philosophical police chief, ruefully aware of the bureaucratic
limits on his ability achieve justice, who makes tea gongfu style
with a yixing setup.

Does Zhu Wen, this movie's writer/director, think there's a Chinese
audience these days who are alive enough to tea culture to notice
these things? Or did he apply these tea touches just for himself?

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html

Thanks for sharing, you've offered an interesting review of the film. I've
not seen it though.


"Lewis Perin" > wrote in message
...
> I saw an excellent Chinese movie last night that, among other virtues,
> uses tea drinking and preparation dramatically to suggest character.
>
> _South of the Clouds_ doesn't seem to have an American distributor,
> and I've no idea where else it can be seen normally in a theater,
> except of course in China. I saw it at a sort of film festival called
> New Directors / New Films at Lincoln Center in New York.
>
> The main character is a 61-year-old recently retired man living in a
> northern city, a widower with three children. It becomes clear that
> he has regrets about the life he's lived there for decades. For
> reasons that aren't understood until later but are clearly important
> to him, he takes a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Yunnan, where the second
> half of the film takes place. (The title of the movie is an echo of
> the word "Yunnan".)
>
> The main character is seen in the first part drinking from a drab
> lidded mug, and it accentuates the mild anhedonia of his life in the
> north. In the Yunnan part, where, for reasons I won't explain, he
> becomes mixed up with the law, he meets two tea drinking cops:
>
> - a lazy, crude middle-ranking officer, who drinks a fairly dark tea
> (cooked Puerh, maybe?) from a screw-top glass jar;
>
> - a philosophical police chief, ruefully aware of the bureaucratic
> limits on his ability achieve justice, who makes tea gongfu style
> with a yixing setup.
>
> Does Zhu Wen, this movie's writer/director, think there's a Chinese
> audience these days who are alive enough to tea culture to notice
> these things? Or did he apply these tea touches just for himself?
>
> /Lew
> ---
> Lew Perin /
> http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html

Thanks for sharing, you've offered an interesting review of the film. I've
not seen it though.


"Lewis Perin" > wrote in message
...
> I saw an excellent Chinese movie last night that, among other virtues,
> uses tea drinking and preparation dramatically to suggest character.
>
> _South of the Clouds_ doesn't seem to have an American distributor,
> and I've no idea where else it can be seen normally in a theater,
> except of course in China. I saw it at a sort of film festival called
> New Directors / New Films at Lincoln Center in New York.
>
> The main character is a 61-year-old recently retired man living in a
> northern city, a widower with three children. It becomes clear that
> he has regrets about the life he's lived there for decades. For
> reasons that aren't understood until later but are clearly important
> to him, he takes a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Yunnan, where the second
> half of the film takes place. (The title of the movie is an echo of
> the word "Yunnan".)
>
> The main character is seen in the first part drinking from a drab
> lidded mug, and it accentuates the mild anhedonia of his life in the
> north. In the Yunnan part, where, for reasons I won't explain, he
> becomes mixed up with the law, he meets two tea drinking cops:
>
> - a lazy, crude middle-ranking officer, who drinks a fairly dark tea
> (cooked Puerh, maybe?) from a screw-top glass jar;
>
> - a philosophical police chief, ruefully aware of the bureaucratic
> limits on his ability achieve justice, who makes tea gongfu style
> with a yixing setup.
>
> Does Zhu Wen, this movie's writer/director, think there's a Chinese
> audience these days who are alive enough to tea culture to notice
> these things? Or did he apply these tea touches just for himself?
>
> /Lew
> ---
> Lew Perin /
> http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html

"Lewis Perin" > wrote in message
...
> I saw an excellent Chinese movie last night that, among other virtues,
> uses tea drinking and preparation dramatically to suggest character.
>
> _South of the Clouds_ doesn't seem to have an American distributor,
> and I've no idea where else it can be seen normally in a theater,
> except of course in China. I saw it at a sort of film festival called
> New Directors / New Films at Lincoln Center in New York.
>
> The main character is a 61-year-old recently retired man living in a
> northern city, a widower with three children. It becomes clear that
> he has regrets about the life he's lived there for decades. For
> reasons that aren't understood until later but are clearly important
> to him, he takes a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Yunnan, where the second
> half of the film takes place. (The title of the movie is an echo of
> the word "Yunnan".)
>
> The main character is seen in the first part drinking from a drab
> lidded mug, and it accentuates the mild anhedonia of his life in the
> north. In the Yunnan part, where, for reasons I won't explain, he
> becomes mixed up with the law, he meets two tea drinking cops:
>
> - a lazy, crude middle-ranking officer, who drinks a fairly dark tea
> (cooked Puerh, maybe?) from a screw-top glass jar;
>
> - a philosophical police chief, ruefully aware of the bureaucratic
> limits on his ability achieve justice, who makes tea gongfu style
> with a yixing setup.
>
> Does Zhu Wen, this movie's writer/director, think there's a Chinese
> audience these days who are alive enough to tea culture to notice
> these things? Or did he apply these tea touches just for himself?

As a writer myself, I believe it was simply to add another layer of meaning
and depth since everything in a story should reinforce the theme and/or
illustrate the characters and/or advance the plot.

--
~~Bluesea~~
Spam is great in musubi but not in email.
Please take out the trash before sending a direct reply.

"Lewis Perin" > wrote in message
...
> I saw an excellent Chinese movie last night that, among other virtues,
> uses tea drinking and preparation dramatically to suggest character.
>
> _South of the Clouds_ doesn't seem to have an American distributor,
> and I've no idea where else it can be seen normally in a theater,
> except of course in China. I saw it at a sort of film festival called
> New Directors / New Films at Lincoln Center in New York.
>
> The main character is a 61-year-old recently retired man living in a
> northern city, a widower with three children. It becomes clear that
> he has regrets about the life he's lived there for decades. For
> reasons that aren't understood until later but are clearly important
> to him, he takes a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Yunnan, where the second
> half of the film takes place. (The title of the movie is an echo of
> the word "Yunnan".)
>
> The main character is seen in the first part drinking from a drab
> lidded mug, and it accentuates the mild anhedonia of his life in the
> north. In the Yunnan part, where, for reasons I won't explain, he
> becomes mixed up with the law, he meets two tea drinking cops:
>
> - a lazy, crude middle-ranking officer, who drinks a fairly dark tea
> (cooked Puerh, maybe?) from a screw-top glass jar;
>
> - a philosophical police chief, ruefully aware of the bureaucratic
> limits on his ability achieve justice, who makes tea gongfu style
> with a yixing setup.
>
> Does Zhu Wen, this movie's writer/director, think there's a Chinese
> audience these days who are alive enough to tea culture to notice
> these things? Or did he apply these tea touches just for himself?

As a writer myself, I believe it was simply to add another layer of meaning
and depth since everything in a story should reinforce the theme and/or
illustrate the characters and/or advance the plot.

--
~~Bluesea~~
Spam is great in musubi but not in email.
Please take out the trash before sending a direct reply.