cinematic

Finally saw Good Bye, Dragon Inn (Bu san) today at the Pacific Film Archive. I missed it the first time around at the San Francisco Film Festival, because I was working volunteer shifts during all the screenings.

Basically, it was worth the price of admission—it was free.

It's about an old movie theater, and the people that inhabit it. That's not the plot summary. That's the entire movie. I just saved you 82 minutes of your life.

The highlights are an amusing performance by the Japanese dude, and nice photography. I say "photography", since "cinematography" implies movement, and there's very little of that. The foley work (i.e., footstep sounds) is compelling, but a bit heavy-handed, especially since there's no score. There's no plot, almost no dialogue, no character development, no action, no conflict, no resolution, and very little editing. It is sloooow.

We've come to expect more from a movie. Good Bye, Dragon Inn is "cinematic" in the sense movie critics use the term: basically, it's a good silent film. The simplicity this affords gives emotional strength to what is otherwise a music video without the music.

Unfortunately, like most silent films, they seem to be playing the movie back at the wrong speed.