Customer Reviews

Luxury Car

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I haven't seen many contemporary Chinese films, but this one seems like a real standout. It's a simple family tale, with the usual long meaningful looks and lengthy stretches of no dialogue, so like most European cinema. I was taken with the look of modern China, so different than here, yet familiar somehow. The acting is all high level, and the cinematography is what really shines. A beautifully made film, well worth watching.

A most unexpected pleasure, the complex "Luxury Car" manages to gracefully link crime drama to a tale of familial obligations. Quiet when needed, brutal at times--the film's most stunning success is in establishing a truly realistic portrait of a man and his adult daughter. A schoolteacher, filled with regret and sadness, arrives in the city to locate his estranged son. Instead, he reconnects with his daughter who is working for an escort service. These two give lovely performances highlighted as much by what is left unsaid as by unnecessary dramatics.

Covering life's compromises and sacrifices, this is a gentle, but tough, picture. As more and more truths are revealed, it will either tear the family apart or bring them closer. The daughter is involved with some unsavory characters and the answers she finds aren't always easy ones. Heartfelt and moving, I really liked the multi-layered successes in this picture. KGHarris, 5/11.

Wang Chao's film, Luxury Car, is an assured realisation of a compelling story of contemporary China. The story takes on a modern cinema noir tone, with interesting interweaving characters. Just to what extent and how those character's lives are entwined leads us to the story's climax. The film is carried by the beautiful Tian Yuan, a prostitute (Yanhong) working in a karaoke bar in Wuhan. Yanhong is visited by her father who, at the request of his dying wife, is trying to find out what happened to their son (Yanhong's brother). The really surprising character is the old policeman, who offers to help the father find his son. Here is a film from a masterful film director which shines a dark light, not only into contemporary Chinese society, but more generally into the lives of the disconnected and fragmented people that make up all consumer-oriented societies. Luxury Car is not a Hollywood film; instead it is a humble but perfectly made story, rich in character and offering real insights into the general human condition.