Platform
Quite awhile ago, Gorp asked me when I am going to dislike one of the films on the Monolith (my harddrive), all of which he gave me. Well, perhaps Platform is one. Just like „Springtime in a Small Town“, I find it difficult to describe whether I liked „Platform“ or not.
Let’s start with the bad parts of it: I have found the story, especially with its ending, to be incredibly unsatisfying. While I easily accept a non-existent ending in „The White Ribbon“, I have found it difficult for to do so for this film. After all, the whole story is about how the characters are evolving and what is going to happen to them in the end, but we don’t actually get to know much about it. I actually have cared for the flamenco dancing girl, but she just randomly disappeared into nowhere.
Then, I am still not a big fan of slow films, even though I have become much more forgiving than I used to. „Platform“ however, is just way too slow for its own good, or at least its slowness did not contribute too much to its atmosphere in my opinion. I think I would have held the film in much higher esteem if the pacing were more according to my tastes. „The White Ribbon“ also had its slow moments, but they never felt slow. „Platform“ was mostly boring.
Yet, I have to stress that „Platform“ has its moments – and there are quite a few of them. I would say about 10% of the film was absolutely gorgeous and interesting. The aforementioned flamenco scene is one of them, and the scene where the other girl dances alone in her room is another one. I liked the way pop music was integrated into the film very much, and I love the portrait of a generation changing throughout the years. Whenever we got a glimpse of that, I thought „Perhaps cinematography and directing are not so bad after all“.
Finally, I thought that „Platform“ said and showed a lot – just not enough, and left me incredibly unsatisfied at the end. In general though, I think that I am still interested in Zhang Jiake’s films and with the hope that the others won’t be SO slow paced (or at least slow paced and interesting in its slow pacedness), I wonder which title I should proceed with. „The World“? „Still Life“?
The World! it’s like a loud and crazy and colorful version of Platform lol. But that one is pretty slow, too, as are most of his films, except maybe for Xiao Wu – that seems to be the one film by Jia that people unanimously like, even if they happen to hate his other ones!
Well, “The World” it is then! I don’t really mind slowness per se, Antonioni’s movies are pretty slow too but that’s what’s great about them. Just like Kiarostami is deservedly a critics’ favorite (oh and his movies are rather slow too!), I am still hoping that Jia is one as well.
If I remember correctly, my father liked Platform more than Xiao Wu. XD