movie review: twilight dancing (2009) by Joshua Tong

funnily enough, the IMDB on the page for this movie reports as language: Mandarin.. it’s probably correct insomuch the movie uses written language in the form of chinese characters.

that’s because the makers of the movie from the beginning renounce the spoken work (“there is nothing that language has to offer” reads one of few statements seen at the beginning and halfway during the movie).

the movie goes on with no little or no plot that I could think of; a movie that revolves around 3 or 4 obsessively recurrent themes: the beautiful skinny girl; the skinny girl’s legs; engines, vehicles and mechanical elements; grainy color vs grainy b&w, music, printed words etc..

the movie opens with a long tracking shot that reminds of many deja vu tracking shot, but the one in particular that seems evoked here is from le weekend by godard: cars, music, piano music..

then there is  an element of Crash, JG Ballard book and Cronenberg movie.. the almost sensual and sexual obsession with engines, motors, cars, vehicles. the climax of this element, of this obsession must be the dance between the girl and the red camper; I must confess never previously seen, this must be one of the most beautiful and powerful images of this movie.

I haven’t really managed to read anything in this movie in terms of plot; a particular message or meaning. I think it’s open to the viewers’ interpretation but at the same time this is perhaps a deeply visual exercise, like mannerism; there are shots that have a sort of painting-like quality that reminds of Barry Lyndon, like the father visiting the son at the hospital. For several seconds, quite  a long time, the father is shown in a beautiful shot where he is in focus, with a crisp quality, while the background is out of focus , and dark , so that his multi colored shirt and his hat (green?) jump out of the picture. Another element is the change of colors and the use of certain basic outlined visual effects, so that suddenly one goes from a grainy b&w to a crispy color or grainy color and then dissolve in a contour-type of effect, where only the outline of the image is clear, and then return to a full blown color image.

One final element that I think I have seen in this movie is an almost manga like quality, especially in the shots of the unnaturally skinny girl , of her legs, her oriental eyes, her almost purple dark hair.

did i like this movie ? I couldn’t really say. this movie is so open, it’s so many things, it’s so overwhelming both for the intense visual experience and complete lack of plot to hold on to that I really wasn’t able to develop a like/dislike feeling; instead I found it extremely engaging intellectually,both for the mental research of the classics it is inspired by and perhaps for the fact that the mind tries to find a plot or some sort of stories. me, at least, i didn’t find any story. visually speaking, it is definitely an experience not to be missed.