Review of The Sun Also Rises (2007) by Daniel T — 03 May 2008

Extremely oblique, open to many different interpretations. Story-wise, needs to be rewatched a few times to put the pieces of the puzzle together. So it's not for all tastes. There's a chokefull of sexual innuendos in it (the shoes, the bird, the stonehouse, the wet clothes, the raincoat, the key, the red pepper, the gun), and a bunch of metaphors to decipher.

It is simultaneously about sex and repression, about the Cultural Revolution, about the relationship between man & woman (of control & subordination), about the three faces of woman (mother, lover, wife), about the ego of man, the Oedipus complex & his sexual rite of passage, about madness and freedom, about birth, death, and the cycle of life and the inevitability of fate.

And then there's a bunch of other things I couldnt understand. As challenging as the film is, I wish Jiang Wen had inserted more signposts & clues to his puzzle, and adopted a more introspective & less kinetic approach that would make it less confusing.

Nevertheless, taking the movie as it is, without understanding its subtext, it is still a visually sumptuous treat with great music & wonderful performances. And in spite of everything else, it is an absolute original.