Night Scene (China/Gay)
Picture: C
Sound: C+ Extras: D Feature: C+
The business of exploitation and sex hustling is one of
the primary components that perpetuate AIDS, poverty and environments for
criminality worldwide. A few features
whether dramatic or documentary (see Body Without Soul, reviewed
elsewhere on this site) have taken a hard look at the living hell that is a
moneymaking machine under the ugliest and most dangerous circumstances. Cui Zi’en’s Night Scene (2004) is a
take on the situation in China, which mixes a dramatic narrative with the real
locations and maybe some of the real participants and witnesses.
For all this, the narrative might be holding back this
take a bit and even sanitizing the situation a bit more than it should. That it is shot on tape and not film gives
it an unreality that cleans the situation as if it were easier to avoid, versus
film, which makes it harder to turn away from in what it can capture in
comparison. The acting is not bad and
situations believable enough. The sex
is not too graphic, which may also be a problem insofar as it may make the work
too safe in this case, resulting in a softening of the uglier situation at
hand. However, this is a rare portrait
of a China that remains invisible and for that is amazing it exists at all.
The 1.33 X 1 videotaped image is a little soft and the
color is a bit off, but its analog source (NTSC or PAL) is digitized and the
conversion before being sent to Water Bearer shows some flaws. The Dolby Digital 2.0 is location sound that
is pretty monophonic. There are no
extras.
- Nicholas Sheffo
