"THE BIRD PEOPLE IN CHINA"

"The Bird People In China" is one of those rare films you come across that you really can't compare to anything else you've ever seen. Is it fantasy? Is it drama? Is it comedy? Or is it just flat out strange like many foreign films can be to us, the American audience? Even stranger is that the film's creator is Takashi Miike. If you know of this person, you certainly wouldn't think he was the creator of such a picture, even though it is strange like his other bloody works ("Ichi The Killer, "Audition"). I was also pleasantly surprised by the appearance of the actor Mako ("Conan The Barbarian", "Robocop 3", "The Perfect Weapon", "Highlander III" just to name a few). He will undoubtably return on this blog. The film is basically about a japanese businessman who must go to a remote village in China for the precious jade that is found there. Along the way he must pair up with a member of the Yakuza, but once they are there, their journey becomes different. They want to learn the secrets of the mysterious flying people and the strange young village girl who sings an eerie song in english.

There is a plot-line you don't usually get to see in your average American movie theater. While Miike will undoubtably go down in the history books for his horror and gore, this film will probably go down as one of his best works. The way the language is delivered is very poetic, and the unpredictability of the plot are things many directors will never achieve. The imagery is maybe the film's finest achievement. My only real problem with this film is the pacing. Like many asian film counterparts, "The Bird People In China" has a very tedious pace, where almost nothing happens for long periods of time. Maybe I was suppose to pick up on some deep meaningful moments during these "foreignly paced" scenes, but I found my attention span shortening a little. This is one of those films you view as a whole and not necessarily your favorite scene. If you sit there and think about the beauty and uniqueness of this film, you can't help but give it a good rating. I've taken a serious turn in my review for this film, because that is what it deserves. You won't see me making fun of this film.

*3 and 1/2 Lance Approvals*

Lance would have learned Japanese to appear in this movie. I mean, come on, he learned how to read from movie scripts to begin with.