The phrase, 'just so-so' is exactly the description my friend and I used to describe Bo Huang's directorial debut when we saw his feature at Raffle Plaza in Ningbo, a couple of days ago.
Ma Jin (Huang) is a poor businessman who spends his office hours pining over illustrious colleague Shan Shan (Shu Qi), and his spare time with his younger brother, Xing (Yinxing Zhang). These characters are mere stereotypes; described either as rich, or as losers, with little to no information concerning their work, lives or families. When offered to go on a team building exercise out on the ocean, led by their guide Dicky (Baoqiang Wang), Ma Jin jumps at the opportunity to spend time with the woman of his dreams.
Not long into their voyage, he inexplicably wins fifty million RMB, though his hopes of claiming the winnings, or Shan Shan's heart, is interrupted by a freak wave caused by a falling comet. The prelude, concerning the chunk of falling rock hurtling towards the Earth is little more than filler to propel the narrative forward; however, this is the most interesting part of the story, yet is seldom explored in-depth.
Waking up, trapped on an island, and finding the boss, Zhang (Yu Hewei) is unable to provide solace, the survivors must find a way of coming to terms with what has happened. Clocking in at around two hours, the film is just too long. In under twenty minutes, the cast is already on the island, after which begins the drag.
The film flirts with the concept of the end of the world, but to be honest, I never really cared; this is the film's biggest drawback. Thirty people are marooned on an island, and we are only provided a small measure of substance on five characters. The remaining survivors are relegated to cliched tropes. In fact, half of the characters could have been cut from the film, and it would have made no difference.
Thematically, the feature explores money and power, alongside the struggle to keep both, and the consequences of prioritising these over loved ones. But, The Island does not break any new ground, showing us nothing that hasn't been done before (and better). Many post-apocalyptic films (The Postman, Blindness, etc) have depicted how the underappreciated will inherit the planet when the fragility of society is lost. Despite the differences in genres, The Island, which is more dramady than survival tale, with its occasional laughs and excessive melodrama, never constructs for us a brutally honest vision of how people will behave.
The accompanying visuals are continuously beautiful, capturing both the bleakness and majesty of the survivor's situations. Furthermore, it is intriguing to watch characters rise from underappreciated underdogs to arrogant leaders, and to fall back down again, the constant struggle for power, and the manipulative games played by the leads, creating a sense of mystery and suspense. I would feel remorse and pity for characters in one scene, and in the next, be appalled by their behaviour, the writing and execution by the leads in this aspect being the film's high note.
However, by the end of the film I was left yearning for something with greater impact, and The Island was not capable of scratching that itch. In summary, if I never saw this film again, I wouldn't lose any sleep.
Ma Jin (Huang) is a poor businessman who spends his office hours pining over illustrious colleague Shan Shan (Shu Qi), and his spare time with his younger brother, Xing (Yinxing Zhang). These characters are mere stereotypes; described either as rich, or as losers, with little to no information concerning their work, lives or families. When offered to go on a team building exercise out on the ocean, led by their guide Dicky (Baoqiang Wang), Ma Jin jumps at the opportunity to spend time with the woman of his dreams.
Not long into their voyage, he inexplicably wins fifty million RMB, though his hopes of claiming the winnings, or Shan Shan's heart, is interrupted by a freak wave caused by a falling comet. The prelude, concerning the chunk of falling rock hurtling towards the Earth is little more than filler to propel the narrative forward; however, this is the most interesting part of the story, yet is seldom explored in-depth.
Waking up, trapped on an island, and finding the boss, Zhang (Yu Hewei) is unable to provide solace, the survivors must find a way of coming to terms with what has happened. Clocking in at around two hours, the film is just too long. In under twenty minutes, the cast is already on the island, after which begins the drag.
The film flirts with the concept of the end of the world, but to be honest, I never really cared; this is the film's biggest drawback. Thirty people are marooned on an island, and we are only provided a small measure of substance on five characters. The remaining survivors are relegated to cliched tropes. In fact, half of the characters could have been cut from the film, and it would have made no difference.
Thematically, the feature explores money and power, alongside the struggle to keep both, and the consequences of prioritising these over loved ones. But, The Island does not break any new ground, showing us nothing that hasn't been done before (and better). Many post-apocalyptic films (The Postman, Blindness, etc) have depicted how the underappreciated will inherit the planet when the fragility of society is lost. Despite the differences in genres, The Island, which is more dramady than survival tale, with its occasional laughs and excessive melodrama, never constructs for us a brutally honest vision of how people will behave.
The accompanying visuals are continuously beautiful, capturing both the bleakness and majesty of the survivor's situations. Furthermore, it is intriguing to watch characters rise from underappreciated underdogs to arrogant leaders, and to fall back down again, the constant struggle for power, and the manipulative games played by the leads, creating a sense of mystery and suspense. I would feel remorse and pity for characters in one scene, and in the next, be appalled by their behaviour, the writing and execution by the leads in this aspect being the film's high note.
However, by the end of the film I was left yearning for something with greater impact, and The Island was not capable of scratching that itch. In summary, if I never saw this film again, I wouldn't lose any sleep.