Robert Browning, according to John Heath-Stubbs, was taken to meet the Chinese Ambassador to Britain. The Ambassador was an eminent poet and wanted to meet an English poet. What was his poetry like, asked Browning? "His Excellency's poetry" the interpreter explained "Is chiefly enigmatic."
I don't know about Hongqi Li's poetry, but his films are entirely enigmatic. Keaton and Becket never panned deader. This one is like his first but more- or rather, less- so. This time the camera moves once, to centre a table. For the rest, there are a series of mysterious non-conversations with pauses as long as the speeches, shot straight on and immobile over a day and a night. A small boy, who may be backward or may know better than to show interest in what happens around him in this film, has a pail which- or its unseen occupants- make strange noises when he takes the lid off. A man meditates on what a chicken would think if it had known its future fate as others' food. Mr Mao- who may or may not be the one in Hongqi Li's other film- phones people but doesn't reach them. Two blind men cannot get past each other in the street. Eventually a tramp- who may be Mr Mao from Hongg Li's last film- offers a character a coat which is rejected and the film ends. It's all preposterous and perfect in its tiny absurdity. The film begins by saying- untruly- that Aristotle discovered the world was round and ends with a dedication to an Australian who holds the world record for balancing eggs on their ends. I don't know if this last feat actually happened, but Hongqi Li seems to be trying to achieve the cinematic equivalent.
I don't know about Hongqi Li's poetry, but his films are entirely enigmatic. Keaton and Becket never panned deader. This one is like his first but more- or rather, less- so. This time the camera moves once, to centre a table. For the rest, there are a series of mysterious non-conversations with pauses as long as the speeches, shot straight on and immobile over a day and a night. A small boy, who may be backward or may know better than to show interest in what happens around him in this film, has a pail which- or its unseen occupants- make strange noises when he takes the lid off. A man meditates on what a chicken would think if it had known its future fate as others' food. Mr Mao- who may or may not be the one in Hongqi Li's other film- phones people but doesn't reach them. Two blind men cannot get past each other in the street. Eventually a tramp- who may be Mr Mao from Hongg Li's last film- offers a character a coat which is rejected and the film ends. It's all preposterous and perfect in its tiny absurdity. The film begins by saying- untruly- that Aristotle discovered the world was round and ends with a dedication to an Australian who holds the world record for balancing eggs on their ends. I don't know if this last feat actually happened, but Hongqi Li seems to be trying to achieve the cinematic equivalent.
