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<\/a><\/p>\nAbout Elly<\/em>.<\/p>\n DB still in Hong Kong:<\/p>\n I haven’t been slack, honest; I’ve caught several items at the archive and during the first weekend of the Film Festival. I even saw Watchmen<\/em>, accompanied by rump-shaking Shaw Active Sound. But today let me get caught up with some films I saw in Filmart<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n I was unimpressed by the picture that launched Filmart, Derek Yee\u2019s Shinjuku Incident<\/strong>.<\/em> Billed as Jackie Chan\u2019s emergence as a real actor, it features him as a confused illegal immigrant thrown into the Tokyo underworld. His character never made sense to me, and the direction was formulaic: basically pan around a group of actors until somebody says something. Daniel Wu gets to play another maniac.<\/p>\n Less heralded Filmart screenings were much more satisfying. The best, and my favorite film I\u2019ve seen so far this year, was About Elly<\/strong><\/em>. It is directed by Asghar Farhadi, and it won the Silver Bear at Berlin. I can\u2019t say much about it without giving a lot away; like many Iranian films, it relies heavily on suspense. That suspense is at once situational (what has happened to this character?) and psychological (what are characters withholding from each other?). Starting somewhat in the key of Eric Rohmer, it moves toward something more anguished, even a little sinister in a Patricia Highsmith vein.<\/p>\n Gripping as sheer storytelling, the plot smoothly raises some unusual moral questions. It touches on masculine honor, on the way a thoughtless laugh can wound someone\u2019s feelings, on the extent to which we try to take charge of others\u2019 fates. I can\u2019t recall another film that so deeply examines the risks of telling lies to spare someone grief. But no more talk: The less you know in advance, the better.\u00a0About Elly<\/em> deserves worldwide distribution pronto.<\/p>\n Also worth seeing was A Place of One\u2019s Own<\/strong><\/em>, a Taiwanese film that uses imagery of living spaces to explore generational differences. As a young rock singer\u2019s career fades, his pop-star girlfriend\u2019s career takes off. Their fates are intertwined with those of a family who live near a cemetery. The father makes exquisite paper dwellings that are burned during funeral ceremonies, the mother maintains gravesites (and talks to ghosts), while the son launches himself on a real-estate career with the help of a dodgy rich kid. Director Ian Lou (God Man Dog<\/em>) enhances this network narrative with some clever flashback constructions as well.<\/p>\n My Dear Enemy<\/em>.<\/p>\n Two films I saw in the market display different ways of using past incidents to explain a story\u2019s present-time crises.<\/p>\n My Dear Enemy<\/strong><\/em>, by Lee Yoon-ki, exhibits a striking concentration and dramatic focus. Hee-soo\u2019s boyfriend Cho borrowed $3500 from her before they broke up. Today she has tracked him down and demands it back. She drives him around as he visits various associates\u2014his biker cousin, a high-class prostitute, a rich older woman who seems to be using his sexual services, an unmarried mother\u2014scrounging for money to pay Hee-soo back. Across a day of setbacks both comic and frustrating, we come to learn of their romance and their deeper personalities.<\/p>\n At first Cho seems the classic annoying charming rogue, chattering about the music he likes, pausing to buy flowers and oversweet coffee, flattering every woman he meets, and on the verge of ducking Hee-soo\u2019s demands. Every time he gets out of the car, you think he might bolt. These first impressions, however, get nuanced as we see how he moves easily and even gracefully through his milieu. He seems a loser, but we learn that he is resilient and resourceful. Meanwhile Hee-soo\u2019s righteous determination to get her money back comes to seem something of a desperate effort to close the book on painful episodes from her past.<\/p>\n Lee Yon-ki, who earlier gave us This Charming Girl<\/em>, is very good at structuring scenes so that we understand every character\u2019s changing attitudes. To get the money, Cho lets his target think that he\u2019s helping out Hee-soo, and at one point he implies that she\u2019s pregnant. As Hee-soo realizes that he\u2019s making her play a part in his drama of self-aggrandizement, she is hurt and ashamed. And Cho\u2019s happy-go-lucky facility in his milieu makes her feel more of an outsider. One scene, in which Cho\u2019s hooker friend calmly insults Hee-soo, is a subtle study in casual humiliation.<\/p>\n Yet Hee-soo\u2019s tenacity wins Cho\u2019s respect. At the same time, while as the day passes into night, Cho emerges as a figure with his own code of honor (he eventually provides a meticulous account of what he\u2019s cost her in the day\u2019s expenses) and even a dream of success that might, the last shot suggests, be fulfilled. Bits of business around coffee, cellphones, flowers, and a broken windshield wiper chart the fluctuations in their relationship concisely. My Dear Enemy <\/em>is a model of how to make a tight, intimate movie focused on simple incidents that carry almost Hitchcockian tension: Will Cho pay Hee-soo off? Will he slip away and abandon her again? What will we learn next about each one\u2019s past? Like About Elly<\/em>, this is a character study with an engrossing plot.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n