Big Shot's Funeral
by Xiaogang Feng
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Da Ying, Donald Sutherland, Paul Mazursky, Rosamund Kwan, You GeDirector: Xiaogang Feng
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: Mandarin Chinese (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 100 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-04-15
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures
Movie Reviews of Big Shot's Funeral
Movie Review: Intelligent Satire
Summary: 5 Stars
Big Shot's Funeral is an intelligent satire. The movie is both a satire of American media values or of an encroaching capitalist mentality within Communist Chinese society. The film stars an impressive lineup with Rosamund Kwan, Ge You, Ying Da, and Donald Sutherland. The film is multi Layered. Some of the layers include issues relating to East meeting West, and as mentioned earlier it is also a parody of Commercialism and the movie explores the line between artistic integrity versus selling out.
Director Feng Xiaogang is one of mainland China's most successful filmmakers. His movie Tianxi? W? Z?i [A World Without Thieves] recorded a whopping ?100,000 in box office on its premier night in Beijing. It is claimed that within ten days of release the total box office in Mainland China exceeded ?80 million. This figure ultimately rose to ?100 million on the last day of 2004. This is considered a milestone in the Chinese film industry. He has just come out with a new movie called The Banquet and is working on commericals for the upcoming Olympics. Why there is little, if any, attention paid to his work is beyond me. My sense is that with his new entry into the already crowded Wuxia world with The Banquet - a line up that includes such notables as Zhang Ziyi, Zhou Xun, and Ge You... he will be considered into the pantheon of Chinese cinematic giants that includes Zhang Yimou, Ang Lee, and Chen Kaige.
With regard to the east meets west angle, director Tyler can't seem to get into the "mind" of the emperor - which is a show of western perception and a parody on the remoteness or a re-articulation of western Orientalist narrative. Feng runs the risk early of caricaturing Tyler as the representation of the West and Ge You the east and Lucy in that liminal space in-between. In the pivotal scene with Ying Da Lucy is addressed in English as it is the polite and tradtional thing to do. She is not seen as "Chinese." Arguably not his best use of Ge You who is featured in all his movies.
Despite the movies creative and fresh angles, the Da Wan (Big Shot's Funeral) falls as a movie when: A "bond" develops between Tyler and Yoyo... I don't really feel it. There also seems to be no chemistry between the tentative Lucy (Kwan) and the awkward Yoyo (Ge You)... nonetheless, I recommend it highly if just for the comic value.
This is a joint Chinese/Hong Kong Co-Production. My sense is this is a signal, that may have been sent already, that a sense of Pan-Chinese Language setup is afoot. Its deep, this movie, like a Velasques painting... it is reflective about the changes occuring in the mainland... economic changes impacting values and society.
Miguel Llora
Summary of Big Shot's Funeral
Eastern religion collides with Western capitalism in Big Shot's Funeral, a satirical comedy about a cameraman named Yoyo (Ge You) hired to shoot a making-of documentary about a world-famous director (Donald Sutherland), who's creating a sequel to Bertolucci's The Last Emperor. When the director has a stroke and goes into a coma, the director's assistant Lucy (Rosamund Kwan) commissions Yoyo to organize the director's funeral. At a loss, Yoyo asks for help from a friend who promotes concerts--and before long the funeral has turned into a vast media spectacle with product placement running amok, so absurd that when the director recovers, he refuses to let Lucy stop the funeral because he's so enchanted. Big Shot's Funeral entertainingly mixes sweetness and dark humor as it interlaces a romance between Yoyo and Lucy with the escalating madness of the funeral. --Bret FetzerArt House & International DVD Video
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