hou26-tw Review of The Garden of Evening Mists

The Garden of Evening Mists (2019)

Ambitious but too "theme-first"

[8/10 · 4 December 2019]

In the first half of the film, the scars of World War II are mentioned by the scenes of hanging, rape, and blasting. The Cold War conflicts are also presented then. The history background is well expressed then. The sex scene of the women from the victimized country and the men from the aggressive country is very different from the films I've seen. It can be recorded in the film history. As a multi-language film, it is arranged harmoniously. I can understand why the director (from Taiwan) chose Cantonese among the Chinese dialects used by Malaysian Chinese, because the others (Minnan, Hakka) are very common in Taiwan. Sylvia Chang performed persuasively the roles from Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China or Southeast Asia. No other actors at the same age can surpass her. There are lot of advantages in the movie but the disadvantage are also significant. Nakamura, the male Protagonist, is more complicated than the Japanese army of "The Girl Who Played Go", "City of Life and Death" or "Mei Lanfang". Although it is known that the main axis of Japanese gardens is deliberately creating conflicts between the heroine and her lover, it is suspected that the Malaysian Chinese in the era could be so fascinated by Japanese gardening or tattoos? Before the war, the group donated to the invaded mother country actively (The Japanese invaded China in 1937 and Malaya was occupied by them in December 1941). Maybe they yearn Chinese Gardening more? (I thought of Chang Dai-chien who became an overseas Chinese after civil war, tried hard to build a garden in Brazil.). The beginning scenes of the tea farm on the mountains is amazing, but the place that tea trees grow must have a very humid climate. Thirty years later, the situation of papers and the wooden house must be terrible. Maybe above reasons bother me. Maybe the past scenes are too fragmented. I feel that this historical drama is too "theme-first". Instead of trying to piece contemporary imaginations together into reality, I prefer the film illusions built with many historical sources.