Hey folks, Harry here... and this time the lovely Elaine has a couple of foreign treasures to share with us... The first film, SUZHOU RIVER sounds like a film that I would love... a cross-bred mermaid/ghost story... and if there is one particular area of Chinese cinema that I favor above all others... it is their ghost stories, fables and mystical magical tales. I love them and cherish them. And for the second film... it stars ALAN CUMMING... and that is enough for me. Here ya go....

SUZHOU RIVER (China, 2000)

Once upon a time I had a Danish boyfriend who absolutely hated the guts of the Little Mermaid who single-handedly draws thousands of tourists to Copenhagen. Every time the poor girl got beheaded (which is apparently some sort of national sport in Denmark), he'd barge into my room clapping and cheering. I used to get quite alarmed at these outbursts of violent joy.

My ex-boyfriend had better not see "Suzhou River." It's about a mermaid, and she's ravishing enough to turn him away from the oddly-named German he now calls his girlfriend.

Of course I knew the film was going to be about a mermaid all along. In China, the Eastern city of Suzhou (along with nearby Hangzhou) is synonymous with gorgeous women. So when I saw that the title of the film incorporated both 'Suzhou' and something watery, I knew I was in for mermaids.

I also had a feeling I was in for a resurrection of the dead. Suzhou roughly means 'place in which to come back to life.' Hence, Suzhou River would be a river in which to rest and revive.

I got what I expected. In a nutshell, "Suzhou River" is the story of an unfortunate girl who jumps into a river, turns into a mermaid, and comes back to haunt those responsible for her death. But that's the easy way of putting it, and "Suzhou River" is by no means an easy film. In fact, it's so complex that I doubt repeated viewings would clear everything up. For this is not a set of clues to be worked out; it's a perfect amalgam of fantasy and reality, and it's up to the audience to decide what is true and what isn't.

Sound like a loose plot to you? Well, it isn't. It's hermetic, and it's brilliant.

There. I've said it.

"Suzhou River" starts out as a documentary. In the dreary mess that is present-day Shanghai we meet the narrator, a young filmmaker offering his services to whoever can afford them. He's hired to make a documentary about a mermaid who is reported to live in Suzhou River. The rest of the film (shot documentary-style with a handheld camera) is, in a way, that documentary, or so it seems to be. In actual fact it's more of a midrash - an attempt at accounting for plotholes in a known story by filling in the gaps. "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" is a midrash on "Hamlet." In "Suzhou River" the mermaid story could be said to be a midrash on things the narrator can't understand in his own relationship with his girlfriend. Then again, the entire film could be an elaborate set-up. As the narrator himself says at the beginning of the film, "This kind of love story is universal. I could make one up, too."

Ah. An artificial film then, mixing truth and fiction to great, confusing effect. A Chinese film noir. Well, well.

Ostensibly, "Suzhou River" is the story of Mudan and Mada, two young lovers living in Shanghai. Mudan's father is a wealthy bootlegger who lives only for drink and women. Whenever he wants to get rid of Mudan, he sends her off with with a shy young coerier named Mada. Mudan and Mada fall in love. Then Mada's employers hatch a plan to kidnap Mudan for ransom, and Mada is used as a go-between. After learning of Mada's betrayal, Mudan flees from her kidnappers by jumping into Suzhou River, still clutching the mermaid doll Mada once gave her. For a few years afterwards, boatmen report mermaid sightings in and around the river. When the repentant Mada hears of these sightings, he goes on a search for the mermaid. He meets Meimei, a young night club singer who looks just like Mudan but denies any connection with her. As it happens, this Meimei is the narrator's girlfriend. The rest of the film revolves around the question whether Meimei is indeed Mudan, and which of the two men is going to get her.

On the surface the question would seem to be answered satisfactorily. Judging purely from the visual aspect of the film, one would say the final minutes seem to present an adequate answer to the question. The problem is that there is a huge discrepancy between what is shown on screen and what the voice-over tells us. "I warn you - my camera doesn't lie," the narrator says at the outset. Then again, he also says, "don't believe me - I'm lying," and he frequently admits to "imagining" things. Due to the fickleness of his commentary, one can never tell whether Mada and Mudan actually exist, let alone what happens to them.

If the above makes "Suzhou River" sound like a very 'technical' film, that's because it is. The discrepancy between sound and image is well worked out, and the montage of flashbacks and flashforwards towards the end of the story is nothing short of fabulous. However, the sheer brilliance of the technical aspects does not make "Suzhou River" a heartless film. At the core of the story lies the very compelling question of what to do when, through one's own fault, one's beloved disappears and one later meets a dead ringer for her - whether to let the past rest or to try and make amends. Thematically and emotionally, then, "Suzhou River" stays close to "Vertigo," the Hitchcock classic to which it has justly been compared. Technically, however, it is more reminiscent of "Zusje" (Little Sister), a Dutch film in which a faceless narrator incessantly films his sister's doings. The fact that Meimei, the name of one of the "Suzhou River" leads, means 'little sister' in Chinese only serves to make the similarity more striking. Intriguingly, 'mei' also is the first character of the Chinese word for 'mermaid.' I'm sure that's no coincidence.

As the above example suggests, there's a lot of symbolism to be found in this film for those who know a bit about China or the Chinese language. Mudan, for instance, means 'peony.' Peonies stand for wealth, grace, gorgeous young women and female genitalia. Furthermore, there is famous legend about a girl named Bai Mudan who challenged an immortal to keep up with her in bed and wore him out by tickling him. This is what Mudan and Meimei do in the film - flirt and play games. Meimei (or is it Mudan?), in particular, seems hell-bent on tickling one's imagination. She even shows Mada (and the audience) her peony, both literally and figuratively.

It isn't just the girls' names which are symbolic. Mada is an old-fashioned word for 'motor,' which describes both Mada's literal and figurative role in the film. On itself the word 'ma' means 'horse,' while 'da' means 'to achieve' or 'to express.' In Buddhist lore, horses represent loyalty and purity, and there can be little doubt that Mada, despite his betrayal of Mudan, is pure and loyal. Heck, it's his undying love that brings the mermaid back to life - if that is indeed what it does. As for the 'achieving' or 'expressing' part of his name, Mada can be said to achieve quite a bit (not least getting to the women's peonies), and he certainly expresses a great deal - most of all when he smashes the neon sign of Meimei's club to pieces. Read from left to right, the characters on the sign mean 'century.' Read from right to left (the order in which Mada destroys them) they mean 'recording life' or even 'recording an era.' And they are smashed to smithereens. Symbolists could do great stuff with that kind of detail.

For those who are not into symbolism, there is still plenty to enjoy about this film. "Suzhou River" is well-written and extremely well-acted. Lou Ye proves himself quite a writer/director to watch, with his confident handling of his own complex screenplay. His actors can quite hold their own with him. Jia Hongsheng is fabulous as the introverted, dejected Mada. But it is Zhou Xun (Mudan/Meimei) who carries the film. As Mudan, she does not play but IS a sulking child who is devastated when she finds herself betrayed by the man she loves. The way she looks at Mada after realising what he has done to her is STUNNING. Yet she is equally convincing as Meimei, the cool diva who allows herself to be diverted by Mada's ramblings. And not only is she a brilliant actress, but she also looks drop dead gorgeous in a blonde wig. If you've ever encountered a peroxyded Asian, you know that's no mean feat.

"Suzhou River" is an astonishing long feature debut by a writer/director who does not rely on stunning cinematography to tell a story. Even if Lou's next projects are only half as successful as "Suzhou River," Zhang Yimou had better watch his back.

FOR MY BABY (The Netherlands, 1997)

"For My Baby" is what they call a Euro pudding. The writer/director and producers are Dutch, most of the technical crew are Hungarian, the music is German and Russian, it's set in Austria, it's English-spoken, and the cast, led by Alan Cumming, Juliet Aubrey and Frank Finlay, is mostly British and Irish. Good going, that.

As Euro puddings go, this one isn't too bad. As a matter of fact, it's actually quite impressive; so much so, in fact, that I'm surprised at its not having been released until now. For this is European cinema at its best. It's dark, it's funny, and it's dead ambitious, addressing as it does issues such as WWII obsession, homophobia, schizophrenia, misanthropy, death, fear of procreation, love, letting go, possession and exorcism.

Wow.

With all these ingredients, "For My Baby" could have gone dreadfully out of hand. After all, a story about a cross-dressing, misanthropist Jew suffering from an acute fear of commitment, old-world demons and possession is, well, a bit much, and if it isn't handled with care, it might well suffer from overkill. Thankfully this isn't the case. Writer/director Rudolf van den Berg's story isn't subtle, but the direction is so assured that one never has the feeling one is given too much to ponder. Instead, one admires the tightness of the plot and finds himself wondering what else Van den Berg has done. The answer: several Dutch dramas and an acclaimed Dutch TV series.

Talk about a waste of talent.

"For My Baby" tells the story of a thirty-something stand-up comedian living in 1970s Vienna. When the film opens, the "A-list fucked-up" Daniel Orgelbrand is on stage telling grim jokes about Nazi Germany and abortion, which he advocates as a means of getting rid of that scourge of the planet, humankind. Then his girlfriend gets up and tells Daniel and the audience that she's just had an abortion because she knew Daniel couldn't cope with the idea of becoming a father. After the show, the two split up, and a few weeks later, at the cremation of his father, Daniel meets and falls in love with a classically trained singer named Lilian Glass. He sternly tells his penis, "No more splashing around in puddles without your rubber boots on." But of course his passion gets the better of his sense, and the upshot is, predictably, that Lilian gets pregnant. Daniel now has to deal with impending fatherhood as well as his demons from the past, including a sister who died in a concentration camp, a mother who never got over her daughter's death and a father who was a Nazi hunter. As the story unfolds, these threads and a few others come together to create a film that is not only very ambitious but pretty well-crafted into the bargain.

Rudolf van den Berg's screenplay is a lesson in tightness. It isn't the most subtle effort, but no matter how many subjects he crams into it, they fit, thus making for a powerful, thought-provoking movie experience. It's also surprisingly funny. There is a lot of black, morbid humour in the film, which people with a misanthropic strain (like Daniel) will be certain to appreciate. Furthermore, the film boasts one of the most suggestive sex scenes I've seen (similar to the one in "Titanic," but better executed), and some extremely powerful cinematography by Gabor Szabo, who does a brilliant job evoking an oppressive atmosphere by his use of light and dark. He also uses lots of fire and flames - quite appropriate for a film whose protagonist is all but consumed by hatred, and whose name incorporates the Dutch word for 'fire.'

But the best things about "For My Baby" aren't the cinematography and the symbolism but the flashbacks and the scenes in which Daniel loses touch with reality. These cold syntheses of past, present and dream world are every bit of as creepy as Jack Nicholson's dialogues with the hotel barman in "The Shining," and as compelling as the ending of "Mephisto," to which this film bears a strong atmospheric resemblance.

Of course, a tight script and good visuals are nothing without good acting, and I'm happy to inform you that the acting in "For My Baby" is top-notch. Alan Cumming (the would-be rapist from "Circle of Friends") is astonishing as the haunted Daniel. Vulnerable and tough at the same time, Cummings exudes an intensity one doesn't often come across in films. The madness registering on his face in the second half is well nigh miraculous. For her part, Juliet Aubrey (Dorothea Brooke in the BBC's serialisation of "Middlemarch") is almost as impressive as the fragile girlfriend desperately trying to make sense of her boyfriend's behaviour. Her Texan accent isn't convincing, but her facial expressiveness more than makes up for it. Others turn in equally fine performances.

For those of you who speak Germanic languages other than English there is some fine symbolism to be found in the characters' names, but even without a working knowledge of Northern European languages one should enjoy this film. It's the most impressive Euro pudding I've tasted in a while, and then some.

Elaine