Well Go USA
I’ve seen disaster or world-ending sorts of movies go in two different directions: The fight or the ground. Either it’s a bunch of people trying to stop the disaster, a meteor or aliens or magnetic core overload, or it’s the people on the ground dealing with news of impending destruction. One of the better examples of this one was Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, focusing specifically on how the little people were going on. Here we see a fairly unique take on the concept.
The Island comes from writer/director/star Huang Bo and takes place somewhere in China, but the exact location is unimportant. He plays Ma Jin, a forty-something grunt nobody in an office where the work is also irrelevant. The team is about to head out to the ocean (I didn’t quite understand why) for a team building trip as news of a meteor strike has been shouting at us from the opening credits.
But although people are aware of this potential calamity, Ma Jin is mainly concerned with whining about his life to his buddy Xing (Zhang Yixin) and his dreams of romance with beautiful coworker Shanshan (Shu Qi) and his dreams of winning the lottery and impressing her. Everything starts with the clichéd boss Zhang (Yu Hewei) and his corporate-speak asking the 30-person group to get ready for being a great team until the tidal wave hits. Right after, Ma Jin sees that he has the winning lottery ticket.
The busboat crashes on a deserted, forested island and although nobody’s dead, they are stranded and without cell reception, power, or much food. At first it’s more generally comedic, with Ma Jin concerned with holding onto his lottery ticket and fitfully, terribly flirting with Shanshan while the power struggles of two groups form over the next few months.
But in the isolated world of the island, people get changed or hardened, and the movie skips forward days at a time, showing us how a mini-society forms trying to emulate capitalist or communist communities while Ma Jin tries to prove himself to be worthy of love. Although at first it is cringe-inducing how off-putting and inappropriate Ma Jin is around his crush, but this begins to change as he begins to change.
Fascinatingly, as the movie moves away from the more broad comedy into more introspective drama, the film greatly improves. Huang Bo, known for his comedic acting, actually does far better here in a dramatic role, in those scenes where he doesn’t need to say anything at all, must less shout. Shu Qi has an enigmatic, engaging presence that is more rewarding when her personality emerges.
The rest of the crew has mixed qualities, some never moving past thin characterizations but others gaining moments and scenes of more complexity and emotion. It’s a movie about survival, society, and love, wondering how those things are all related. It moves to an ending that would be greatly satisfying if not for the post-credits, which were a bit disappointing.
But overall, this is one of better films from Chinese cinema I’ve seen in a while that weren’t purely martial arts epics. In theory, this is all in the real world, and that makes it seem more relevant. The allegory can at times be a bit much, and it’s a long one, but in general, this movie works pretty well.
The Island has a run time of 2 hours 14 minutes and is not rated.
Well Go USA
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