CLOUD ATLAS

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CLOUD ATLAS

Postby Ben Chiu » Tue Jul 23, 2013 12:04 pm

I really wanted to like this movie. I think it was well made, but I think this is a case of where the concept was uninteresting and ultimately made the movie difficult to watch. The production design was fabulous. Well, everything (aside from the "yellow face" -- more in a minute) was top notch. Unfortunately the concept killed it for me. Perhaps CLOUD ATLAS was better as a book, but I really think this is a case where there's so much stuff that people lose track of what the real meaning is. For me the biggest problem is the meaning of the movie is just flat.

[+] The concept and other gripes
The concept of CLOUD ATLAS is that people can change. The only thing that ties everyone together (aside from the same actors playing different characters are the shooting star birthmarks, which is fine, but the big revelation is that people can change is, well, for me, not a revelation at all. I think that's a given isn't it?

Anyway, I found the actors playing "yellow face" (e.g. in makeup playing Asians) pretty silly. I suppose because I'm Asian, I'm more sensitive to it, but if the actors were in "black face" (playing native Africans) would that be less silly? I mean this is the 21st century. I understand that the director's choice was to have the same actors play the characters for each time period and although I didn't read the book, if there were Asians in it and you wanted to stick to the motif, there are better choices to pull it off. But all of this is a waste if the payoff isn't a payoff worthy of the effort (LIFE OF PI has a good payoff).


I will probably watch this one again to study the production design and attention to detail, but the movie is very long and the story, well, isn't much of a story at all. Altering time in an attempt to create mystery is an often useful and valid method of storytelling. I think my biggest problem with the movie is the story is a bunch of random bits with purported greater purpose. It's a nice goal, but the weak payoff isn't worth the labor of the watching the rest IMHO.

My advice: Proceed with caution if you decide to watch it.
Ben
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~Imagining a world without hypothetical situations...
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Re: CLOUD ATLAS - racism, oversensitive or misunderstood com

Postby Ben Chiu » Mon Jul 29, 2013 12:09 pm

From the emails and chats I've had about my comments about the actors in CLOUD ATLAS playing "yellow face" I feel I should clarify as there have been some misinterpretation of what I wrote.

(Actually, on a side note, I'm wondering why people feel OK writing and talking to me privately about things like this, but are hesitant to post here and enter the conversation. Is it because this is public? Would you feel more comfortable if we made all postings private e.g. require registration before anyone on the interwebs can read what we write?)

I'm not against yellow face or black face because I find it offensive. If you read my original comments, I find it silly used in the context of CLOUD ATLAS--making it inappropriate because it breaks my suspension of disbelief (that movie magic when you forget you're watching a movie). That said, silly does work and is appropriate in other pictures. A fantastic example is in TROPIC THUNDER. The movie is supposed to be silly, so it fits. Not only does it fit, it's brilliant in this particular instance.

Hope that clear it up.
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