SPOILERS for the whole thing.
A Touch of Sin dropped in my lap from a festival films channel on tv. It has been a long time since I've actually watched a Chinese film (I used to love them a while ago) and this one was welcome like an old friend. I have seen a film of his called Still Life and remember liking the visuals though not as enamoured with the plot. This one was definitely more interesting and flowed easily. First of all it has the clean cinematography that appeals to me most. Next I liked the stories told in the film and the characters.
The film tells different stories with the theme of violence. The characters do not always interact and barely pass eachother by.
The one in the poster above tells the story of a man who is well liked in the community. He is well off, unmarried. His problem is the village official getting rich by an illegal sale of the village mines to another rich villager (and the guy is rich, owns private plane and all). He tries to do speak to the parties involved and announces his intention to complain this injustice to the authorities. And he tries to do so but nothing goes his way. The post office doesn't even take his letter since the address is insufficient. So he decides to take it to Beijing himself. Meanwhile the rich guy orders him to be beaten and he was. This fact also happened to make him the target of teasings in the village. So he goes and takes his rifle and shots the village officer, another person who liked to tease him (a bit viciously), the accountant who lets the whole thing happen and finally the rich guy himself. And just as I was thinking that he regretted taking this road, there was a very satisfied smile on his face and he seemed to be at peace.
The other story was a bank robber. At the beginning of the film three young men attempt to rob him on the road he was passing on his motorcycle and he calmly shots all three- a bad day for the highway robbers. It turns out that he has a wife and a son at another village and he doesn't have any intention to stop robbing banks and killing people not because he doesn't have any other option but because he find life boring and these entertain him.
We have a yound worker who indirectly causes a work accident and just quits when he finds out that he has to pay his salary for the injured worker (he was telling a story and the other got careless while listening to it). He goes to another town and finds work at a bar falling in love with a bar girl (who turns out to be a young mother who refuses his offer to run away together because she has to take care of her baby (who is looked after at another town). It was too much for the guy to watch his beloved providing sexual services to the rich patrons and he decides to work at the factory where his friend works for a lot less money. And we find out that his salary goes to his poor family at his home town and they keep asking for money. Just when one thinks it will turn out alright the injured ex colleague finds him and threatens to get him beaten if the doesn't give cash. So he just commits suicide by jumpind off a building. (I felt worse for this one since he was so young).
The other story is of a massage parlor worker (who works at the reception and doesn't provide sexual services and she is probably over 30) who is having an affair with a married man. The man's wife tries to get her beaten up but she manages to escape the hired thugs (or the wife's relatives I don't know) and just as she was chilling out after work at the sauna parlor section she attracts the attention of customers and they tried to get her to have sex but she refuses and then one of them slaps her and then she simply loses it and kills the man with a knife, rather viciously.
Yes it was a bleak film with I assume presenting issues in modern China and I liked it a lot. The clean visuals, excellent actors, interesting characters made mine a very satisfying viewing.
I can't really recommend it to anyone since it is violent and definitely not feel good but if you like this type of film, it is worth a chance.
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