Favorite Film Series [Wk:4]

It has been two weeks since I've done a FFS, but here I am again. Hopefully, you've had an opportunity to watch previous weeks' films.

This week's film will deviate in genre from previous weeks. There are good, quality comedy films, and they can indeed be genuinely funny, regardless of how formal film criticism tries to suck the life of them (if they address them at all). Nonetheless, comedy is a difficult genre to do well and most quality comedy films are complex structures. Unlike the dime-a-dozen forgettable slapstick comedy seen on most mainstream screens, quality comedy films have considerable depth and subtlety that requires an discerning audience.

Here is this week's film.

Big Shot's Funeral (2001) Dir. Xiaogang Feng

Why this film: Before Morgan Spurlock decided to sell-out, Xiaogang Fang's comedy film had already explored in narrative form the encroachment (or development, if you wish) of mass advertising and marketing campaigns on public life. While Spurlock's film exploits the question of entertainment-as-advertisement-vehicle when the question has already been answered in the public consciousness, Xiaogang Fang's film, made a decade earlier, explores the question through some extreme (and at the time, seemingly improbable) conclusions. Though I doubt anyone would say Fang's film is prophetic, though it must seem like that in retrospect, the film might be considered a marker from which we in the present can look back and trace how things have unfolded.
However, I digress because these are not the reasons I like this film. I like it because it is simply funny and ridiculous, but not in a slapstick, one-liner kind of way. I realize I also have a particular affinity for the film-within-a-film cinematic structure, kind of like the backstage musicals of the mid-20th century. The cast is well-chosen and their chemistry is strong. You Ge, Rosamund Kwan, Donald Sutherland, Da Ying, and Paul Mazursky all have strong and, dare I say, somewhat endearing peroformances.
Lastly, whenever you have a East-West-type cast or film, often it comes off stale, weird, or just plain insulting. I think there is a very good balance here, where the audience stays focus on the world playing out on screen.

Language: Mainly Mandarin, some English.

Availability
Netflix: Available
Amazon Instant Video: N/A
SDSU: Available
UCSD: Available
San Diego Circuit: Available
San Diego Public Library: N/A