介绍:
Personal Tailor is definitely the most topical film of the week.
First of all, its director Feng Xiaogang also helms this year's New Year gala on China Central Television. The show used to claim the attention of all Chinese people around the world, so Feng is getting a lot of media attention.
Secondly, Personal Tailor marks Feng's return to comedy, after his two previous attempts at the disaster genre in the form of "Aftershock" and "Back to 1942". With the amount of promotions on his odyssey, the audience has naturally got their hopes up. And when they finally see the thing and are disappointed, their voices of complaint are most certainly loud.
A lot of the complaints are well-grounded though. On a quick glance, "Personal Tailor" is a remake of Feng's 1997 urban comedy "Dream Factory", and a lousy one at that. Both films revolve around a company that grants wishes to people who want to escape their current life. But the 1997 original has a smooth storyline, while the new one is divided into 3 parts that hardly connect with each other. To make matters worse, the 2013 "Personal Tailor" also includes a part where the characters apologize to the environment. That is definitely not the perfect ending for a comedy film, imagine how the audience would feel when they've paid the ticket for a bellyful of laugh but end up being upset by the ugly truth around them.
But after the initial shock, I've come to believe "Personal Tailor" will go down in film history nonetheless. Not because of its many flaws and the viewers' complaints of course, but because the motion picture somehow manages to capture one shot of the Chinese society of our age.
Ours is an age when we are obsessed with our petit or huge discontents and forget to dream for something bigger and better. We complain about corrupt officials yet hunger for their power; we loath the rich for their squandering and show-off yet we covet their wealth; we haunt ourselves with these obsessions so hard that only pure vulgarity could cheer us up.
Feng Xiaogang and screen writer Wang Shuo on the other hand, have realized the dangerous trend in the society and throw it at our face. Call it mockery or whatever you like, you will not look for a solution unless you realize there is a problem, and "Personal Tailor" has shown you the problem.
The last part of the film is an apology to the environment. To many viewers it may look suspiciously like an advertisement for public interest, but I believe by appealing to common interest, it is calling for common understanding.
Personal Tailor is at least a record of our current society, and if appreciated, may also be a call for bigger, better dreams.
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