The new generation of Chinese cineasts (the sixth, have I been told) tries to develop more personal projects than the previous one, by making movies that carry a individual story more than a collective one. Wang Quanan, with "Tuya", represents this new generation of Chinese directors, and tells in this movie a personal and individual story (his mother comes from the Mongolian area the film depicts) without trying to link it to the Chinese history, but he also creates a bridge with the previous one (his character of a strong woman reminds the portrayals that Gong Li has done with Zhang Yimou). But, unfortunately, the movie doesn't have the same originality of, for instance, his friend Jia Zhan-Ke's, nor doesn't manage to carry the same strength than Zhang Yimou's.
The story is like the movie, simple and a little bit plain : in a lost farm in Inner Mongolia (but still in China) Tuya has to find a new husband since her present one is unable to work. But she asks one condition to accept the new pretendant : he has to supplies for her ex-husband needs. But the movie seems to film the quest of Tuya like a pretext to show the beautiful landscapes of the area, the traditions that seem to survive here (as the marriage scene nicely shows it), an also typical Mongolian clothes, rituals and music. It's sure pretty and interesting, but more like a travel guide documentary than like a modern Chinese cinema piece of art.
Beside one or two good cinematographic interesting ideas (especially located at the very beginning and at the end of the movie ; and a good scene that show a woman crying at her wedding), there's nothing really passionating nor new there. Of course, cinema can sometimes be considered like a traveling substitute, but it also needs to be something more if the spectator really wants to enjoy the traveling.
The story is like the movie, simple and a little bit plain : in a lost farm in Inner Mongolia (but still in China) Tuya has to find a new husband since her present one is unable to work. But she asks one condition to accept the new pretendant : he has to supplies for her ex-husband needs. But the movie seems to film the quest of Tuya like a pretext to show the beautiful landscapes of the area, the traditions that seem to survive here (as the marriage scene nicely shows it), an also typical Mongolian clothes, rituals and music. It's sure pretty and interesting, but more like a travel guide documentary than like a modern Chinese cinema piece of art.
Beside one or two good cinematographic interesting ideas (especially located at the very beginning and at the end of the movie ; and a good scene that show a woman crying at her wedding), there's nothing really passionating nor new there. Of course, cinema can sometimes be considered like a traveling substitute, but it also needs to be something more if the spectator really wants to enjoy the traveling.