- A pregnant woman kidnaps a man who has done her wrong and makes him confess to his sins. From the director of Cavite (Independent Spirit Award winner) starring Long Nguyen (Journey from the Fall, Heaven and Earth) and Quynn Ton comes a movie about a bow, a wheelchair and a fireplace.—Anonymous
- Miles away from SAWs one-stop chopping, LIVING IN SEDUCED CIRCUMSTANCES plunges into the psychological abyss of torture with a resourceful production design and a narrative that reveals its secrets in measured tones. Filmmaker Ian Gamazons dreamlike depiction of violence isnt any more graphic than 24s weekly terror, but there are no release valves in this discomfiting reverie. As with his debut, CAVITE (Special Jury Award, SFIAAFF 05), Gamazons extreme economy burnishes an age-old story (in this case inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses) with immersive disorientation. While CAVITE negotiated the geopolitical boundaries separating San Diego and Manila, LIVED IN SEDUCED CIRCUMSTANCES traverses an imaginary border toward the darkened realm of fairy tale.
The film opens with the pregnant Minh (Quynn Ton) driving an unconscious older man to a secluded cabin in the woods. We glimpse hypodermic needles stashed in the car, and, a few swerving cuts later, Mr. Thanh (Long Nguyen) is bloodied and bound to a wheelchair. Gamazons hypnotic jag of space and time denies cause-and-effect reasoning at the same time as it draws us toward the characters unspeakable past. As Minhs wanton acts grow increasingly intimate, a history of personal and national dispossession comes into view. Closure isnt in the cards, but a climactic long take casts an unexpected sadness over the film that will have you scrambling to reconstruct earlier scenes. With LIVING IN SEDUCED CIRCUMSTANCES, Gamazon once again shows that low budget doesnt necessarily mean low key.
Max Goldberg
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