7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A story of violent love within a time frame spanning from 2001 to 2017.
Starring: Tao Zhao, Fan Liao, Yi'nan Diao, Xiaogang Feng, Zheng XuForeign | 100% |
Drama | 48% |
Romance | 4% |
Crime | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Mandarin: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Mandarin: Dolby Digital 5.1
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Some of the “student” firefighters profiled in the recently reviewed Wildland might quibble just exactly how “purest white” ash is, but, then again, there’s very little that is “purest white” in Ash is Purest White. This rather odd kinda sorta gangster film from celebrated Chinese auteur Jia Zhang-ke competed for the Palme d’Or at Cannes, where its leisurely pace, metaphorical aspects and overall Art House sensibilities may have been more generally appreciated than by “everday Joes” looking for another Nikkatsu Diamond Guys sort of entry (if I may be permitted to temporarily join Japanese and Chinese cinema for a moment). Zhang-ke has often documented the epochal changes that contemporary China has been undergoing for at least a generation, and the film’s arguably frequent feeling of languour in terms of its storytelling is rather bracingly contrasted with aspects of modern Chinese life that seem specifically designed with the ADHD set in mind. The underlying foundation of Ash is Purest White’s plot mechanics deals with a mid level gangster named Bin (Liao Fan), who has managed to carve out a bit of turn in Datong, a once bustling mining town which has been ravaged by time and the drying up of precious coal deposits. Bin’s girlfriend is a woman named Qiao (Zhao Tao), who pines for a life away from it all where Bin and she can pursue happiness in private. When a seeming attempted mob hit on Bin is halted by Qiao’s use of a found handgun, Qiao suddenly finds herself on the wrong side of the law, imprisoned for several years and sequestered from Bin.
Ash is Purest White is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Media Group with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer (largely) in 1.85:1 (see screenshots 5, 8 and 15 for examples of the film's narrower aspect ratio). Zhang-ke and cinematographer utilize both of the "big" digital capture technologies, Arri and Red, along with traditional celluloid, giving this presentation an at times understandably pretty heterogeneous appearance. That said, whatever the technology being employed in any given sequence, and despite a few rather odd lighting choices, detail levels are remarkably consistent throughout this presentation. Everything from the kind of weirdly woven yellow top the baby in the opening wears to even the occasional stray hairs in Qiao's bangs in some of the earlier sequences really look precise and natural. There are a number of impressive outdoor shots with rather wide vistas where depth of field is notable. The wintry prison sequence is understandably tilted toward cooler blue tones, but there are some interesting other hues prevalent throughout the palette, including a kind of weird sickly yellow-green tint to some of the club material, choices that tend to only marginally affect fine detail levels, if at all. There was one rather noticeable occurrence of banding, during the "big SFX" sequence where Qiao spies something zooming through the air overhead.
Ash is Purest White features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that bursts into rather energetic activity in some of the crowd scenes, particularly a couple of the club sequences, two of which seem to suggest the Village People were really big in China. A glut of outdoor material also offers good opportunities for realistically placed ambient environmental sounds. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly throughout the presentation. Subtitles are forced.
There's an aspect to some of Zhang-ke's other work that might almost be compared to the Neorealist school in Italy, but Ash is Purest White is deliberately disjunctive as well as at least a little more mysterious than "docudramas" tend to be. I'm still wondering what exactly Zhang-ke is positing about the character of Qiao, but the film was so arresting (no pun intended, given Qiao's predicament) that I'll be more than happy to watch it again to try to further figure things out. Technical merits are generally solid, and Ash is Purest White comes Recommended.
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