Let the Bullets Fly (2011) directed by Wen Jiang from China
Taking place in the wild and fairly lawless days of pre-communist China in the 1920s, Wen Jiang directs and stars as "Pocky" Zhang the leader of a notorious group of road thieves who whilst robbing a passing train coach realize they have interrupted the plans of Ma Bangde (You Ge) a con artist and his wife (Carina Lau) to illegally take over the Governorship of the nearby city Goose Town. Zhang decides that he will take Bangde's place with Bangde serving as his advisor but their plans at executing a wealthy score become exceedingly complicated when they discover the town is in reality under the harsh rule of Huang Silang (Chow Yun-Fat) a warlord of considerable brains, ego, and firepower.
On the surface this sets up a highly rousing and endlessly amusing series of increasingly outlandish chess moves between Zhang and Huang as they match wits and battle not only for the power and money but for their own at times highly twisted moral ideals of what is best for the town and its people. But barely concealed beneath its darkly comedic and at times very silly slapstick detours into farcical fantasy, is a perfectly constructed allegory for not only the painful truth's of China's past social upheaval leading to the takeover of Communism, but also the current conditions under which they all live and how the masses and leaders interact in their strange day to day world mixing the harsh domination of a totalitarian government with the ever driving greed of a capitalistic society.
In much the same way director's in the USA during what is now considered the "golden age" of Hollywood had to come to terms with working under the awful Hays Code, after being banned from directing for 7 years in China by SARFT (basically the MPAA and FCC rolled into one uber powerful agency) Wen Jiang has learned how to temper his approach by taking a highly subversive approach in his didactic leanings by coating the whole affair in farce and delivering it all in an incredibly complex series of plot twists with a rapid fire delivery that compels the viewer not to look away lest they miss some vital piece of information the lack of which would result in confusion. The irony of course is that no matter what course is taken it always ends up breaking down into confusion and barely controlled chaos but with just an ever quickening revolving door of different players which leads you to question whether the result would really be all that different whether I shot my opponent or myself?
Let the Bullets Fly has since gone on to smash box office records in China by becoming the highest grossing Chinese film of all time. This seems an oddly huge leap to make for a seemingly former bad boy director who states that he "keeps his head down" and does what he wants and doesn't care if others understand his films or not -- a common accusation he has to address as many of his films are considered needlessly distant and difficult to understand. Yet it all seems to be some kind of horribly complex perverse sort of plan coming to fruition for Wen Jiang as not only did he have a team of writers (along with himself of course) writing and re-writing until the script was perfect, but he told them to keep Chow Yun-Fat in mind as they wrote his character and he reportedly approached Chow to take the role by informing him everyone would love him and that this film was specifically created to hit the box-office like a juggernaut.
Taking this in it seems a strange approach for a supposedly auteur director who has always followed his own muse regardless what the public or the government desires or expects. It makes me wonder if this isn't some all kind of horribly complex con pulled on the public to demonstrate the willingness of the masses to gravitate towards the guaranteed goal of instant gratification in much the same way the masses of Goose Town will not commit to either side unless they are guaranteed a win. Is this then the final endgame demonstrating in real terms that despite how big everyone likes to talk about saving face and not having to needlessly kow tow, in the end the masses are so tamed by the environment in their government approved world provides that they become all to willingly complicit in their own tyranny? Who's to say? Certainly not Wen Jiang as he is far too smart to make any sort of out spoken statement as the "true" meaning behind his film and simply states that people and groups will see what they want to see and nothing else.
So...in the end what does all this has to do with the entertainment value of the movie itself? Nothing and everything. On one hand it is an incredibly complex film with layers upon layers of assumed and not so obvious double-meanings behind every character, every action, and every aspect of the narrative. But on the surface it's still an incredibly funny film delivered with expert precision by not only the director but all the actors involved. Chow Yun-Fat hasn't been this good in years and it's wonderful to see him utilized properly in a humorous but meaty role and You Ge is pitch perfect as the third wheel advisor who has a bit more planned then you might expect. An incredibly enjoyable film, but the more I understand the more I can't but feel we are all just pawns in Wen Jiang's little world.
