Soundless Wind Chimes

GREAT MOVIE

Chinese director Kit Hung's debut film "Soundless Wind Chime" features Yulai Yu as Ricky and Bernhard Bulling as Pascal whose romantic relationship ends with Pascal's death because of a traffic accident. Ricky travels to Pascal's native Switzerland to reconnect and understand his lover and his past. While in Switzerland, he meets Ueli (also played by Bernhard Bulling), who resembles his dead lover but whose personality is different. "Soundless Wind Chime" is poetic and has some beautiful dreamlike sequences; however, it is a very esoteric film and requires the viewer's perseverance. It seems oddly disjointed at times, as scenes are incorporated ala Twin Peaks style, but without giving any real context to explain it. As an example, Ricky works as a restaurant delivery boy and brings a dinner order to a frail elderly woman who was an entertainer in her younger years - in a bizarre sequence; we see this woman in a sequin dress complete with two backup singers reenacting what I think may have been a commercial. It was oddly amusing but nonetheless strange...perhaps it was over my head. There are also scenes that are tender in the portrayal of the beginning of affection between Ricky and Pascal, as well as the sad decline or deterioration of love, as when Pascal does not come home one night and ignores Ricky when he finds him at the local dance club. None of these insights is provided in a logcal linear manner and there is very little dialogue by way of explaination, so the viewer draws their own conclusions or fills in the gaps - right or wrong. I think "Soundless Wind Chime" is a movie that you have to be in the right mood to watch. It is often slow and mystifying, but visually it has an artistic quality...sometimes a moving Monet impression and other times an eccentric experimental Dali. The lead actors Yulai Yu and Bernhard Bulling are attractive and convey the emotions needed to remain engaged for the most part. Yulai is a delicately beautiful man who communicates Ricky's sensitivity and caring nature. Bernhard in dual roles is interesting because he manages to portray these completely different personalities. For a first film, Kit Hung may have had an artistic vision that did not quite translate well onto the screen and was overly long. I think that if you are in a contemplative mood and your patience has not reached its limits then give it a go otherwise it will not work for you.

My preference would be for 4.5. As for liabilities, as others note, the film brims with episodes that don't make obvious sense within any traditional plotting - the dance scene with the old lady fretted me rather less than the matter of picking up the five-year old backpack at the conclusion, the otherwise extraneous Angry Sister in Switzerland, the old Swiss couple at the beginning and the end, what Euli was doing - and when - in China - although the mirroring of Ricky in Lausanne (Geneva? Zurich?!) and Ueli in HongKong was charming. Maybe some of this arose from editing, although the pace and structure of the film was otherwise gauzy/opaque. Nothing was direct or straightforward. The camera work plays with this same effect, but it's also beautifully shot. It's slow, but not negatively so, the pace is integral to the whole movie.. I really like the idea of the cross cultural stuff too - everything about the flick (and its production, too) draws on European and Asian ideas and aesthetics. The homo stuff is the same but it is different in the two cultures. Same with family here too. And maybe, for all the queer motives, the movie is really about living and dying, loving and losing: applying these themes to specific issues of a Swiss dude in China loving a Chinese fellow. Both the protagonists, incidentally, are beautiful and seem to embody the freshness and innocence - and more - of the roles they play. Overall? - it offers as much as it demands. Don't expect easy resolution. Be patient. It's worth the time. I'm already hitting it for a second run. (haha! sorry this ran on so long! It underlines the passion the film provokes!) I think, for repeated viewings. I've rewatched the beginning, however, and it's already hanging together better.

The movie moves very slowly and the characters are confusing. At the end of the movie I had no idea what happened to the main characters.

Collection piece

good story line, good acting,however, at times it is confusing with the flashbacks. it does not end well.if you have the time it is worth watching.

Like many art house and foreign films, most seem to gloriously succeed, or fail. This one kept missing the mark. Loaded with potential, and a decent (albeit odd) story line, I watched from start to finish, hoping the film would finally come through with shining colors - it did not. The film is told in flashbacks. When done well, this can be a tremendous asset and make the film standout. In this case however, the viewer is left trying to piece together a puzzle (with too many pieces missing). Right up until the very end, I waited (hoped and prayed) it would come together). Having watched the last 20 or so minutes a second time the next day, my friend and I were able to connect a few of the dots, but at the end, we were very disappointed. The acting and direction are good, but the flow is slow, and often choppy. By far, not the worst I have seen, and certainly no where near the best. Soundless Wind Chime has elements that are caring and compassionate, but filled too often with elements that seem loosely if at all connected to the overall story.

happy with item

j'ai aimé la naissance de l'amour entre ces deux êtres - le chinois immigré à Hong Kong et le suisse routard à jamais- pudiques, timides et empruntés dans l'évocation à haute et intelligible voix de leurs sentiments profonds, une passion de silence faites de rares gestes tendres et qui ne sera jamais totalement aboutie car la mort surgit pour l'un d'un, j'ai adoré sa façon de filmer Hong Kong où l'atmosphère de cette cité futuriste et fourmillante nous ensorcelle, mais je trouve qu'il y a quelques longueurs et un problème certain de rythme -Kit Hung n'est pas encore Wong Kar-way- et qu'une certaine concision aurait apporté un peu de tension au film ; quelques scènes perles : les ambiances que cela soit à Hong Kong, en Suisse ou à Beijing sont merveilleusement rendues. J'ai mis quatre étoiles car j'ai tout de même aimé et je n'ai pas écrit de résumé car il est au-dessus.

I Really Need To Return This. I Thought I Was Buying A CD Of WINDCHIMES Not A Gay Movie!!!!

I guess I will have to watch it a second time to understand it. There does seem to be a blurring between fantasy and reality, and going back and forth in time that's a little clumsily done so it is hard to follow. There are some basic things I don't understand about the movie such as are Pascal and Ueli the same person? It almost seems the director had some footage left over and just pasted it in because he didn't want to waste it and it makes for a confusing movie. I'm guessing Pascal and Ueli might have been identical twin brothers, but there is nothing to really suggest that. Ricky and Pascal although they had feelings for one another they had major issues in their short relationship so there really wasn't a sense that they were going to be forever and that certainly lessened the impact of what happened in the end. If Ueli really was another person, I guess there is a possibility of a more permanent relationship there? He seemed much more settled, although also somewhat melancholy like Pascal.

This movie was interesting to watch, however it lacked a better flow of events and left the ending with more of a question mark feeling then a good ending

This is a film about disguised lives. Ricky (Wong Kar Wai) at one time says in a phone call home from Hong Kong that he is teaching someone how to trade, implying that he is supposed to have a job on the stock exchange or similar; actually he is a delivery boy for a fast food Chinese restaurant. Pascal, a shaven headed westerner (Bernhard Bulling), is the assistant of another westerner, a juggler whose role is to distract the public whilst Pascal picks pockets. Ricky is one such victim but his chase after Pascal is frustrated by a ticket collector. Pascal's relationship with his partner is that of underling in an abusive relationship, out of which he walks after submitting to one violent rape too many. So there is the scenario of two lives coming into contact. It is preceded by the seminal image of the film, Pascal lying on the ground face-up staring upwards. Is he day-dreaming, and why is there what looks like milk seeping from under him? Ricky distraught is given fresh funds (and guidance on replacing his stolen ID pass) by his surly landlady, a hooker operating from the room below Ricky's. Ricky comes across a weeping Pascal and comforts him with a sandwich; as you do. Before long they have started an affair, living together in Ricky's cramped digs. Ricky irons Pascal's shirts; it is unclear what Psacal really offers in return. So the story progresses. Intercut with the Hong Kong scenes are others clearly set in Europe. Such is the bewildering nature of the film, it is at first hard to tell if these are flash-forwards or flash-backs. And who is Ueli, the handsome German who so resembles Pascal (not least as they are both played by the same actor, I found out)? And why is his sister so angry with him and everything? The tale does have a narrative flow though the director makes life hard for the viewer. Some reviews have suggested he doesn't quite pull it off. If you focus hard - this is not a film to watch when tipsy or tired, and the subtitles are in smaller print than I would prefer - you do get the threads sorted out, and it all comes coherent at the end. I give it 5 stars as it makes the viewer think and is full of good observation. One device the director uses is to use long takes in Europe and shorter takes in Hong Kong, thus stressing the contrast between the calmness of Switzerland and the frenetic pace of Hong Kong. There is one beautiful sequences where an elderly woman, apparently disabled with Alzheimer's or similar, reincarnated into her much younger self (as in a photo on her wall) sings a song with a sneeze refrain and the word Gezundheit! The director's subtlety is that we can only hazard whether this is a recollection in her mind or an imagination by Ricky on seeing her photo. The director fully uses his 100 minutes running time. In the Director's and Bulling's insightful commentary we get good value.