SYNOPSICS
Un cuento chino (2011) is a Spanish,Mandarin movie. Sebastián Borensztein has directed this movie. Ricardo Darín,Ignacio Huang,Carolina Hsu,Muriel Santa Ana are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2011. Un cuento chino (2011) is considered one of the best Comedy,Drama movie in India and around the world.
In Buenos Aires, the bitter and methodic Roberto is a lonely man and the owner of a hardware store. Roberto collects bizarre worldwide news in an album as a hobby and his acquaintance Mari has an unrequited love for him, but Roberto is always evasive. One day, Roberto sees a Chinese named Jun being expelled from a taxi while he is watching the landing of airplanes in the airport and he helps the man to stand up. Jun does not speak Spanish and shows a tattoo with an address on his arm. Roberto heads to the spot with Jun and discover that the place belonged to Jun's uncle that sold it three and half years ago. Roberto goes with Jun to the police station, to the China's embassy and to a Chinese neighborhood to seek out his uncle but it is a fruitless search. Roberto lodges Jun in his house and after a series of incidents, he finds a delivery boy to translate Jun and he learns the dramatic story of his life.
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Un cuento chino (2011) Reviews
Some wisdom in our lives
Very good movie. Intense from the beginning to the end. Crafted with few resources, as were done the movies in the good times of the Nouvelle Vague. Few resources in terms of few actors, few places where the scenes where recorded, no special effects, stunts, wreckage etc, and at the same time, an outstanding existential weight. Existential weight in the sens that each minute in the film is meaningful and cannot be lost. Ricardo Darin is again a great actor. Muriel Santa Ana inspires beauty and sensuality being very simple all the time. Ignacio Huang is dramatic in spite that no one understand what he says. In short, a film which suggests that it is good to plan some place for wisdom in our lives.
A Solid Movie
Interesting and somewhat fresh. Darin always knows how to insult properly, and we all Love that in Argentina. Its a movie about Life and its Magic, about rare events and Destiny. You will find the story quite relaxing and and end that boosts the movie just enough to make it a really good one. Not a classic so far of Argentinian Cinema in my opinion, I don't see it becoming One, is what I mean. But as I said, Solid, very watchable, funny here and there, and a message, nicely wrapped with good performances. And if you know about Buenos Aires Culture, its always a plus for this kind of movies. But if you are not familiar with our ways here, you are probably gonna miss some things but at the end, its a nice little journey.
Funny and Dramatic
In Buenos Aires, the bitter and methodic Roberto (Ricardo Darín) is a lonely man and the owner of a hardware store. Roberto collects bizarre worldwide news in an album as a hobby and his acquaintance Mari (Muriel Santa Ana) has an unrequited love for him, but Roberto is always evasive. One day, Roberto sees a Chinese named Jun (Ignacio Huang) being expelled from a taxi while he is watching the landing of airplanes in the airport and he helps the man to stand up. Jun does not speak Spanish and shows a tattoo with an address on his arm. Roberto heads to the spot with Jun and discover that the place belonged to Jun's uncle that sold it three and half years ago. Roberto goes with Jun to the police station, to the China's embassy and to a Chinese neighborhood to seek out his uncle but it is a fruitless search. Roberto lodges Jun in his house and after a series of incidents, he finds a delivery boy that speaks Cantonese to translate Jun and he learns the dramatic story of the life of his guest. "Un Cuento Chino" is a funny and dramatic film, with a refreshing story and excellent screenplay, direction and performances. Ricardo Darín is one of the best (if not the best) Argentinean actors these days; Ignacio Huang is great in the role of a Chinese that cannot speak Spanish and Muriel Santa Ana is very sweet with her beautiful smile. This film is another proof that for making a great film, budget is one of the least components. Story, screenplay, direction and performances are the most important. The apparently absurd and bizarre idea of a cow falling from the sky on a boat is true and has happened in 1997 in the Sea of Japan, when a Russian cargo airplane with problems released a cow from a high altitude that hit a Japanese fishing boat that sank. My vote is eight. Title (Brazil): "Um Conto Chinês" ("A Chinese Tale")
A fascinating tale
¨I've got a Chinese guy living in my house who doesn't speak a word of Spanish.¨ Ricardo Darín has starred in two of my favorite Argentine films: El Secreto de Sus Ojos and Nueve Reinas. Darín is a great actor and he has proved he can do very different roles and manage them well. In this film he plays a quiet grumpy and lonely man whose life turns around when an unexpected visitor changes his every day routine. Un Cuento Chino was written and directed by Sebastian Borensztein, a director I wasn't familiar with until now. He has made a well crafted film by mixing the right amount of comedy with drama. The movie shines thanks to the original script and Darín's performance, along with two good supporting performances from unknown actors Muriel Santa Ana and Ignacio Huang. The film claims to be based on a true story, but actually it is just loosely based on an unexpected incident which had to do with a cow falling from the sky and sinking a Japanese ship. This story actually begins with a Chinese couple in a River who are interrupted when a cow falls from the sky. From that moment on you know that you are in for a very different movie, but there is a perfect explanation for the event. The cow falling from the sky is the only true event about this movie which is a fictionalization about a relationship between this lonely man played by Ricardo Darín and a Chinese immigrant in Argentina. Their failure to communicate is what makes this film so funny. Roberto (Ricardo Darin) is a hardware store owner who lives on his own in the city of Buenos Aires. He is very grumpy and always complaining, but also seems to live a very quiet and routine life. His house is behind the store so he spends most of his time indoors keeping to his self and collecting newspaper clips of bizarre and rare stories in order to prove that life is meaningless. He goes to bed exactly at 11pm and wakes up the next morning to the same breakfast: coffee and bread. He seems comfortable living on his own. He seems to have had a short relationship with the sister in law of the person who always brings him the international newspapers. Her name is Mari (Muriel Santa Ana) and she lives in the countryside far from Buenos Aires, but happens to be visiting again and is very much in love with Roberto. His life changes when he runs into a Chinese immigrant named Jun (Ignacio Huang) who is thrown out of a cab after being mugged. Jun has nowhere to go and doesn't speak Spanish so Roberto decides to help him. He takes Jun to the address he has tattooed on his arm, but the person living there claims that a Chinese man sold the house to him several years ago. Roberto takes Jun to the Chinese Embassy where Jun can finally communicate his intentions: He has come to Argentina to find his uncle since he is the only family he has left. Despite the inconvenience Roberto decides to take Jun in for a few days until his uncle shows up. This will change Roberto's routine and affect his life. Darin's character might be grumpy and mean, but he is also nice and has a big enough heart to accommodate a foreigner into his home. He will never expect how this relationship will dramatically change his life, but this relationship is exactly what makes the story work. There are other funny moments like some of the paper clips that Roberto finds and how he recreates those bizarre events in his mind, but the center of the story revolves around him, Jun, and Mari. The story moves slow at times, but it works really well because it shows us exactly how Roberto lived before Jun shows up. Once Jun is with Roberto everything changes and that is what makes for the funniest moments. Un Cuento Chino is a very rare film, but a good one with memorable characters and an unlikely pairing between Darin and Huang that works really well. The film has a feel good feeling to it and once the credits begin to role it's impossible not to leave with a smile in your face. I absolutely recommend this movie which won Best Argentine Film and the Goya for Best Iberoamerican Film in 2011. http://estebueno10.blogspot.com
Barriers and Bridges
Accidents can change people as this beautifully crafted film from Argentina written and directed by Sebastián Borensztein proves. It is a lovely mixture of fantasy (the fantasy is actually based on a true story) and the reality of how immigrants to any country adjust and the need for the kindness of strangers. The film opens in a beautiful scene in Fucheng, China where a young couple about to marry are on a picturesque little boat in the middle of a river, celebrating their future. Suddenly a cow drops out of the sky, smashes the boat, kills the girl and the young man Jun (Ignacio Huang) survives. Jump immediately to Buenos Aires where we meet the bitter and methodic Roberto as a lonely owner of a hardware store. Roberto (Ricardo Darín) collects strangely bizarre worldwide happenings he finds in the many newspapers to which he subscribes and pastes them in an album as a hobby. The man who delivers the stack of newspapers has a sister-in-law Mari (Muriel Santa Ana) who has an unrequited love for Roberto, but Roberto is always evasive. One day, while watching the landing of airplanes at the airport, Roberto sees a Chinese lad named Jun being thrown out of a taxi: he helps the man to stand up. Jun does not speak Spanish and shows a tattoo with an address on his arm. Roberto heads to the address of the tattoo with Jun and discover that the place belonged to Jun's uncle that sold it three and half years ago. Roberto goes with Jun to the police station (where Roberto slugs the desk policeman for insisting that Jun spend the night in jail), to the China's embassy and to a Chinese neighborhood to seek out his uncle but it is a fruitless search. Roberto sees the only option is to allow Jun in his house ('for a certain number of days only!') and after a series of incidents, he finds a Chinese take-out delivery boy to translate for Jun. Roberto explains to Jun through the translator that life is absurd, does not have any sense, and shares his hobby of the news he had collected including one about some men stealing cows in China with a plane and how a group of peasants follows and shoots the plane in flight, the plane's back door is opened, and two cows are dropped, one of them killing a girlfriend in a boat, who happens to be Jun's, as the translator then explains to Roberto. Roberto then shares his childhood reasons for his current world view and they are dramatic. A series of incidents occurs in which Jun is able to payback the kindness of Roberto, but the major impact is the relationship that forms between Roberto and Jun, a relationship without language communication but with so much more. The small accidental ironies include the Latin American belief that what falls from the sky is usually a sign of good luck, and the final 'gift' Jun leaves Roberto is a drawing of a cow's head on the back of Roberto's store - the space Jun ad cleaned for his room and board. This is a delicate and very tender story and succeeds because of the sterling performances by Ricardo Darín, Ignacio Huang, and Muriel Santa Ana. Perhaps it doesn't 'take a village' to make changes, but the reciprocity of two disparate people thrown together by fate certainly does. Grady Harp