New_Zealand_Listener_09_14_2019

56 LISTENER SEPTEMBER 14 2019

THE FAREWELL

directed by Lulu Wang

I

t’s a movie about a visit to grandma’s

place. There is a lot of eating,

even before we get to the wedding

banquet. Whatever the modest

budget was for this indie family

drama set in New York and Changchun,

China, it’s likely the bill for on-screen

catering took up a fair amount of it. But

the sound of your own rumbling stomach

may get a melodic accompaniment – a

sweet tune played on your uncomplaining

heartstrings as The Farewell delivers its sad,

funny, unembroidered story of a Chinese

family gathering to say goodbye to their

matriarch, even though the elderly Nai

Nai doesn’t know she’s on the way out.

The second feature by Chinese-American

Sweet and

sour porkies

A story of farewelling

a beloved matriarch

rings true despite its

characters having to

tell many fibs.

FILM

DANGER CLOSE: THE BATTLE OF LONG TAN

directed by Kriv Stenders

O

n August 18, 1966, a company

of Australian soldiers, along

with their New Zealand artillery

observers, found themselves cut

off in a rubber plantation near Long Tân

in South Vietnam by thousands of North

Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong troops.

The Battle of Long Tan, as it’s known, has

become a footnote in the fraught history

of Australasian involvement in Vietnam,

a conflict that was furiously controversial

then and remains so now. In Danger

Close, a noisy, macho recreation of that

siege, Australian director Kriv Stenders

has picked his side: this is a brash, jocular

tribute to the diggers’ sacrifices, filled

with exaltations of honour and hard

yakka.

The Vietnam War has given cinema

some of its most radically disturbing

images, yet Danger Close has been

plundered from long-established war-

film clichés: the mildly insubordinate

company commander (Travis Fimmel),

the grumpy brigadier (Richard Roxburgh)

and the green lads fresh from basic and

blushed with bravado. And so on.

Once the fighting gets going, there is a

certain pyrotechnic impressiveness: a shell

blasts from a Kiwi battery and we follow

its morbid arc – Michael Bay-style – over

the battlefield. But the action is stranded:

if your characters are mere archetypes of

hardy heroes, it’s tough to drum up any

Shoot ’em

up, digger

A parochial and

clichéd bloodbath

adds nothing to the

Vietnam War canon.

The Farewell: a love letter to

the grandparent-grandchild

relationship.

BOOKS&CULTURE