SIFF #2: Capsule Quickfire
Blue Sun Palace (Constance Tsang), Cloud (Kiyoshi Kurosawa), Drowning Dry (Laurynas Bareiša), The Gloria of Your Imagination (Jennifer Reeves)
Blue Sun Palace (Constance Tsang):
Constance Tsang’s Blue Sun Palace, which stars Tsai Ming-Liang muse Lee Kang-Sheng in a supporting role, uses the language of Asian art cinema to articulate the dislocation of a group of Sinophone masseuses in New York City. The references and long-takes occasionally feel like a signifier of a style rather than an embodiment, but Tsang has a strong eye and it’s refreshing to see a diasporic drama that doesn’t cater to white audiences.
Cloud (Kiyoshi Kurosawa):
A group of aggrieved customers enact revenge on an online reseller in Kiyoshi Kurosawa's dark comedy, Cloud. Kurosawa creates a desolate world, treating the conditions of late capital as the source for a complete breakdown in social relations. The film never reverberates beyond its premise, but the pleasures of Kurosawa’s arcane formalism (the steely, sculptural quality of light, the rigorous compositions, the computerized sound design, the commitment to stillness) are undeniable.
Drowning Dry (Laurynas Bareiša):
An engrossing bad-vacation feature undercut by its non-linear structure, Drowning Dry charts the relationship between two sisters and their respective families as they grapple with the aftermath of a masculinity-crisis induced tragedy. Bareiša’s cliffhanger timeline-shifts, and their coy withholding of information feels contrived, and a few days removed, the emphatic spot-the-difference moments that might redeem the narrative device still don’t feel generative.
The Gloria of Your Imagination (Jennifer Reeves):
A dual-projection manipulation of mid-century therapeutic footage, Gloria expresses how contemporaneous narratives of womanhood affect the insular space of personal therapy. The connection to the current moment is affecting, and with her typically masterful use of rhythm and superimposition, Reeves blends the personal and the historical into a piece of haunting lyricism. Simply the way she pinpoints Gloria’s life as a melody within an international polyphony feels like a call to action.
Blue Sun Palace, Cloud, Drowning Dry, and The Gloria of Your Imagination play at the 51st Seattle International Film Festival, taking place in person May 15-25 and online May 26 - June 1. Tickets are available here.