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Touching Starlight by TienCi
I just love any chinese movie I can get my hands on. Some movies are low quality budget movies, in fact, many are, but I love them nonetheless. It all started with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and thanks to the succes that it was, the eyes of the viewers were opened to a whole new gerne not may people had thought of, foreign film that was not from the USA...
Some time after that, some cinema owners came over a copy of The Road Home, which was showed on an indie-cinema where they show 'unusual' movies, thus they were more open than others. Close to that, Shaolin Soccer was going at the same theatre. Now, I can just go down to my local box-office and fish up a new piece of artwork anytime I like it, and I'm happy! Needless to say, I consider it an honor to get access to Touching Starlight, to be able to download it and enjoy the debute of our loved and tallented Ziyi.
Touching starlight is a film that proves that just because you spend millions of dollars on it, it doesnt' meant it's gonna be good, and if you make a film on low budget, it does not mean it's gonna be a lousy one. I don't know the budget of the film, but as I've heard Ziyi got only about $3000 for her part in it, please correct me if I'm wrong, yet it gives you the idea of the budget. It proves that excellent acting and a great and touching storyline is more valuable than any special effect.
In Touching Starlight, Zhang Ziyi plays a character I think she could identify herself with, a tallented young dancer called Chen Wei. When Chen Wei was young she was lonely, her parents divorced, and she didn't have many friends. One person who was close to her was Da Lei, a neighbour of hers, so close she called him 'ge' - brother. One day though, Chen Wei, tragically, finds out she has cancer in her right leg, and it must be amputated. This, of course, ruins her chance of ever having a career as a professional dancer.
Although, instead of rolling over and die, she takes the decision to fight, and encouraged by the disabled performer, Zheng Zhihua, and also by friends and relatives, she decides to help other disabled persons by starting a radioshow dedicated to encouraging them to struggel on. She takes a class, and gets to host her own show, which she calls 'Touching Starlight.' The radioshow reaches out to, and encourages all the disabled people, and Chen Wei continues caring for everyone but herself, helping people on the street.
Sadly, this can't go on forever, and her past catches up with her, her cancer spreads through her body, but she keeps fighting till the bitter end, caring for others more than herself. Her radioshow helped many people, and also attracted others, and helped spread the word and change the attitude towards disabled people. This whole films is very, very emotional, and one of the few stories that ever to make me cry (incidentally, the other one is Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon...).
I must say, Ziyi fits perfectly for tragic/bitter/nostalgic roles, she truly has perfect acting for it. There was some scenes in the film, like the one were the blind girl met Chen Wei, and the whole last hospital sequence that was very emotional for me. I was touched by Chen Wei's overflow of love and compassion, even though she was in the worst possible situation, she almost never complained, and she always sought to help and care for other persons more than herself.
She grew up lonely, few friends, and two months before he lifelong dream could begin, she was robbed of it by a cruel and unfortunate illness that totally ruined her career. As if that wasn't enough, it also comes back for more. Even through all that, she managed to always have a smile on her face and a straight back and looked life straight into the eyes, and give love to everyone who crossed her path. I also think that Da Lei's situation was important to remember as well. Remember to take care of your loved ones, because you never know when they'll be gone, and then it's too late to feel sorry.
Zhang Ziyi doesn't include this film in her official filmography because it's a true story, and she doesn't want to make any profit from the misfortune of the real Chen Wei. This tells me two things: One. What a fantastic person the real Chen Wei must have been, and I would love to have met her in real life. Two. That Ziyi is not so bad herself. I know that she's a wonderful girl in many ways, and that she is wonderful for real, and not a fake as is common nowadays. This gives me another hint to what kind of a person Ziyi is, a person I would love to meet, and be a very close friend to. Today, contemporary media is giving us a degenerated picture of moral and ethical values, so I find it a relief and extra valuable to know of an artist that truly has high moral and ethical values.
I won't give this film a score, because it would be unfair. It would be unfair because I like it soo much that it would cloud my judgement. It would also be unfair because the highest score is usually five, and my score wouldn't simply fit there. Let's just say it's a wonderful, emotionally loaded film, with a beautiful story that has a lot to tell us, great acting, and Ziyi. I think that would tell you all about it...
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