Pavilion of Women | | Cast : | Willem Dafoe | | Director : | Ho Yim | | Studio : | Universal Studios | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, DTS Surround Sound, Widescreen | | Released Date : | January 01, 2001 | | DVD Released Date : | January 15, 2002 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | April 25, 2005 | | Summary | Don't attempt filmmaking... | Content
 | ...it you have no skill at it. What was lacking? An excellent and thoughtful plot? Well-developed characters? A moral conundrum that has falls into shades of gray and is not black and white? Pearl Buck provides all of these in her skillful novel. The lady of the house does not fall in love with the American priest because her husband is as disgusting as he is portrayed in this film. In the book, he is a common, simple man, whose greatest fault is stupidity.
I watched only the early part of this film and then trashed it. The first analogy that came to mind, like another reviewer, was the rendition of Mansfield Park on film where there is a similiar obsession on the part of the filmmakers with sex and violence (together in the same scene), thereby denoting that they always go together. PLEASE, spare us your excessive imaginations. DON'T mess with a classic. If both Pavilion of Women and Mansfield Park are classics and have survived through so many years and are beloved to so many readers, consider this fact. Their authors know MUCH MUCH more than you do, are FAR more sensible people, have a MUCH greater sense of how humanity functions than you, (quite obviously with your record here) will EVER have.
Kapish? Don't mess with greatness, and don't add your own seamy and dirty version of what you consider to be reality to it. If you do want to make films like this, join another branch of the film industry and leave the greats alone. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 31, 2003 | | Summary | Modern view of oppressive traditional Chinese way of life | Content
| I remember reading Pearl Buck's "Pavilion of Women" as a child and loving it. I've forgotten the details of the plot long ago. But I do remember it was about Madame Wu, a wealthy Chinese woman who, on her 40th birthday, decided to stop marital relations with her husband and find him a young concubine. At that time 40 years old seemed very old to me. Now it seems quite young. This 2001 adaptation of the novel is set in 1937 and was filmed in China and partially financed by the Beijung Film Studios. The Chinese actress Yan Luo not only stars as Madame Wu, but also helped write the screenplay and produce the film. She's beautiful and stately and gives a fine performance. Willem Dafoe is cast as a village priest who runs a local orphanage. They are attracted to each other and the inevitable happens. But that is only part of what the story is about. Basically, it's about the oppressive world of the old-fashioned traditional Chinese family. And the future promise of communism. I read the book a long time ago and don't remember such a strong emphasis on communism. But this film is, after all, produced from a modern Chinese point of view. Many critics hated this film, called it too slow and too romantic. And all of them objected to the fact that the characters spoke English. I usually would agree with all those objections. It IS an overblown soap opera after all. However, I found watching this film a delight. I loved the opulent world of pre-communist China that I remember so well from Pearl Buck novels, including the acceptance of the concubine. And I liked the fact that the bedroom scenes were much more explicit than what was hinted at by Pearl Buck. I just relaxed and let myself be part of this fantasy world for a little while. And even though the film was a full two hours long, I never was bored. Taste is personal, of course. And even though I can't understand why I enjoyed Pavilion of Women so much, I do recommend it. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 28, 2003 | | Summary | Beautiful people, glorious photography, and romance. | Content
| This film is one of those movies you like to watch with your better half on a rainy Saturday afternoon with a large couch and a bowl of popcorn. Don't expect a lot from this particular movie (loosely based on Pearl Buck's book). It would never win an Academy Award, but not every movie is made for such shallow recognition. The Chinese women characters are stunningly beautiful, the location photography is breathtaking, and even Willem Dafoe is pleasant enough to watch in this film. This is one of those movies guys love because it has enough story to keep the girls interested, and enough slow periods where you can get a lot of hugging and kissing in. For that reason alone, I should have given this movie 6 stars! |
| Rating | | | Date | December 16, 2002 | | Summary | So bad...it's good! | Content
| 'Pavilion of Women' is an unintentionally hilarious film. The movie is set in China, all the dialogue is in English - stilted English at that (including Willem Dafoe's as a matter of fact) - though it is meant to be in Chinese. The characters are incredibly broadly drawn - husband's a sex-addicted lying cheat, wife's a saint, son's a rebel, etc. Watching this film, we turned to each halfway through and wondered "Why haven't we turned this off yet?" The answer: the movie was so bad that watching it had become fun - just *how bad* could it get? Well, when the son and his girlfriend come over the hill wearing their new Communist attire...Aahhh! We knew the filmmakers had attained camp nirvana. You can't invent a moment that goofy. Simply wonderfully bad moviemaking! Excellent!! |
| Rating | | | Date | September 15, 2002 | | Summary | Chinese and Western cultures collide in '30s romance | Content
| Anyone who liked Zhang Yimou's "Raise The Red Lantern" is a prospect for "Pavilion Of Women". Whereas "Raise The Red Lantern" explores merely Chinese taboos about marriage and concubinage, "Pavilion Of Women" centres on a romance between leading characters in whom both Chinese and Western mores collide. This is a cross-cultural romantic story adapted from a book by the prolific American writer on China, Pearl S. Buck, set in the late 1930s. It is a cross-cultural challenge to the audience, as much as to its characters. Many Chinese would say that its romantic plot was unthinkable or impossible in the 1930s--which is, of course, part of the point of the story. Western fans of Pearl S. Buck might be irritated by deviation from her book. However, this film has first class cross-cultural direction and acting, and was beautifully photographed on location in elegant settings of old Suzhou. It is a fine example of what the Chinese film industry can achieve in co-production. The DVD has high quality picture and audio, but could be improved with special features such as biographical and production notes. |
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