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Anybody heard much about this/seen it? I missed out on a chance to get the Devils on the Doorstep HVE DVD cheap and have been kicking myself ever since, but this new one from Jiang Wen is playing at the TIFF at a time when I could conceivably see it. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of info on it available, so that's why I thought I'd ask around here.

I saw it, and it's a complete mess. All the worst art-house cliches you can think of with no discernible point. Maybe it was some kind of an allegory about communist China, but it's so dull that even that aspect of it doesn't register. I'm not feeling bad for having seen it, but I felt that it was a waste of a lot of very obviously talented people's time and energy. Still eager to see Devils on the Doorstep, but I wouldn't recommend this. Wen's attempts at broad comedy mixed with his penchant for overcooked (and nonsensical) melodrama make for a hard movie to sit through (though, to be fair, it has the occasional worthwhile moment, but always in isolation and quickly overtaken by the slog of the rest). I sincerely hope his future filmmaking endeavours are more successful.

Is it Wen Jiang or Jiang Wen? I can't seem to find which it is definitively. I know there's a lot of talk elsewhere about the proper order of names in translation from Chinese to English, but I thought I'd ask here too anyways. Sorry for the potential redundancy to other discussion of the issue.

JIANG (family name first) Wen (personal name last).

Michael Kerpan wrote:JIANG (family name first) Wen (personal name last).

Many thanks: sorry for the stupidity on my end. I've changed the thread name and my posts to reflect his name properly.