Cities of Last Things

In a Chinese city of the future, where happiness is the creed and suicide a secular sin, a pensioner jumps to his death from a tall building. What follows are 3 episodes from his life, told in reverse order. There is the last day of his life, his time as a police officer, and his time as a wayward youth. Each earlier-in-life episode explains his actions later in life. This is interesting storytelling, slightly marred for me by not realizing that there were only 3 main time periods, and therefore trying unnecessarily to figure out if we had moved to an earlier time. From the director Q+A at the Toronto International Film Festival, the English title is inspired by the book Country of Last Things, while the Chinese title is Happiness City (Ironically, I believe).

French and foreign critics were eulogistic. I was then expecting a masterpiece. The actors certainly play perfectly but the scenario is deliberately but excessively PulpFiction-ed with a disturbing script.

As a synthesis: disappointing and frustrating. 5/6 of 10.

The movie is divided into 3 parts detailing 3 different times in the character's life, beginning with old age, then middle age, and finally teen age. The problem is that rather than being one cohesive whole, each part feels too separate, like standalone mini-movies. His teenage part, especially, feels pointless and completely removed from the other two. The story would not lose anything if this part was removed. And being half an hour long, that's an unacceptable waste of the viewer's time.

The filmography, acting, etc. Are all very good, but none of that can make up for a story told badly. The script is also rather sparse, with the main character speaking very very little throughout the whole movie, and way too many things being poorly explained as a result. It's difficult to understand what's going on or the character's motivations at times.

The film is 3 short periods of time in mans life in reverse. It begins with his demise and the events leading up to it. The second part is his career and the misfortunes that befell him. The final part is his youth and wayward life. A thoughtful film, well acted, scripted.

A series of events in a man's life, over decades, leads to a fateful night.

The film takes place in regressive chronology, where we see the final acts of the main character and then we regress to key points in his life, which give us the reasons that lead him to do what he does.

We start in a distant future, in terms of technology (a kind of Blade Runner), which I did not particularly liked, given the mood that the film pretends to have, at least in my opinion, and it's only acceptable by a small detail that later on (that is, in the past) is explained to the audience.

There's strange moments and scenes, and nobody can really tell why they happened, or happened that way, at least.

The best part is the cinematography, the grain throughout the film is beautiful (it was shot in 35mm) and creates an attractive noir atmosphere.