Organizers at the 39th Chicago International Film Festival had pundits going with comparisons to Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, yet upon closer inspection it was sadly ascertained this shameful 'art' circuit number reflects the watershed 1982 classic as does this writer Brad Pitt. Needless to say, SF fans attending the prestigious screening were soon outraged, reducing attendance from a hopeful sixty to mere fifteen two miserable hours later. Overseer Yu Lik Wai worked on several notable projects previously (Xiao Wu, Unknown Pleasures and Love Will Tear Us Apart), too bad his directing prowess didn't come across by way of this solo gig, a movie certainly complying with indie cinema's notorious triple P formula: pompous, pointless and painstakingly tiresome. Stealing its title from a cyberpunk novel by Willaim Gibson, the film traces agonizing travails thrust upon two brothers, their girlfriends and a little boy in post-apocalyptic China, where a ruthless fascist regime based on Buddhist mantra pulls off a decidedly poor Orwellian Big Brother imitation. Amid fallout from fictional, never-ending wars, the cast eventually realizes their tyrannical rulers have mysteriously jumped ship, leaving former political prisoners free to roam about. The disheveled motley crew sets out to find Port Perspective, a legendary haven run by pan-Asian forces, only to have oppression make a come back through corporate giants a la Samsung. ATP's only upside stems from a few token ideological novelties that would have been infinitely better served by a major, big-budget release.
There's practically no acting nor dialogue, and while its desolate landscapes do echo influences like Brazil and David Lynch's equally tedious Eraserhead, they'll be nothing special to anyone who ever visited Shanxi province and/or Shijingshan on a bad day. Besides working wonders as a sleep aid, it also serves to undermine Chinese film-making and thus leads us to question its presence in coveted cinema expositions. We beseech whoever makes these choices to try harder next year.
Rating: * (for ending with legible credits)
