Gada Meilin

This is one of those films that inadvertently reflects its story. Its about a massive but well intentioned failure. The failure in the story is a revolution, probably of the type the current regime would adopt as its own. The failure of the film is of the same type: it has grand visions and incompetence in the matters of life that demand broad insight and expertise.

It short, it is pretty; it is epic and grand. And it is soulless. Its nothing but clichés, narrative and cinematic. How many horizon shots should you allow before you say too many? Two dozen? Three? How many automatic plot turns do you tolerate? (The "big guy" who always wins in wrestling? Will he lose to the hero? Will he become best friend? Will he be sacrificed? Bing. Bing. Bing.)

How many times can we see a pure love expressed using one cinematic device before we loose belief in it? That device, by the way, is among the few cinematic devices we appreciated. Its a flowing 20 foot piece of red silk that our lovely woman trails behind her while her manly lover follows on horseback. Its truly lovely, as many, many shots are in this project. But it and other wonderful shots are overused until we almost laugh. Until halfway however, it is hypnotically romantic.

The story itself is in the tradition of Chinese film, where the emotional history of a couple is mapped onto shifts in political fortunes. Sometimes it works. Here, it does not because there isn't any common threat. Its like it is in non-Chinese films where the external events affect and challenge the internal ones rather than mirroring them.

The girl is feisty, pretty, and I suppose matches a very specific stereotype the Chinese have of Mongolians. In the US, it would be a tomboy/ cowgirl, I suppose.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

I strongly recommend this epic, mythical and heartbreaking film.

Rich in details about the life of the nomadic tribes based on a real Mongolian hero in the 1930's.

Wonderful, charismatic actors, and great cinematography--specially a very early scene where a herd of horses passes in-between three men bathing in the river.

No CGI, just brave actors-- and very disciplined horses, I hope.

It reminded me of a Western-- told from the Native American's side, mixed with a bit of MUSA, THE WARRIOR(Korea), another great epic.

The DVD I rented described it as fullscreen, but thankfully that is NOT so! It is in the correct 35mm format. Not super-widescreen, but at least one can see the entire horizontal format the cinematographer intended without the horrible cropping of fullscreen.

Everything the previous writer said was true. He left out the importance of the music. There is a native Mongolian singer who plays a large two string upright version of violins called a rebab or kemenche played all over the Balkans, Middle East and Asia. The singer is a hero in the country and unfortunately I have been unable to find any music of his or a soundtrack of Gada Meilin. I would dearly love to find a copy.

It was the imagery created by the music and the scenery that sets this movie apart from other great films. The singer has a deep and gravelly voice that is mostly unknown in the United States, except perhaps from a few old Southern blues singers. The intensity of the bond between Gada and his wife and their daughter provides the deepest feelings brought out through the music. A reddish-pink scarf that they play with while riding horses also supplies the image that they will never be parted in spirit. It also represents a kind of victory over the overwhelming odds against their own rulers allied with the Japanese.

It is hard to see the characters as actors because they seem so real. There sure are no actors like this in Hollywood or other European cinema. Even in most of the great Japanese movies by Akira Kurosawa it is easy to see the characters as actors playing a role. I think that is another main reason for the depth and intensity of Gada Meilin. I have seen this movie twice and the sense of depth was even greater the second time I saw it. The Mongolian people are shown as dedicated to family, courageous, playful, having great spirit and character as well as a having a highly developed sense of humor. But, as I said, the best of all is the music.

One reviewer talks of a stereotype of women from Mongolia as being like tomboys. He must know little about people who live outside urban cultures who have to fight to survive every day.The women need to be strong and self-sufficient as well as the men. The woman actually is physically more feminine in the western sense. It is her spirit that is masculine and combative.

To say that the emotional story of the family does not work within the overall story of the Mongolian people because they lack a common thread (I assume "threat" was a typo) fails to take into consideration the beginning of the film when as children they witness the execution of a rebel that lays the basis for both their personal relationship and how it develops within the overall plot of the movie. The overall sense of mutual responsibility for each other as members of the same tribe provides an unspoken thread to link the personal element to that of the society as a whole.

I think the reviewer is just playing the critic. The judgments made tell me that the film is not being judged on its own merits, but on a preconceived list of mostly phoney criteria of excellence. The lack of mention of the music's uniqueness and excellence as an integral part is evidence of that.