Chosen

Our protagonist, The Driver, as we know him, starts out by picking up a young Tibetan boy in an abandoned New York dock. Shortly after the pickup, however, he is met by two other cars with hostile intent. The Driver manages to elude the two in an all out chase around the dock that results in the destruction of a chasing Mercedes. This movie features terrific chase sequences but contains a sense of "commercialism" as The Driver's BMW seems to be nearly invincible and overall superior to the cars that the chasers drive. But this "episode" in the The Driver series is fun to watch and fabulously directed by Ang Lee.

This wonderful little short film finds Ang Lee at his best! Full of quiet Ang Lee-esquire moments(when the little Dalai-lama guy in the backseat feels hot, he opens the power window, then rolls it back up; the driver looks at him, understands the little guy's urge for cold air(much like that of his native Tibet), cranks down the temp to 65 on the BMW's climate control system.) Of course, the prominent humorous self-conscious Hulk reference didn't go unnoticed by the viewers, including the ones here on IMDb. This is just one instance of director's amazingly light touch.

Also, the music is absolutely wonderful, which wouldn't be that much out of place in Lee's period piece Sense and Sensibility. The music had me smiling throughout this short film, thinking of the connection to the Sense and Sensibility.

I'm amazed by how Ang Lee transformed the film(whose only aim was to advertise the great German cars) into the first-rate cinema by applying fully his sensibilities and preoccupations.

This is the first time when not only all user comments but also the IMDb.com's official plot summary misses the point completely.

Well, as it's one fine oriental story, this is nothing to be terribly ashamed of. Let me help you a bit:

Hint #1: Where is Ang Lee born? Yes, right - in Taiwan. So what? Ha, let me explain - can you name a country that Taiwanese people fear the most? Hai, you are right again - this is China. So don't expect too positive approach towards the People's Republic of China here.

Hint #2: (As one comment already correctly mentioned it) the boy (and the monks) are Tibetans. What did Chinese do to Tibet in 1949-1950? They invaded an independent country and Tibet is occupied since then. What happened to unique Tibetan culture under Chinese rule? It was systematically destroyed. Not a good example for Taiwanese people..

**** SPOILERS START *****

The boy is "chosen for a strange ritual" :) I think we can be more precise now. What is the greatest ritual in Tibet? The finding of the next Dalai Lama, The Chosen One.

**** SPOILERS END *****

Only one piece of this fine oriental mystery left unsolved - who are the bad guys, then? No, i can't tell you, i already wrote SPOILERS END above here.. :)

I gave it 7 points out of 10, because it is impossible to join the commercial and oriental art. But Ang Lee's masterpiece gives us fine example how close we can get.

Under the direction of Ang Lee himself 'Chosen' is a very nice short film. The Driver has to take a boy from the harbor. He has some trouble on his way. It is not really a chase, more like a car-dance, nicely choreographed. Together with a fine and funny ending another nice one.

Ang Lee took to the helm for this second movie in the "The Hire" series. If you think his beautiful style of choreography and cinemotography only applies to humans, or if you never thought about it before, take a look at this one, my favorite entry in the series.

The driver is hired to transport a young asian immigrant, who is obviously of some mystical importance, from the docks to a location in the city. Almost immediately after the young passenger straps in to the second-only-to-the-M5 540i 6-speed, the bad guys present themselves and the chase is on.

What follows is truly a ballet on wheels. A whole bunch of clumsy american cars and a "lesser" German car show their deficiencies to the amazing skill and ability of The Driver and his performance machine.

A first for the series occurs in this film when we see The Driver take a role outside of the car, and you'll see that the role that is played adds a depth to the Driver, and the storyline.

On a cool side-note, you'll notice a certain...er... "character"... imprinted on the gift that the young passenger gives to The Driver - this was a subtle reference by Ang Lee that completely put to rest rumors that had been floating around the net, and concretely said to the world - "Yes, I am directing this movie due out in 2003"

take notice.

:)

Overall, though all the other films had great things to offer ("The Star" being absolutely hilarious), this is my favorite. 10/10