可以翻譯的東北式幽默

Born and raised in a small industrial city in northeast China, director Zhang Meng grafts the memory of his hometown and the unique sense of humor that characterize "Dong Bei Ren" in his second movie The Piano in a Factory.

And his humor does translate. At the renowned film festivals in 邁阿密, Sydney, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Shanghai, the movie turned out to be a dark horse and shows that the Chinese humor, beyond what Zhao Benshan has to offer on every year's CCTV Spring Festival gala, can be widely comprehended and appreciated by the world.

Set in early 1990s in Anshan of Liaoning Province, the film tells a whimsical tale of a father whose life is turned upside down after his estranged wife reappears, asking for a divorce and custody of their daughters. The musician girl decides that she will live with whichever parent can buy her a piano, an expansive instrument for the unemployed father yet an easy purchase for the newly-rich mother. Without the money to secure the custody, the father makes the unusual decision of building a piano by himself.

Not unlike many Soviet and eastern European movies during the cold-war era that zoom in to examine the happiness, fears, sadness and hopes of nobodies as the societies they live in are going through drastic changes, The Piano in a Factory points to the period two decades ago when many Chinese state-owned factories laid off workers on an unprecedented scale.

The story should have been sad and heart-wrenching. But the writer and director Zhang Meng adopts an easy tone to soften the dreariness and harsh realities. During the design and construction of a steel piano, the obsessed father, along with his lover and a gang of his close friends, present many comical fights, struggles and conversations, which make the movie a delightful experience.

Another cinematic treatment that pushes the movie to stand out among current summer blockbusters is the director's innovative use of old soviet pop songs that serve as the soundtrack and adorn the story with a nostalgic luster. Since these tunes are fondly remembered by the older generations in China, the movie has a good potential for sales among that demographic.

On my 1 to 10 movie scale, I give The Piano in a Factory an EIGHT.   舉報