A Chinese Tale: clash of cultures in a lonely world

I have to admit that the last delivery of Goya I was surprised, pleasantly of course, when Ricardo Darin announced with astonishment and joy that A Chinese Tale won in the category of Best Latin American Film, just like in '85 it did Norma Aleandro delivery of the Academy Official History. I was surprised because their competitors were not tape children and because they usually are imposed before the drama comedy.

While the film directed by Sebastián Borensztein not a comedy in letters as the drama is present, while Ricardo Darin always guarantee success in Argentina and Spain, I can not believe some may have beat films like Violet went to heaven , co-production between Argentina, Brazil and Chile on the life of the controversial figure of Violeta Parra, to obtain overall a much more effusive welcome and positive both spectators and critics.

In this second film in his filmography, with a steady hand Borensztein tells the story of a hermit ironmonger, unable to connect with others, moody and aggressive life ends very reluctantly taking charge of a foreigner who does not speak Chinese a drop Spanish and who is lost in the vast Buenos Aires. In that culture shock of becoming an obsessive who guards his privacy to the letter and a scary guy who did not want to end up on the street open several readings not only about tolerance, bureaucratic politics both Argentina and China, but above all, about loneliness and isolation.

Each of the main characters in this story, born of a real story I remember reading myself in amazement in the paper, are somewhat solitary creatures that can survive as a significant loss to any lack of affection that define as they are. Different looks at the meaning of life, the absurdity of existence or the true meaning of this will fall off of a bittersweet story that hardly appeased and not like.

The problem of the film is that despite the pleasant similarities of narrative much like the great Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the actual weight of the film lies especially in the figure of the average Argentine, unhappy but noble, who plays Darin . It is not detracting from the very good performance by Nacho Huang as quiet and submissive the ironmonger foreign aid nonetheless. His figure becomes an endearing character we all remember, but Darin, his character, his story ends up being the real star of the story. Without detracting from the script nor the director himself, a Chinese story ends up being effective because Darin made a great antigalán, an Argentine-fledged, impossible not to recognize in our everyday life, flowing with all the melancholy and helplessness that pervades the story.

But the film shows that for telling a good story does not need big budgets or too elaborate stories. With little, as is this great detail the unusual protagonist to cut the daily news, it says that life has strange relationships, ways to join straight out of a novel. That surpasses the fiction that reality ends up being one of the rules to read almost predictably, as predictable as an end but this does not stop thrill.

As always with these films as native at times, we must bear in mind that does not work for all audiences in general. Possibly the receipt of an Argentine differs greatly to that of a Spanish, others of the things that surprised me though a co-production with the mother country has been chosen for this final delivery of Goya. It is this that makes Roberto Darin is a topical meeting Argentines can not refuse and perhaps, again, not everyone reads the same way. The direction of Sebastian Borensztein is impeccable but the script continues to be from the beginning a series of events that eventually we will foresee the end of the story.

It is a problem that the figure of Darin highlight both, however this statement may seem unusual, but if the film had had no other actor would have liked to know if the same way, if he got where he arrived. The story continues to be a sympathetic look at life, loneliness, love, obsession, but does not become one of those movies that will go down in history not marked as much as they did so many other geniuses, like eg Awaiting the coach , but inevitably we will bring a sincere smile, excite us just right, somewhat briefly but effectively.

A Chinese Tale is a fresh dramedy, to use a fashionable term, you'll enjoy every viewer who wants to see a good story, want to entertain with a narrative of very good pace, hardly anyone bored or indifferent leave him completely, but of there to win a Goya award for having the competitors that had, as surprising as a cow falls from the sky.