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Han jia (2010)
Not easy to watch
Embodies its themes of boredom, sparseness and a hint of vague, almost apathetic existential crisis. Incredibly difficult to focus on with a 10 or 15 second gap between each line of dialogue.
I don't know what to make of the directing style. Sometimes it seems like it's reaching for one thing, but comes off as untrained performers awkwardly respond to stilted direction. A generous, but maybe accurate reading is that the characters are just going through the motions with a deathly apathy. The final scene kind of feels like a punchline. Like it's an hour and a half long joke. Maybe it is. Maybe the dialogue is better in its native Mandarin.
Cinematography and style is pretty great. Almost no diegetic sound nor visual contradicts the soviet staleness established in the very first soon. Music helps relieve the boredom, but barely.