9/11 heroes and love story during the Cultural Revolution

This weekend, I had the pleasure watching two great movies: United 93 and Under the Hawthorn Tree. The former is a Paul Greengrass movie about the events that took place in 9/11, with its main focus on the plane that fell in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, while the second was a Chinese movie, directed by Zhang Yimou, that tells a simple love story that unfolded during the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

Though each was good enough merit its own entry, I will write both in one setting for the interest of saving time and making sure both movies get reviewed. I will start with "United 93" just because I saw that movie first, so scroll down if you're only interested in "Under the Hawthorn Tree."

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United 93

As a resident of New York City, the first thing that comes to my mind when hearing the words "9/11" is the Twin Towers going down. I remember I was in 8th grade, and an announcement came from the principal saying "something tragic" has happened. All the teachers put down their usual lesson plans (except my math teacher, who continued the lesson as if nothing happened) to talk about what happened. My dad picked me up after school, and reality finally hit me when I saw the smokes when I turned the news on.

So when I first saw the trailer about "United 93" a few years ago, my first thoughts were "Is Hollywood so evil that they've gone to the point of cashing in on the terrible tragedy that killed thousands of innocent civilians?" That could not be further from the truth, as the movie focused less on the three planes that hit their targets (both Twin Towers and the Pentagon), and more so on the one that fell in Pennsylvania, of how the civilians on that plane took a stand against the terrorists. The point of the movie could not be any clearer -- you don't need to be the Man of Steel to be a hero, you just need to show courage in the face of danger.

Instead of taking the usual tragic movie approach of focusing on the planes that hit their targets, "United 93" uses those planes mainly as a means of setting up the mood of the story -- something horrible is happening. We never see how those three planes were hijacked; Paul Greengrass instead focuses the first part of the movie on the control center during the first three hijacking. In my opinion, this was a very smart move on Greengrass's part. By focusing the attention on what went on in air control, the movie successfully portrayed the surprise on everyone's face when first two planes were hijacked. Imagine you're going through your ordinary day, getting your coffee, trying to clear up air traffic, when all of the sudden, you hear "possible hijacking on United 11" and then "United 11 just disappeared... it was over New York City, but it just disappeared, and Air Control New York did not report any planes landing."

Again, a simple message: it's easy to point fingers at other people for letting the terrorists destroy the second tower even after the first tower went down, but when you see what actually went on, it's more complicated than "hey you didn't do your job well."

The movie then quickly picks up its pace after the attacks on the two towers, focusing more on the plane that is the title of the movie. Paul Greengrass shows everything from the erroneously belief of the terrorists that they were doing this in the name of God, to the horrified looks on the passengers' faces when the terrorists started stabbing people, to the climax when some passengers realized this wasn't just another hijacking, that their country was under attack, and decided to fight back. Although the action resembled none of the ones seen in the Bourne trilogy (of which the 2nd and the 3rd installment was also directed by Paul Greengrass), the action was not any less dramatic. If anything, when the passengers of United 93 fought back, it was more dramatic than the mentioned action movies, as I couldn't help but cheer for the heroes who stood up for courageously in the hopes of preventing a catastrophe.

Because of its great portrayal of a historic event, I believe that this movie deserved a MUST SEE rating. Greengrass's "shaky cam" worked very well for the film, as it gave the movie a more realistic, documentary-like feel, and didn't make me feel dizzy at all. Good work, Mr. Greengrass!

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Under the Hawthorn Tree

Whereas "United 93" was an extremely intense movie about a tragedy, "Under the Hawthorn Tree" <<山楂树之恋>> was an extremely simple movie about the love of a young man and a woman that took place under the Cultural Revolution. Based on a book of the same title, the movie is directed by none of than Zhang Yimou, who are known (in my books) for overly complicated storylines that make no sense with a lot of CGI to make things look really pretty but once again, making no sense.

Okay, that was slightly biased, to say the least. But after seeing House of the Flying Daggers <<十面埋伏>>, I could not dissociated that atrocious movie from its director. You can argue with me all you want, but I will always consider "House of the Flying Daggers" to be on my list of "worst movies ever seen" list.

Now that I've finished bad-mouthing Zhang Yimou, I should point out that Zhang Yimou did directed some extremely good movies too (my favorite was To Live <<活着>>). He was also the one who directed the opening and finishing ceremony of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

This movie was one of the good one that Zhang Yimou made. Being famous of his poetic cinematography, Zhang Yimou definitely shows his mastery in that art. The young lovers have their first spark at a village that's known for its hawthorn tree that is part of the title. The film then uses a lot of flash forwards, linking them together with words like "3 years passed, and the two did not see each other."

The film, in my opinion, is a remake of Romeo and Juliet set during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Although their love was strong, it had to be hindered because dating under the age of 25 was looked down upon, and she was too naive to know what was good for her (she once got mad at him, believing he made her pregnant just from sharing a bed together WITHOUT intercourse).

Unfortunately, there isn't much more I can write on how good the film is. The beauty of the movie lies in its simplicity, and my limited writing ability just can't give it justice. So I'll just leave you with this -- I am neither a fan of Zhang Yimou nor the romance genre, but this movie left me almost teary eyed at the end. In fact, the only reason I'm not giving it a MUST SEE rating is that I feel the movie is a bit too cliche, and although Zhang Yimou clearly shows his mastery in cinematography through this film, it lacks creativity.

"Under the Hawthorn Tree" is a solid movie to be RECOMMENDED. If you watched it and weren't moved by it, either you're not Asian (it is hard to understand for non-Asians due to cultural differences, I'm not being a racist), too white washed, or lack a soul.

*EDIT* I am not saying there is anything wrong with being non-Asian or white washed. There are a lot of great western movies that Asians will never understand simply because of the difference in culture. I wish this edit would clear up any misunderstanding -- again, there is NOTHING WRONG with being non-Asian or white-washed.