Jasmine Women (2004)
Jasmine Women(2004) 7/10
–> 2004 Golden Rooster: Best Actress (Zhang Ziyi)
–> 2004 Shanghai International Film Festival: Special Jury Prize
Despite winning critical acclaim as well as several film awards and nominations, Jasmine Women was not released until fairly recently. Which is puzzling, given that it stars Zhang Ziyi, Lu Yi and Joan Chen, stars with drawing power. Granted, this is an art house film through and through, but still the delay is perplexing.
Anyways, in Jasmine Women, Zhang Ziyi plays 3 different characters (Mo, Li and Hua) spanning 3 different eras, from 1930s Shanghai all the way till the 1980s, and Joan Chen plays her mother in these periods. Needless to say, Zhang is onscreen virtually all the time, at least 90% of the film, if not more. In the hands of a lesser actress, the audience will be bored to death, but luckily, Zhang has the charisma and capabilility to helm the film. Of course, it helps that she is one of my favourite actresses, so i suppose there is a certain bias here.
Nevertheless, despite the excellent performance by Zhang, the script and directing are a tad diappointing. The direction is at times hamfisted and the emotions seem too artificial. There is one scene towards the end featuring a pregnant Hua trying to get a cab to get to the hospital in the rain. The scene was so annoyingly corny that i was cringing inside. This is excacerbated by the script, which is simply unremarkable. If you’ve seen one melodrama, you’ve seen them all and any consummate film junkie can predict the plot even before it happens. And you will probably be somewhat right.
Still, the generally stellar cast rises above the mediocre direction and plot to give a largely satisfying performance. Joan Chen is luminous as the mother to Zhang’s character, and at times threatens to steal Ziyi’s thunder, while Lu Yi and Liu Ye impress with their performances. Cinematography is excellent, giving a nice feel of the times and atmosphere, as well as providing a historical backdrop to the film, and some of the costumes (Mo’s dazzling green cheongsam, for example) and mise en scenes are remarkable.
Overall, Jasmine Women is a solid film featuring excellent performances but let down by mediocre direction and plot.
