The Banquet

Last night, after a day of pure indulgence (I had a massage, drank a decaf latte, got my hair cut, went to the mall and bought shoes and a novel, and then went to the cinema - ah, what you can afford to do when your currency is strong in the country you are visiting...), I went to see The Banquet.

I must admit that one of the main reasons that I chose to see the movie is because it stars Zhang Ziyi and I like her; she is just so watchable. However, there was more to this movie than just a good actor.

Essentially it was a Chinese version of Hamlet - set in the 10th century and skewed somewhat so that a female instead of a man was the central character. Zhang Ziyi plays Little Wan who at the time of the film is the Empress. She had a love affair with the Crown Prince, Wu Luan, but his father chose to marry her and so she is now his step-mother. However, the Emperor is murdered by his brother, Li, who then usurps the thrown and so Wan marries him to protect herself and Prince Wu Luan. In a sense she plays the role of the Queen, Hamlet's mother, in the film. However, she is also Prince Wu Luan's (former) lover, and she is plotting to kill Emperor Li, so she is kind of Ophelia and Hamlet too.

I must say that Hamlet is much easier to relate to when there is a female lead, particularly one as compelling as Zhang Ziyi. The main weakness, in my opinion, is that because the Empress manages to embody the most interesting characteristics of the Queen, Hamlet and Ophelia, she leaves the real Hamlet and Ophelia (Prince Wu Luan and his betrothed, Qing Nu) without much character. To me, they were both fairly weak and ultimately boring characters who were really difficult to care about.

However, despite the weaknesses of these two characters, there is a real complexity to the script and the remaining characters. Empress Wan (Ziyi Zhang) is not wholly good or evil - she is ambitious, arrogant, strong, vulnerable, calculating, emotional and devoted all at once. To me that makes her more human than Ophelia and more sympathetic than Queen Gertrude. Emperor Li is also quite complex; being both the usurper who murdered his brother (and who is trying to murder his nephew) and a man who is utterly besotted with Wan - and thus clearly very vulnerable at the same time.

The Polonius character (Qing Nu's father, the Grand Marshall) is also interesting and, mercifully, nowhere near as annoying as Polonius. Rather than being utterly devoted to the Emperor, he has his own interests at heart - and, particularly, those of his children. And, finally, the Laertes character (Qing Nu's brother, the Marshall's son) manages to bring the same level of devotion to his sister, without the pathetic undertones that I always saw in Laertes. (There is no Horatio equivalent, underscoring the loneliness of all of the main characters).

Added to this complex script is stunning cinematography, spectacular martial arts (House of Hidden Daggers style), Kabuki-style dance, beautiful costumes, and a gorgeous sound track - so all up is was a pretty great film.