by Joseph Davis, Contributing Writer
Happy New Year, everyone. I hope your end-of-year celebrations went well with good food and good family. For this first Out of Market entry for 2022, I decided to go back to China and watch the 2013 movie A Touch of Sin, starting Zhao Tao (the second time we’ve seen her in this series), Jiang Wu, Wang Baoqiang, and Luo Lanshan as our four main leads in this anthology movie. I’m usually hit or miss on anthologies, as sometimes it can make me feel as if the story is disjointed or the stories involved seem unnecessary, but I decided to take a dive into this one.
Trigger Warnings: this film depicts moments including bodily injury, physical harm to animals, sexual assault and suicide. No film is made for everyone, and if any of these are triggers, please be advised.
First off, I want to discuss the anthology aspect about this movie. Most anthologies have clear breaks between each portion of the movie, which either discusses a different aspect of the story or tells an entirely different story. This movie is more of the latter, but it’s how the filmmakers have worked on it in this movie. A lot of times the film cuts to black before introducing the next characters, but in this movie, the breaks between characters have a near seamless transition, where with one exception where the camera itself transitions from one story to another as if a change of focus occurs. For example, as we see the conclusion of the first story, the focus of the second story appears on camera, at which point it begins to follow them. And then from the second to the third as we see the second character leave, the impetus of the third story comes into direct view. Honestly, I need to find more anthology movies like this, because in my mind, it leads to a better flow of the story and helps guide the viewer along from one story to the next, because it feels less episodic and more like one continuous story.
I also really like the performances of not only our four leads, but the supporting cast around them. With these each based on real life events, the way the characters carry themselves and how things shake down as each story progresses feels less like acting and more like something actually occurring. In some cases, I feel like the events shown are a bit overdone, but the vast majority of what we see is a mix between enrapturing and downright shocking. It also gives us an idea of how certain violent events occur. From a man who just snaps to self defense, each story lays out exactly why each character makes the decisions they do and the sins they commit. Granted, while I wish they had dived a bit more into the causes of the characters final actions, especially in the last story, each story makes a direct point as to why these events occur. It paints a clear picture, and even if you don’t agree with what happens, you at least can see into the actions they take. It’s often brutal, but in this case it’s a very effective story.
Overall, while I have a few minor issues with this movie regarding how characters act and the fact the film lingers on certain aspects a bit too much, overall I enjoyed the picture put in front of me with this film. It’s not for the faint of heart; I do believe it deserves the score it has on Rotten Tomatoes and I believe that it’s a movie that would appeal to American audiences. In a weird way, I’m surprised that no American studio has attempted to remake this movie, and I honestly hope they don’t. From a cultural standpoint, there are parts of this film that work perfectly here that a remake wouldn’t be able to stand up to. Admittedly, I rented A Touch of Sin off Amazon Prime, but it’s well worth the price of a rental and the time it takes to watch.
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