A Touch of Sin:
While I was previously not familiar with or comfortably able to talk about the current political climate of China, A Touch of Sin gave me a bit of perspective. A Touch of Sin grimly depicts the status of modern day China Through four vignette-like stories, based on real events. These stories are strung together by the idea that each character, while all violent natured in the end, live extremely mundane lives in between the violence. Of the four stories, I was most drawn to the story of Xiao Yu. I found a lot of the scenes difficult to watch, as Xiao Yu is so often the subject of overt abuse. The scene in which Xiao Yu is beaten repeatedly and finally retaliates against her abuser is both grim and uplifting. On the surface, there is a sense of empowerment, yet, the underlying nature of the scene is tragic and is not unlike the fate of many other exploited people in China; the feeling that one must resort to violence in order to stop their own suffering in society with such unfair morals.
We Are Best!:
This is my 3rd or 4th time seeing “Vi Are Bast!” and I swear it gets more heart warming every time. I was totally the Bobo and Klara type in middle school and movies like this inherently resonate with me. I always wanted to stand out and be the “tough” looking, musical, angry girl. My close friend and I had started a band in middle school that we maintained throughout high school but it never really went anywhere beyond a fun after school activity. It was about not taking the music too seriously, but not making a mockery of it either; it was playful and safe. I think that’s the balance that Bobo and Klara find with their band in “Vi Are Bast!” To see this sort of musical discovery happening in other cultures and countries just reenforces this idea as a universal phenomena. It shows how far music, specifically punk and punk identity politics, has stretched across the world. There are so many parallels between my experience as a self-discovered musician form Missouri and Bobo and Klara’s experience in Sweden. The scene I chose, for me, really showcases the beginning of Klara’s process of growth in terms of her punk identity. She seems to vaguely understand punk identity politics and beliefs but, at the same time, is too young to really understand. The dialog during this part of the film is hilarious, as is much of the atheist vs. Christian dialog between Klara and Hedvig. This movie does an amazing job of taking the most opposite pairing of friends and joining them in the most realistic, genuine way. Any movie about friendship through music tugs at my heart strings and automatically resonates with me.
