Kung Fu Cult Cinema

Story: "Frozen" revolves around the life of performance artist Qi Lei, who has become suicidal in even his own art work. His crowning achievement is to involve a series of burial performances, each taking place in a different season. Starting with Earth burial, then Water burial and Fire burial, and ultimately culminating in Ice burial in the Summer. Each individual performance was planned to push his body to its furthest limits, the final ending in his death. It is said to be based on a true story, but only according to the director.

Review: When the sixth generation of filmmakers arose in China, Their motto was instantly coined simply as, "Not like the 5th generation". A conscious effort was employed to veer as far away as possible from the works of their seniors, more specifically directors in the class of Zhang Yimou etc. It was this outright rebellious nature that gave many of their films notoriety, and was also a catalyst for the governments disapproval.

Banned most definitely for the fact that it was an independent feature, and not necessarily due to its content, "Frozen" allows an interesting glimpse at the world of various artists living in Beijing. The director of "Frozen" hides behind the pseudonym Wu Ming, or "No Name". The story is told in retrospect, thus allowing the viewer more of a second hand insight into main character Qi Lei's disturbing mental outlook. It's hard to care too much for such a man initially, as he practices a cold point of view that eschews any form of compassion for anyone around him. It paints a common view of the suicidal in that they are driven by selfish thought. Whether or not this is true in every case isn't the point, but it makes it hard to concentrate on observing Qi Lei's life when his distance from it is so overwhelming.

Through the course of the film it becomes easier to stand and get a feel for his emotion and motivation for his art, or lack thereof. Half of those close to him plead to him not to go through with his impending ice burial, as he says plain and clear that he plans for it to be his final performance. Closest to him is his girlfriend Shao Yun. While she mostly begs him not to kill himself, at times she seems fairly indifferent to the whole idea. It becomes apparent that those close to him eventually take his suicide talk with a grain of salt.

Eventually he goes through with the ice burial, which seems to be carried out in more of a documentary fashion than the rest of the movie, dragging a bit, and perhaps not packing the ultimate punch that it needed to. But aside from that the film comes off as haunting to say the least. The original music by Roeland Dol is at times very atmospheric and at others more at home in a Lifetime movie. But when it accompanies the carefully filmed scenes that explore Qi Lei in his solitary state of confliction with life, it most certainly becomes very effective. These are the moments in "Frozen" that completely make the movie. Jia Hongshen, who played Qi Lei, is at his best in these silent brooding moments that ooze bleakness.

Most important in the end is how this film paints suicide so vividly, or at least the psyche of one contemplating it. The entire idea Qi Lei presents of escaping from everything and lifting the everyday burden of life from his shoulders. With the combination of the narration and Qi Lei's own explanations, we are offered a convincing slice of the suicidal mind, or at least the way writer Pang Ming and writer/director Wu Ming envision it.

While at times the films hopeless nature and dark outlook on life can be a bit much to sit through, not necessarily emotionally but more in a "who really wants to kill himself here? Qi Lei or Wu Ming" sort of way, the end wraps everything up completely unexpectedly. Without going into too many details, the end arguably changes the entire viewpoint of the film. "Frozen" survives more on its story than it does Wu Ming's manipulation and execution of it, and is a rare and interesting, albeit not classic, piece from China.