The Bird People in China

1998 "The children of the sky."
7.4| 1h58m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 20 May 1999 Released
Producted By: Sedic
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Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Wada, a salary man, is enlisted to venture off to China to investigate a potential Jade mine. After his arrival, Wada encounters a violent, yet sentimental, yakuza, who takes the liberty of joining his adventure through China. Led on their long and disastrous journey to the mine by Shen, the three men come across something even more magical and enticing.

Genre

Adventure, Drama

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Director

Takashi Miike

Production Companies

Sedic

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The Bird People in China Audience Reviews

Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
Lawbolisted Powerful
Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film
Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.
Andrei Pavlov Not boring to me and not empty, but disappointing. Why?1) Flashing images of Yakuza "dream sequence" - it spoils the atmosphere and is simply tense and harmful for the eyes of the viewer. Come on, Miike, it's not "Koroshiya 1". 2) Violence that takes place from time to time - it's out of place. In "Rainy Dog" it's fine, but not here. 3) Unfunny funny stuff. A van falling apart is something too hackneyed (cf. Takeshi Kitano comedies, American cinema & cartoons) to be funny, while it's often mentioned as the "peak" of this comedy. 4) Too little of actual flying. If it's supposed that the kids can fly in that distant area, show some footage, at least from distance (if you have a very limited budget). Not just a few seconds of that before the final credits. 5) The connection with the real world (the poem-ballad taken from the history and the war plane that had crashed into the pond) is destroying the eerie feel of the production - would prefer the verse created specifically for this movie and the connection to the wild nature (why not actual birds?), not to the downed plane of the WWI or WWII times.It's got to be tweaked to become an excellent movie: more nature, less quirky violence, more funny and natural jokes, and more actual flying. To my view, Japanese "Dreams" & "Dolls" and Russian "Stalker" surpass this one in every aspect, while dealing with similar topics.A 5 out of 10 - a good but mediocre try. Thanks for attention.
bluefish321 I've just finished watching The Bird People in China and have skimmed the other reviews on IMDb. Like most of the others, I do enjoy Miike's work, though not to the level of unconditional love that seems to be common here. In my limited experience, around nine Miike films so far, none have been a waste of time and several are fairly amazing. Notably Audition, though definitely not for the faint of heart.This film left me with mixed emotions. It truly has touching moments, but it also suffers from common issues with Miike films... disjointed structure, unmotivated action (particularly from the Yakuza character), a bit of excessive violence, a kitchen sink approach to ideas... every possibility explored, even when simple would have been more effective, and finally a liberal borrowing from other films. In fact I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned in other reviews. Miike clearly took much of the premise and emotional content from the movie Local Hero. A corporate drone begrudgingly travels to a remote village and, to his amazement, is touched by the locals and the lifestyle. There's more to the similarities but I don't want to give away too much. Though I will note that he pays homage to his source material by throwing in a Scottish song as a major motif. I also didn't buy into the ending... it seemed to detract from the more realistic aspects of the film.All of this aside, the film is worth seeing. The scenery is amazing and fairly unique, the photography handsome (considering the budget), Masahiro Motoki as Wada is quite good (as he was in Okuribito/Departures), many of the secondary characters are wonderfully drawn (another Miike specialty), it's genuine and funny at times, and it takes you on an unusual journey, an actual adventure... rarely a dull moment.
parien I got hold of this film simply because I spent some time travelling in Yunnan last year. Seeing it today was magical, so evocative of the people, this lush country, the amazing sense of isolation and belonging. Made me want to throw down this job and go straight back again. This is an enjoyable, thoughtful, well made film; the star really has to be the setting though, that feeling of all the time in the world, being with the aged mountains to watch the days go by. You can really understand what drives Ujiie near the end of the film. The sense of impending loss, as even now China marches its wilderness towards modernity, balanced with the benefits its people hope for. The phenomenon of the global tourist has to now decide how it accepts the replacement of the way of life for the self-determining people they go to visit.
anhedonia "The Bird People in China" is one of those films you hear very little about, but that piques your curiosity after reading the synopsis. And then you watch it and realize what a gem it is.Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike is renowned for his ultra-violent films. This is a delightful departure for him and proves what a tremendously versatile director he is. Yes, there are some snippets of violence, including a rather brutal machete attack. But that's all offset by the film's wonderfully whimsical nature.The film revolves around a Japanese businessman sent to a remote Chinese village to inspect the jade mines for his company. Along for the ride is a yakuza man to ensure the businessman's company's debt is paid off.The film not only chronicles their colorful journey - those turtles must be seen to be believed - but then taps into the characters' psyches as they reach the village and suddenly find themselves trapped there. These two disparate men both find themselves enchanted by this magical place.I won't give away much more of the story because you really should watch this film. Miike injects magical realism into his story and some moments are beautiful in every sense of the word. There's also plenty of humor. The van scene is positively hilarious, especially given the driver's deadpan reaction.The film's very much about our need to dream. But it also tackles important issues such as the encroachment of civilization and the importance of keeping some places pristine and innocent, no matter how valuable they might be to the rest of the world.If you like interesting foreign-language films that open a whole new world, then do yourself a favor, see this film. You will not be disappointed.