vid on demand - the soong sisters

The movie buff in me is having a blast! It’s because I’ve seen 4 quite remarkable movies in just two days! Three from Qatar Airways’ in-flight video on demand and one in the comfort of a freezing SM Dolby cinema.

I’ve seen 1997 Chinese film (produced in HK) called The Soong Sisters, the French film Le Petit Nicolas (The Young Nicholas) and Juno where Ellen Page had a breakthrough performance. All 3 in a 9-hour flight from Doha to Manila kaya wala halos akong tulog sa flight. I didn’t mind. Dahil naenjoy ko ng husto ang mga pelikula na hindi normally nabibili sa mga pirated DVD shops (well, at least the first two).

First day ko naman sa Pinas, hinabol ko talaga ang Avatar dahil baka mawala na sa cinemas. Na mukhang hindi naman agad mangyayari dahil up until now ay pinipilahan pa rin. Ang ganda kasi. But I’ll tell you more about it later.

Let me tell you about The Soong Sisters first.

It’s like I took a crash course on Chinese history dahil sa film na ito. Dahil dito ko lang nalaman na behind the legendary names of Sun Yat-Sen and Chiang Kai-Shek pala are women who came from just one family - the Soong family.

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The story started in the early 1900s nong bata pa ang Soong Sisters Ai-Ling (Michelle Yeoh), Ching-Ling (Maggie Cheung) and May-Ling (Vivian Wu). Dahil mayaman ang pamilya nila, they were sent to study at the Wesleyan University in Georgia. Their father (Charlie Soong) is in the printing business pero supporter ng revolution against the Qing government. He is a very close friend of Sun-Yat Sen who is the leader of the revolution.

Bumalik ang magkakapatid sa China na mga dalaga na sila. The eldest, Ai-Ling married for money. She married H.H. Kung na isa sa pinakamayaman sa China noong mga panahon na yon. But the second, Ching-Ling fell in love with the already aged Sun Yat-Sen much to the consternation of her father hanggang i-disown pa nga sya.

The youngest, May-Ling married Chiang Kai-Shek who was then a young general of Sun Yat-Sen. Although Kai-Shek is against Communism na sya namang ideology ni Yat-Sen. When Yat-Sen died, Kai-Shek took over power. This is where the clashes between the two sisters occurred dahil Ching-Ling was still a firm believer of her late husband’s ideologies.

But the war against Japan brought them closer again. With May-Ling’s influence, Kai-Shek learned to accept compromise to fight the Japanese with the help of Ching-Ling’s Koumintang Nationalist party. Malaki rin ang naitulong ng wealth and power ni Ai-Ling. Kaya malaki ang contribution ng tatlong magkakapatid sa history of what is now known as the People’s Republic of China. Sabi nga sa start nong film, one love money (Ai-Ling), one love power (May-Ling) but one loved the country (Ching-Ling).

I don’t know how historically accurate the story is but for sure, Alex Law wrote one powerful story which was superbly directed by Mabel Cheung. The film is nothing short of an epic. Maganda ang execution ng mga eksena mula sa mga dramatic at confrontation scenes ng magkakapatid up to the war scenes. Pati cinematography and production design, talagang nagawa nilang ipakita ang early China sa screen.

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Sayang lang dahil hindi yata ito na-release sa US kaya siguro hindi napasama sa mga na-nominate sa Foreign Language films that year. But it sure won a lot of awards in HK. And it sure won me over. After the film, I forgot the fact na kaya ko lang syang piniling panoorin is because of Michelle Yeoh who has became one of my favorites after Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Michelle’s role was not that spectacular. Pero walang kaso. Coz the film itself was.

(Le Petit Nicolas’ review coming right up….)