The Bird People in China (中国の鳥人)
The Bird People in China, or 中国の鳥人, is one of the few, highly-rated, Japanese DVDs available through Netflix. I watched it last week.
The movie has many layers. Initially I thought it was a comedy. What else could you have when you strand a member of the yakuza with a “salaryman” in the middle of nowhere? I was laughing a lot during the first half hour or so.
The layers change however. The laughter mostly disappears for the mid and later sections of the movie. The characters transform and are transformed by their environment. I was reminded of extended vacations I have experienced which can turn a person into a different person, if only for a while.
The thought of multiple lives within a single lifetime also rises to the surface. I can certainly relate to that layer. Life is too short to get stuck doing the same thing, living the same way, or in the same place for too long.
The scenery is breathtaking. I was reminded of other films like Out of Africa and The Painted Veil.
The Japanese is relatively easy to understand. One reason is the characters are frequently speaking to a Chinese man whose first language isn’t Japanese.
Be prepared to be impressed, on many levels.
