Film picks: Above The Dust, Black Dog and Deadpool & Wolverine

Above The Dust (M18)

123 minutes

Chinese film-maker Wang Xiaoshuai tells the stories of ordinary families, set against the backdrop of a developing China.

In his heartbreaking drama So Long, My Son (2019) – winner of two Silver Bear acting awards at the Berlin International Film Festival – two families become estranged after the death of a child, an event that echoes through their lives even as they deal with the one-child policy and urban development.

Above The Dust (2024) is Wang’s new film, presented by Asian Film Archive and part of its latest Releases edition that screens the most promising of contemporary Asian cinema. It takes the viewer to the Chinese hinterland, to a village many have left in search of a better life.

Ten-year-old Wo Tu (Ouyang Wenxin) dreams of owning a water pistol like the ones other boys have. His grandfather (Li Jun) promises to fulfil the boy’s desires as a ghost. With the ghost’s help, Wo Tu learns the ways in which the past – which includes some of modern China’s most traumatic events – has shaped the present.

Where: Oldham Theatre, National Archives of Singapore, 1 Canning Rise
MRT: City Hall, Bras Basah
When: Aug 10, 5pm; Aug 31, 5pm; Sept 6, 8pm
Admission: $10 (general), $9 (concession)
Info:

bit.ly/AbovetheDust

Black Dog (PG13)

110 minutes, now showing at The Projector, 4 stars

Directed and co-written by Chinese film-maker Guan Hu, Black Dog won the Un Certain Regard prize at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

Former convict Lang (Eddie Peng), a stunt motorcyclist, returns to his home town, a dusty spot on the edge of the Gobi Desert, now depopulated because of the closure of its mines.

With the 2008 Beijing Olympics around the corner, the government launches a campaign to clear the streets of the dogs abandoned by former residents. Lang joins his town’s dog-catching team, but finds kinship with one particularly spirited canine.

Everything looks absurd from Lang’s point of view, which is the view that the film sympathises with. Some view him as a man without purpose, when he tries to make it clear that he is fine without one. However, the police, his enemies, family and even a passing circus try to ensnare him in their plans.

These plans, whether they come from the government or from local gangsters keen on extracting their pound of flesh, feel like trivialities against the desert. Guan frames nature as timeless, all-encompassing and beautiful.

There will be a virtual Q&A session in Mandarin with Guan, Peng and actress Tong Liya at the July 26, 7.30pm screening at Golden Mile. 

Deadpool & Wolverine (M18)

127 minutes, now showing, 4 stars

For a film with a plot that falls apart at the slightest touch, with fight scenes this gory and with this many gags relying on objects hitting people in the crotch, it is shocking that Deadpool & Wolverine can be this good and genuinely funny.

Wade Wilson, also known as the mouthy mercenary Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), has given up his violent ways, following the events of Deadpool 2 (2018). Fitting in as the average American salaryman, however, is proving difficult.

It gets harder when officers from the Time Variance Authority (TVA), the organisation which polices timelines in the multiverse, appear. After he learns from the TVA that his timeline might evaporate, Deadpool vows to stop the destruction – a feat that involves scouring the multiverse for the right Wolverine (Hugh Jackman).

Directed by Canadian film-maker Shawn Levy, the third Deadpool film is 2024’s only Marvel superhero movie, so there is a lot of anticipation around this release.

Fortunately, the magic is back. The stabbings are bloody, snark is abundant, the humour remains properly juvenile and a couple of the darts thrown at the superhero genre are tipped with real acid.