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Pavilion of Women
Universal // R // January 15, 2002
List Price: $29.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
Set in 1930s China, Pavilion of Women takes the viewer into the House of Wu, a wealthy and honorable house where Madame Wu (Yan Luo) has for twenty-four years served her husband with the utmost propriety and diligence while raising her sons and caring for her obstreperous mother-in-law. Now, on her fortieth birthday, Madame Wu is taking an unprecedented step for which she has her own reasons: she is arranging a second wife for her husband. At the same time, she makes the acquaintance of a Western priest, Brother Andre (Willem Dafoe) who has an unexpected and not entirely welcome effect on the Wu household.
Though I'm generally quite enthusiastic about historically-based films, I admit to finding Pavilion of Women a disappointment. With its storyline of "Western teacher in traditional Eastern country" and its attention to details of setting and costume, Pavilion of Women appears to be trying to imitate the most recent film version of Anna and the King, but it lacks that movie's coherent focus... not to mention its entertainment value.
Pavilion of Women gets off to a bad start with the opening scene, which throws viewers into a complex tangle of relationships and events before we even know, much less care, who any of the main characters are or why their actions are significant. From then on, the film tries to keep too many irons in the fire, with the relationships of Madame Wu, her husband, her son, Brother Andre, and the young second wife along with a handful of secondary characters all competing for on-screen time. The result is that all the characters remain enigmatic, rather uninteresting figures whose relationships seem dictated by the needs of the script rather than any genuine life. While lack of character development is excusable (or even expected) in an action film, it's unforgivable in a drama about relationships. Pavilion of Women depends on the viewer forming an emotional attachment with the characters, but the film itself never makes that really possible. In the end, the climactic scenes of the film fall entirely flat, devoid of emotional content.
The film's origin in a novel of the same title, by Pearl S. Buck, may account for some of its structural problems. In a full novel, there's room to explore various different characters and their relationships and to paint a detailed picture of a way of life at a certain place and time; a film, however, needs a central focus, which is precisely what's lacking in the film adaptation.
One slightly interesting, if minor, note in the film is the forthright presentation of communism. Rather than being presented as the typical democratic bugaboo, communism is shown as the defender against the invading imperialistic Japanese: in real life, the "good guys" are the ones who are standing up for you, and the "bad guys" are the ones who are going against you, no matter what the details are of their ideology. But this idea is a minor note that's never developed properly in a film that never settles on what it's about in the first place.
Probably the strongest element in Pavilion of Women is its cinematography. The shots were artistically arranged and interesting to look at; the cinematographer makes use of natural imagery, light and shadow, and a varied and lively color palette to create a film that's undeniably pretty to look at. It's just a shame that the rest of the film doesn't come up to the same standard.
Video
Pavilion of Women's transfer manages to score three stars for video on the strength of its good points, but it's not without its problems. On the bright side, the anamorphically-enhanced 1.85:1 widescreen image has generally good contrast. The vivid, lively colors of the film, from reds, yellows and blues of clothing to green grass, also come across well in the transfer.
Viewers looking for a clean, clear image will be disappointed, however. The image is edge-enhanced and has a high level of noise. Some scenes are more or less fine, though not entirely clean, but other scenes look absolutely terrible, with the high level of noise making the picture look extremely grainy. The high noise level is particularly noticeable in the scenes with lower light levels, and it's obvious enough to be distracting.
Audio
Surprisingly, Pavilion of Women features a DTS 5.1 track as well as a Dolby 5.1 soundtrack. The DTS sound is a solid effort for a film that doesn't put much demand on a soundtrack. I noticed that surround effects are used effectively at various points throughout the movie, though not quite enough to create a total sense of audio immersion. The dialogue is always clear, accurately reproduced, and easily understandable.
The musical score seemed rather obviously manipulative to me; since I didn't connect emotionally with any of the characters, it was rather noticeable when the music would swell to indicate "this is an important emotional moment!" On the positive side, though, the music track is balanced well with the voice track, and never overpowers it.
Extras
The Pavilion of Women DVD includes your basic garden-variety special features: production notes, a trailer for Pavilion of Women and a few other titles, cast and crew information, and some DVD-ROM material.
Final thoughts
I wanted to like Pavilion of Women, but I didn't. That about sums up my reaction to the film: it's not obviously badly done, it's visually appealing to look at, and I didn't hate it, but in retrospect there were better things to do with two hours of my free time than watch this uninvolving film.
Though I'm generally quite enthusiastic about historically-based films, I admit to finding Pavilion of Women a disappointment. With its storyline of "Western teacher in traditional Eastern country" and its attention to details of setting and costume, Pavilion of Women appears to be trying to imitate the most recent film version of Anna and the King, but it lacks that movie's coherent focus... not to mention its entertainment value.
Pavilion of Women gets off to a bad start with the opening scene, which throws viewers into a complex tangle of relationships and events before we even know, much less care, who any of the main characters are or why their actions are significant. From then on, the film tries to keep too many irons in the fire, with the relationships of Madame Wu, her husband, her son, Brother Andre, and the young second wife along with a handful of secondary characters all competing for on-screen time. The result is that all the characters remain enigmatic, rather uninteresting figures whose relationships seem dictated by the needs of the script rather than any genuine life. While lack of character development is excusable (or even expected) in an action film, it's unforgivable in a drama about relationships. Pavilion of Women depends on the viewer forming an emotional attachment with the characters, but the film itself never makes that really possible. In the end, the climactic scenes of the film fall entirely flat, devoid of emotional content.
The film's origin in a novel of the same title, by Pearl S. Buck, may account for some of its structural problems. In a full novel, there's room to explore various different characters and their relationships and to paint a detailed picture of a way of life at a certain place and time; a film, however, needs a central focus, which is precisely what's lacking in the film adaptation.
One slightly interesting, if minor, note in the film is the forthright presentation of communism. Rather than being presented as the typical democratic bugaboo, communism is shown as the defender against the invading imperialistic Japanese: in real life, the "good guys" are the ones who are standing up for you, and the "bad guys" are the ones who are going against you, no matter what the details are of their ideology. But this idea is a minor note that's never developed properly in a film that never settles on what it's about in the first place.
Probably the strongest element in Pavilion of Women is its cinematography. The shots were artistically arranged and interesting to look at; the cinematographer makes use of natural imagery, light and shadow, and a varied and lively color palette to create a film that's undeniably pretty to look at. It's just a shame that the rest of the film doesn't come up to the same standard.
Video
Pavilion of Women's transfer manages to score three stars for video on the strength of its good points, but it's not without its problems. On the bright side, the anamorphically-enhanced 1.85:1 widescreen image has generally good contrast. The vivid, lively colors of the film, from reds, yellows and blues of clothing to green grass, also come across well in the transfer.
Viewers looking for a clean, clear image will be disappointed, however. The image is edge-enhanced and has a high level of noise. Some scenes are more or less fine, though not entirely clean, but other scenes look absolutely terrible, with the high level of noise making the picture look extremely grainy. The high noise level is particularly noticeable in the scenes with lower light levels, and it's obvious enough to be distracting.
Audio
Surprisingly, Pavilion of Women features a DTS 5.1 track as well as a Dolby 5.1 soundtrack. The DTS sound is a solid effort for a film that doesn't put much demand on a soundtrack. I noticed that surround effects are used effectively at various points throughout the movie, though not quite enough to create a total sense of audio immersion. The dialogue is always clear, accurately reproduced, and easily understandable.
The musical score seemed rather obviously manipulative to me; since I didn't connect emotionally with any of the characters, it was rather noticeable when the music would swell to indicate "this is an important emotional moment!" On the positive side, though, the music track is balanced well with the voice track, and never overpowers it.
Extras
The Pavilion of Women DVD includes your basic garden-variety special features: production notes, a trailer for Pavilion of Women and a few other titles, cast and crew information, and some DVD-ROM material.
Final thoughts
I wanted to like Pavilion of Women, but I didn't. That about sums up my reaction to the film: it's not obviously badly done, it's visually appealing to look at, and I didn't hate it, but in retrospect there were better things to do with two hours of my free time than watch this uninvolving film.
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