Behemoth

Quote from the AV-club, cause it summarizes my feelings about this movie so well: "The problem with Behemoth is paradoxical: as a documentarian, Zhao is a poet, but as a poet, he's an amateur. He draws scattered pieces of narration about ghosts and ascension and staged symbolic sequences involving mirrors and nude figures into the movie, which come across as unnecessary and pretentious. More importantly, they break the spell of the real poetry that comes from filming and showing."

Workingman's Death did such a segment better, in a quarter of the time, and without banal poetic excursions.

like lonewolf2003 says, agree with the AV Club review on this one. still, powerful and very depressing

Intellectualism and mines don't get along.

hemsk

Of note, because Behemoth offers a rare compassionate environmental insight out of China. Eerie are the ghost towns towards the end, which deflates the concept of paradise intentionally being elicited by Liang throughout. This is also a slow film, which, if you compare it against a similar film in Koyaanisqatsi (yes, the scope in Koyaan is much wider), you can appreciate the effect of a kaleidoscopic soundtrack, one Behemoth lacks and in turn suffers from. Still, points for the throat singing.

There is an undeniable ironic resonance in juxtaposing China's ironworks (Inferno) & ghost cities (an absurd Paradiso), which ostensibly justify the environmental & human degradation.

Absolutely stunning to look at and something I'm extremely thankful to have caught on the big screen, but I desperately want a fan edit that reworks the soundtrack to a continuous loop of Misty Mountain Top by Led Zeppelin.

Salt Galata.