The Rooftop versus the ground

One of the most surprising movies of the Fantasia Film Festival was “The Rooftop” by Jay Chou. You don’t really know what to expect from a Mandarin musical (especially if it’s your first time seeing one), but in my case, I was blown away. Maybe it’s because of how crazy I get when someone mentions “The West Side Story” or “Moulin Rouge”, and this piece was indeed reminiscent of these two.

The movie is set in a fantasy world named Galillee City. This imaginary city is divided into two communities, one on the Rooftop and the other on the ground. As one might expect one has more power than the other, and we do find ourselves in a story of class divide. The Rooftop inhabitants are poor but happy people, that look at life from a very positive perspective. While the ground population has the power, but suffers the vicissitudes of rampant corruption as the rich mainly inhabit it. The Rooftop has a view of a billboard featuring a rising star named Starling, who is also the dream girl of our main protagonist Wax, played by the director himself Jay Chou. By chance Wax gets to meet his dream girl and befriend her, but their love precipitates a battle over power and money, which gradually turns into an all-out feud between the Rooftop and the ground.

By now it should have become obvious that the plot resembles The West Side Story’s. While the mise-en-scene and cinematography, as well as the camera movements provide you with beautiful imagery similar to the one on display in Moulin Rouge.

This beautiful musical has something to offer for any type of viewer. Action, music, drama and romance meet in an exhilarating clash of color and lights. A strong recommendation, sober or less.

The Unforgettable 'Imaginaerum

The anticipation for this movie stirred a commotion in me usually only brought forth by the name of Tim Burton. It helped that the movie features music from the seventh album of the same name by the Finnish symphonic metal group Nightwish. Their songs, which were mostly instrumental, guided the movie as vignettes. As though each new song was a new act, from the intro piece “Find your own Story” to the closing song “From G to E minor” the music, much to the benefit of Nightwish fans, played a significant role. Although this concept in itself was already attractive, the story should never be overlooked.

The movie tells the story of 75 year old Thomas Whiteman, a former songwriter and musician suffering from dementia. As he falls into a coma, his distanced daughter Gem has to decide whether or not to pull the plug. It is during Whiteman’s coma that we are taken on a ride into his subconscious, where we meet a 10-year-old orphan who ends up befriending a mysterious snowman named Mr. White. Throughout his journey, the boy comes to meet different people and objects, eventually growing into Mr. Whiteman as he relentlessly advances towards the rediscovery of his derelict subconscious.

There is always something we cannot let go of in life, something that haunts us and takes a part of us. This movie shows us through imaginary symbols how complex that something can be. Gradually this illusory journey reveals to us Mr. Whiteman’s life and consciousness, while in the real world, Gem, with the help of her father’s former band mate Ann, tries to makes sense of the type of man her father was.

Parallelisms, symbolism, metaphors, psychoanalysis and artistry guide the plot of the movie, which makes it more complex and worthwhile, as the story immediately requires your full attention.

“Imaginaerum” captures the essence of life and its hardships, especially when it comes to relationships with our family members, friends or loved ones. We all have key moments that haunt us for the rest of our lives and that have engraved themselves in our subconscious. Some of us manage to overcome them while others may never know they’re there. “Traumdeutung” (dream interpretation) in the Freudian sense finds itself within the medium of film in a piece of art. For Freud, dreams, in the simple manner of speaking, incorporate intimate messages from a deeper psychological state and allow the undertaking of a journey to self-awareness through the decoding of your own dream. It would not be far from the truth to say that this is exactly the kind of journey we witness in “Imaginaerum.”

It is regrettable that this movie has not received more exposure. I will not be surprised if it becomes one of the hidden jewels of cinema. It is a journey that encourages everyone to explore inwardly and meet the shores of their own consciousness.