Chris Doyle: Away with Words (1999)

San tiao ren (Away with Words), cinematographed and directed by Chris Doyle: a universe of psychedelic reality, in images of stunning beauty. It's like the director and his camera got drunk and filmed in trance; or maybe both director and camera were perfectly sober, just witnessing a mad planet and falling in love. Either way, it's pure cinematic poetry.



Asano: a Japanese who became a prisoner of his own memory. A gigantic memory containing words, thousands of words, in impossible associations with objects and smells and colors. Impossible to forget any word: they became his prison. He cannot accomplish anything: there is always a word obsessing him, impeding him to do anything else. One day he embarks on a ship for Hong Kong, hoping to find there solace. Once arrived, he stops at Diva Bar, where the owner is Kevin.



Kevin: an Australian (or maybe a New Zealander, you can never be sure), who keeps drinking good strong beer and cannot remember any word ever, even the address of the bar he owns (which is a gay bar, by the way). He cannot accomplish anything: there is always the lack of the necessary word, impeding him to do anything. Each night ends for him in jail (as the policemen find him drunk, wandering on the streets and incapable of telling them where he lives; and even if he'd know, he's not fluent in Cantonese). Susie comes in the morning to take him from confinement (Susie is the good angel in this absurd freaking world).



Then, what happens when Asano meets Kevin? Anybody can guess by now: you feel liberated by the stress of words, as well as by the stress of lacking the right words at the right time. It means, you can get away with words. Hence the title of this movie.

There is the world of words, and there is the world of objects, and colors, and smells: our reality. Can we consider words as reality? To paraphrase Magritte, can we smoke with the word pipe?

You can enjoy this movie, or you can get revolted to the point to say it sucks. It depends on your mood. I enjoyed it: I like to think that there are not only Euclidean worlds and Aristotelian guys.

The Trailer
(video by kakihara0)

(Wong Kar-Way & Chris Doyle)