Audience Member
"Outcasts (Nie Zi)" is outrageously bad - ineptitude on parade. Its sincerity makes it all the more embarrassing. Here is a film that announces the badness we're in store for very early on: as the film opens, we're treated to a hilariously incompetent sequence - a security guard walks in on the main character and an unseen man having sex inside what I assume is one of the school's science classrooms. The beam of his flashlight zeros in on the main character's face, and we're treated to a freeze-frame of his shocked expression, and a super-zoom. Ridiculous.
There are also two scenes of massive overacting on the part of the main character's father, both of which include him beating his wife and his son. Oh, and there's the stabbing scsne, where blood sprays from the wound like it did from The Bride's victims in "Kill Bill". That doesn't belong in a film like this!
There are countless other miscalculations along the way, sprinkled evenly throughout, just to remind us that our experience has no hope of improving (at least as far as treating the film as a serious drama is concerned). Why not list a few:
1. We're treated to lines like "Loneliness needs the anesthesia of love!" and, repeatedly used as an insult, "You're a mother's fart!" (Maybe it was "Your mother's fart!" Either way, it was funny when it was meant to be serious.)
2. Instead of sex scenes (which, quite frankly, I was hoping for to at least give me something of interest), we're treated to pseudo-romantic platitudes and an insufferable number of scenes in which characters stare into each other's eyes for an endless amount of time, when really they should be kissing or hugging or - for Pete's sake! - doing something! Oh, and there's of course the film's one "real" sex scene, which amounts to the main character laying on a bed, then flipping over (all very slowly, mind you), then another character getting on top of him, then an endless shot of what I think was the other character's shoulder blade as they talk about nothing and, I assume, have sex.
3. There's an inexplicable and repeated shot of a bird flying. It's the same shot, played about six different times throughout the film, and always accompanied by the same saccharine music. At one point, we see the shot of the bird (big deal), the main character is in the middle of some positively trite monologue, a bird's cry emanated from the soundtrack, and the main character interrupts himself to yell "You bird!" Ridiculous.
4. There are two scenes of massive overacting on the part of the main character's father (but many more on the part of every other character), both of which include him beating his wife and his son. Why do we need these scenes? To inspire our sympathy? To exploit the reality of abuse? Despicable.
5. Oh, and there's a stabbing scene, where blood sprays from the wound like it did from The Bride's victims in "Kill Bill". That doesn't belong in a film like this!
So, yes, this movie is terrible. It's laughable without being funny. It's so poorly acted that I found myself giggling when characters would cry. Why? The actors were hilariously bad. The film has nothing to say, is shoddily put together and has not even the slightest hint of a brain. Or a heart, for that matter. It's like listening to a dim-witted child recite poetry written by a talentless romantic.
Rated 0.5/5 Stars •
Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars
02/26/23
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