nan | 楠木

    Some films bring tears to your eyes with deep emotion and true sadness; some films make you laugh out heartedly with quick wit and genius humour; some other films just give you the shocking truth, and let the truth speak for itself– "City of God" is such a film.

    I prefer films in English over other languages (except Chinese, of course), not because I find it tiring watching subtitles but because I feel that often the subtitles do not portray the true picture, the real feelings in the words of the actors and actresses. But this dislike didn’t hinder my full enjoyment of this film.

    But enjoyment is not the word to use– there is no pleasure in watching this two-hour-long tour de violence. There are too many things to shock you– the sheer state of the poverty; the cold violence that’s just around the corner; the illiterate children growing into a new batch of gangsters…

    In vain did I try to plot a reason for all this. There can be no simple explanation why City of God is what it is, a dismal place that goes against its name, filled with gangsters who are just all too trigger-happy. The police is no better than the mob. Justice is twisted, or to be honest, there is no justice except that of God’s, which He seldom delivers to make things count.

    But for the readers of this "blah blah blah" who haven’t seen the film, here’s a brief outlook– this film portrays the everyday life in the City of God (a chaotic place struck with poverty), and through the eyes of a kid who grows up to be a professional photographer, we see the story of a gang war, and the mob life in general. This is not the first film of its kind– I can relate to "Goodfellas", and in ways more than one– but it is solid and more than delivers a haunting reality. The film doesn’t show the happenings in the City of God– it makes you feel you are in there.

    And after watching, I’m left still trying to figure out why people can just resort to such violence. The world is far from perfect.