Synopsis
The Driver is carrying an Asian child who has been chosen for a strange ritual. He must drive him through a dark night in the city to get to a monk's house, while eluding several American cars out to get the child.
The Driver is carrying an Asian child who has been chosen for a strange ritual. He must drive him through a dark night in the city to get to a monk's house, while eluding several American cars out to get the child.
하이어: 초우즌, Избранный, Обранець, 圣子
Ang Lee infuses his dumb little car commercial assignment with a fountain of positive energy, a child Dalai Lama type character for a client, some neat automotive dance, and a wonderful closing gag, which was either Lee consciously alluding to his next cinematic project or an act of prognostication on par with the one depicted in the film.
Even neater. Little did I know, this was the perfect thing to watch after Ang Lee’s Hulk, it feels like a teaser to it in a way, iykyk. Beautiful use of music.
despite ang lee being a top 5 (sometimes: top 1) filmmaker for me ill usually be the first to admit his whole thing doesnt rlly work in a short or too-long a form, his high saturation visuals, expressionism, even action is all kinda perfectly paced to 2 hours in most his films- his action especially often has immense character to it that develops and develops within each sequence- so a 10 min short film (car commercial too) is kinda a hamper on it but im kinda shocked at how much this is verifiably his shit ™️ the playfulness of the score and the depiction of cars as bodies and vessels simultaneously, the color grading, clive owens silent humanity (although more stilted than any Lee protag) idk i just rlly liked how it ended with an advertisement for his next film HULK
Amazing how a BMW commercial looks and feels more cinematic than most modern films. Also love the Easter egg for Hulk even though I haven’t seen it yet
Nah... Cat and mouse car chases isn't Ang Lee's forte; his input to the BMW series feels especially underwhelming as I saw it after Frankenheimer's short, which had better choreographed action. There's hardly any dialogue here, so Owen doesn't have the chance to shine. Think the lesson I'll take away from this one is to be wary of Buddhist Monks. Also, nice touch with the Hulk bandage, haha.
Chosen is Ang Lee's contribution to the BMW "The Hire" short film series. His short just felt uninspired and bland like he did not really know what he wanted to do for the project.
I do like his realistic yet balletic car chase among the dockyard. It was a car chase consisting of stopping, breaking, turning and reversing in small spaces therefore it wasn't all speed and jumps. The story is incredibly paper weight and thin to the point that it only serves the purpose of stringing the action together. I did like the music though.
Why does everyone hate this???? There's a dance sequence with cars!!!!!!!! This is my second favourite Ang Lee so far.
This was my least favorite of the series in that it was even more dramatically inert than the others, though the preposterous car ballet at the docks was kind of amusing. But it looses points for the incredibly tacky 'Hulk' tie-in; I'm already watching a commercial man, give it a rest.