Entertainment briefs: Retirees have a chance to shine

Streaming

Retirees have a chance to shine 

Actor Helen Mirren, one of the stars of The Thursday Murder Club, a movie about a group of retirees who enjoy cracking unsolved murder cases, said it was great to see older people’s life experiences celebrated on screen.

Eighty-year-old Mirren plays former spy Elizabeth Best in the new Netflix mystery. She and her friends — played by Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie — find themselves with a real murder to solve. “We underestimate older people. I did it when I was 25,” Mirren said at the film’s premiere in London last week. “It’s absolutely right that young people feel as if the world is theirs and nobody’s ever done what they’re doing before, you know, but the reality is, of course, every generation has done everything that they’re doing.”

Directed by Chris Columbus, the film is based on Richard Osman’s 2020 best-selling novel by the same name. “I don’t plot at all,” Osman said of his writing process. “I literally have a rough idea of what might happen. I have a little twist somewhere, but I literally write a chapter at a time and see what happens,” he said. Reuters

Box office

Focus on Asian mythological characters 

For Oscar-winning actor Michelle Yeoh, it is time for Hollywood to focus more on Asian mythological characters such as the ones showcased in the Chinese film Ne Zha 2, which has become the highest-grossing animated film in history worldwide.

“They’re warriors and demigods,” said Yeoh, who voices the role of Ne Zha’s mom for the film’s English dub.

“I guess it’s like Zeus, you know, and Thor, but these are ours. And I think that’s very important because when you learn about another culture’s myths, you have a nice, deeper understanding, and it teaches you to embrace something that is different,” the Everything Everywhere All at Once actor added.

Ne Zha 2, distributed by A24, follows the events of the first film, 1999’s Ne Zha. In the new film, the souls of Nezha and Aobing work to regain their physical bodies and protect their families. The original film grossed more than $700m worldwide. The sequel, originally in Mandarin, made waves when it overtook Pixar’s Inside Out 2 in February to become the highest-grossing animated film globally in history, according to data from ticketing platform Maoyan. Ne Zha 2 has amassed a total box office of 12.3-billion yuan ($1.69bn) including presales and overseas earnings, making it the eighth highest grossing box office film globally in history. Reuters

Film

‘Splitsville’ explores open relationships

For Dakota Johnson, it was important to showcase both her acting and producing talents for the romantic comedy Splitsville.

“I’m more valuable, I think, on set and in post [production], because I know the beat, like the heartbeat of the film while we’re making it,” Johnson said. “I’m good at helping on set. And then in post, I’m good at remembering the energy of what it felt like while we were filming so I can implement that in the edit,” the Fifty Shades of Grey actor added.

Splitsville, distributed by Neon, focuses on two couples. Johnson plays a woman named Julie who is married to Paul, portrayed by the movie’s director, Michael Angelo Covino. Another couple, Ashley and Carey, is played by Adria Arjona and Kyle Marvin. The film follows Ashley, who tells her Carey she wants a divorce to be free to satisfy her sexual needs. Carey runs to his best friend, Paul, who reveals he and Julie are in an open relationship, and things get complicated between the four of them when Carey and Julie sleep together.

“I would say it’s not so much about adulting. I would say it’s more about, like, emotional development, like arrested development,” Johnson said, referring to the way each character acts. Reuters

Documentary

Spotlight falls on modern love in China 

Filmmaker Elizabeth Lo’s quest to document modern relationships in China led her to a little-known practice to tackle infidelity, discovering that people catching their spouses cheating can hire a professional to end the affair.

Lo’s documentary, Mistress Dispeller, gives a close-up glimpse into what is a relatively new industry in China. Shot over four months, the film follows the real-life case of Mr and Ms Li. They are considered a model couple by many in their neighbourhood but lately Mr Li has become close to a young woman from a nearby town, Fei Fei. Anguished, Ms Li reaches out to teacher Wang, an experienced mistress dispeller.

Lo and her team met dozens of mistress dispellers, but Wang was the only one able to persuade her clients to go on camera. Lo said seeing it unfold in front of her, her sympathies kept shifting from the wife to the husband and even the mistress, which took her by surprise. It took her team three years of following Wang, filming multiple cases, before they landed on the Li couple. The film shows Wang infiltrating the family under a false identity and after gaining Mr Li and Fei Fei’s trust, influencing them to break up.

To authentically capture the process, the husband and the mistress could not be let in on the film’s concept and were approached to participate in a documentary about modern love in China. A disclaimer at the start of the film declares that none of the scenes are scripted or re-enacted and the subjects agreed to participate in it.

“We really grappled with how we stay ethical as a production when we can’t be transparent at first,” said Lo. “We knew that we would show them a cut of the film and give them the opportunity to reconsent to being a part of it. We were very prepared that if they were to drop out, we could pivot to a different film.” Reuters