Wasted Orient
(City Weekend)
Updated: 2006-06-23 09:49  If you've ever dreamed of playing in a punk rock band, this film may
well stomp on that dream, grind it into the ground and urinate all over it.
Billed as the "Official rock 'n roll film of Joyside," Wasted Orient takes an
in-depth look at the lives (or lack there of) of this locally well-known band's
musicians and wipes out any pretense of glamour one might associate with a rock
'n roll lifestyle. For the members of Joyside, playing rock in China is just one
long nightmare with no way out.
Pennsylvania filmmaker and Peking University grad Kevin Fritz has been, for a
long time now, hell-bent on ripping up the media's portrayal of Chinese
pseudo-punks as poster boys for "new China." When he met Joyside, he knew he had
found some genuine punks, ones that lived, smelled and rocked like punks, even
if the band prefers to label their music as rock. Fast, loud and straight up,
the tunes in the film are clearly influenced by the Ramones and Sex Pistols, but
with a Chinese spin. And like rampant capitalistic growth of the U.S. or U.K. in
the 70s, China's fast track of frenzied development has left many people,
including these band members, feeling disconnected, if not wasted.
The film dives into the nightmare headfirst, following the on and off-stage
antics and occasional drama of Bian Yuan, Fan Bo, Xin Sihuang, Liu Hao and Yang
Yang as they ingest one beer after another and sometimes expel the beer in
various ways. After becoming friends with the band, Fritz toured with them
across nine cities, braving their aversion to bathing, occasional random insults
and general unhealthy lifestyle. Having traveled with punk bands in the U.S.,
Fritz, who actually doesn't drink, describes the Joyside travel experience as
similar: "Both times we ended up pissing in Coca-Cola cans and tossing them out
the window."
Wasted Orient serves up viewers a hearty, greasy helping of Chinese
subculture's social reality, one that is best consumed with a few beers. While
on the whole the film feels too real not to be honest, these colorful characters
also know how to be playful in front of a camera, and the tunes they belt out
are nothing if not infectiously fun-rocking.
The China screening of the film will be held at Cherry Lane on July 7th and
8th. Kevin Fritz and Joyside members, who have not yet seen the film, will be
fielding audience questions after the screening and awarding a prize to the
audience member who can best guess the number of beers consumed in the film.
Ganbei!
Cherry Lane Movies
Kent Center, 29 Liangmaqiao Lu.
Chaoyang District
Tel: 6430-1398, 135-0125-1303
Website:
www.cherrylanemovies.com
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