Blu-ray debut for Hou Hsiao-Hsien's 30-year-old semi-classic, DAUGHTER OF THE NILE

TrustMovies came fairly late to the oeuvre of Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien. It wasn't until Café Lumière (2003) that I fully appreciated a Hou movie. Since then, I've come to like his work more and more, and now, the opportunity to see one of his earlier films -- DAUGHTER OF THE NILE, from 1987 --  seemed some-thing too good to pass up.

It is, though it is not, I think, quite up to the level of some of his later work. The movie's plot does clunk a bit (one shoot-out duly follows another and another), and Mr. Hou, shown at right, has certainly grown more subtle and graceful in his story-telling over the years. Here fact, fantasy, memory and odd objects -- from a red Walkman to a playful puppy all merge as we enter the life of a young woman and her very problemed family in the Taiwan of 30 years ago where local Chinese eateries are suddenly co-existing with a new KFC. What is most refreshing about the film is how little it seems to have dated (except for certain references to Madonna and/or the size of the early cell phones). In terms of both theme and human behavior, it remains timely.

Our heroine, Lin (above, played by Yang Lin), is constantly contending with that off-track family: a brother (two photos below) who seems only attracted to the criminal life, a lazy younger sister (below), an absentee dad (maybe he simply works too hard and too long), and a grandfather with a minor gambling problem (mom, it seems, has been dead for awhile now).

Little wonder our girl's mind often wanders into reveries about pharaohs and Egyptian princesses, hence the movie's title. Along the way, we visit Lin's classroom and watch a teacher trying so hard to communicate to his students some necessary lesson on morality and philosophy -- to little avail, of course.

Mr. Hou's gorgeous visuals are on full display here, and his gift for verbal description, followed by a single shot that encapsulates all that's been said comes to the fore, as well -- as when a young woman is said to have married for money to a man who is connected to the criminal Triads. When we see her face, from a discreet distance, everything we've heard is brought home in one quiet, breathtaking moment.

Like grand-pa/like grandson comes home to roost, as do a number of fart jokes (Mr. Hou was clearly ahead of his time in regard to the latter). Mostly, though, we get a good look at Taiwan, inside-out and from the ground up. Forget Babylon: this was already, 30 years ago, a sad, desolate, running-on-empty society.

Among the excellent Bonus Features on the new Blu-ray disc are a fine interview with Tony Rayns regarding Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Daughter of the Nile, and a commentary track by Richard Suchenski. The Blu-ray transfer here is often magnificent (there's a scene around a bonfire at the beach that's a veritable feast for the eyes).

From the Cohen Film Collection and running 93 minutes, the movie will hit the street this coming Tuesday, March 20, on Blu-ray, DVD and digital platforms -- for purchase and/or rental.

Romania unveiled (again) in Corneliu Porumboiu's funny and exotic THE TREASURE

Exotic? Well, yes. For those of us not reared in Eastern Europe, at least, the latest movie from one of Romania's crack filmmakers, Corneliu  Porumboiu (12:08 East of Bucharest; Police, Adjective; When Evening Fall on Bucharest), THE TREASURE, is quite the delightful piece of exotica in everything from its characterizations to its situations to the behavior of just about everyone on view. Oh, it's all quite "normal" on one level, and yet all is just different enough in various ways to raise eyebrows and curl lips.

Not for nothing do the characters here so often refer to the pre-Communism, Communism, and post-Communism eras. The film -- along with its characters and situations -- reflects all this, in spades.

Filmmaker Porumboiu, shown at right, tackles his tale from three perspectives -- workplace, family and history (personal and country) -- and he, as ever, makes fine use of them all. From the movie's opening in which a very young child berates his father for being late to pick him up from school, to the scene in which dad reads to his little boy from the Robin Hood story (which figures very nicely, subtly and ironically into the goings-on) through dad's job as civil servant, his relationship with his wife, and then with a slightly-too-needy neighbor, the movie teems with life and exotica in terms of how life, love and property all work in Romania today.

That father, Costi, is played by a wonderful actor named Toma Cuzin (above, and last seen on these shores as the hunky prisoner of Aferim!), here in a role that calls for him to play the put-upon peacemaker, which he manages to a "t."

Once Costi becomes involved with the neighbor (Adrian Purcarescu, above), who offers our hero what looks like a possible get-rich-quick scheme involving the title subject, the movie quickly takes off, building up a slow but steady head of steam and not a little suspense.

And yet, suspense and thrills are hardly what Porumboiu is going for. Instead he explores the often funny and ironic manner in which those close to Costi react to his new situation. From his wife to his boss to the local police near the property where this treasure is said to reside, the reactions are simultaneously witty and very telling in terms of the Romanian social contract, such as it is.

One of the film's best performances comes from the fellow (Corneliu Cozmei, above, center) who offers, cut-rate, his services as a "treasure hunter." Here, of all things, class and entitlement vs Communism and the work ethic come into amusing play.

The film's most bizarre scene is probably the one taking place in the local police department, regarding exactly to whom the police must turn to open up a certain locked box. The finale manages to be sweet, sad, and ironic as hell, while losing none of the credibility and satirical edge that Porumboiu has so cleverly built.

From Sundance Selects/IFC Films, and running a just-right 89 minutes, The Treasure hits DVD today, Tuesday, September 19, for purchase and/or rental. (It's also available now via Netflix's streaming service, for those who have it.)

DREAMS REWIRED: Luksch, Reinhart & Tode's poetic & amusing look at communication and technology down the decades

The talk seems all about "now," and yet the visuals of DREAMS REWIRED offer up the past in all its bizarre splendor. The movie in question is a new documentary that wittily combines mankind's need for communication and entertainment with poetry, technology, philosophy, history and marketing. Add to this a splendid narration from none other than Tilda Swinton, who reads the cleverly allusive script with her usual panache, and you have a recipe for very smart art-house entertainment.

As written and directed by the trio of Manu Luksch (shown at right), Martin Reinhart (below, left) and Thomas Tode (further below, right) -- with some help in the writing department from Mukul Patel -- the documentary is immediately charming and challenging, as it plies you with information -- along with funny, unusual visuals -- so fast that you dare not blink. A collaboration of Austria, Germany and the UK, the doc's visuals -- even though they have most to do with movies, television, telephones, wireless and the like -- come

not from the usual Hollywood-laden archives of most American documentaries. No, these arrive in large part via Europe and the UK and so offer us Americans a distinctly different look at a subject we thought we knew all too well. All of this is also quite different in ways too varied and bizarre to describe in detail (which would ruin their surprise, in any case), and they impart not only a smart visual sense to the film, but a lot of humor and even occasional grace, as well. They also make quite a good match for the sometimes odd but always on-target narration, as voiced by Ms Swinton, whose

lustrous yet highly intelligent voice lends itself well to the often telling, wide-ranging implications of this tale of communication, entertainment, marketing and societal behavior. Dreams Rewired, you see, is not content to simply offer up a little history and a lot of fun, along with reams of archival photos coupled to a smart narrative that manages to be both thoughtful and poetic. It also wants to challenge us rather fiercely to put all this together and run with it to a genuine conclusion.  Unfortunately, it does not always make this so easy to manage.

For whatever reason (perhaps because some or even much of the archival material was itself undated?) , the filmmaker have seen fit to leave out any dates entirely. Consequently, my spouse and I found ourselves too often wondering (aloud or to ourselves), "What year was this?" Also, the film seems to go back and forth in time, covering the same technology but in perhaps different eras. (Television seems to rear its head as a "new" attraction multiple times.)

And yet, so unusual and imaginative are the visuals (and the use of these) and the ideas that constantly bubble up throughout the 85-minute movie, that I suspect you'll be happy to give it a pass regarding its odd time-line.

If only for the chance to see that early "cell" phone whose wires evidently had to be wrapped around a fire hydrant (something metal, at least), or the chic woman's garters that concealed an early form of radio, or a scene from an early (probably Russian) sci-fi movie (above), the wealth of fun to be found here -- and then somehow dealt with -- is extraordinary. (Snippets of over 200 films are said to have been used throughout the documentary!)

Dreams Rewired, released by Icarus Films, opens for its world theatrical premiere in New York City at Film Forum on Wednesday, December 16, for a one-week run; in Houston at 14 Pews on December 17, and in Chicago (at Facets Cinémathèque), Los Angeles, (at Laemmle's NoHo 7) and Santa Fe (at The Screen) on Friday, December 18. Click here, then scroll down to the correct movie to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.