The subplots involving the Communists guerilla fighter were cut up beyond recognition-which I wouldn’t have a problem with except for its abrupt and inorganic resolution. The subplot involving Yoshikawa Tatsuji was excised, and instead of dealing with impending aphasia in the twilight of her life, Yun Ling instead was fighting against a scandal (her relationship with Aritomo) that proved to impede her rise to the Federal Court. There were many judicious changes made to bring the book to screen. When Yun Ling asked Aritomo if he must always speak in that didactic, mysterious sensei kind of way, I felt the film winking at me because that was how I was feeling at the time.

The film cleverly used its medium to great effect in a few other scenes, like how Yun Ling’s scarred back was revealed as she moved from differently lit parts of the room, and when Aritomo had Yun Ling sit down as he explained shakkei (borrowed scenery) to her, I could feel the same revelation that Yun Ling felt just with a single camera manoeuvre. I feel the misery and anger deep in my bone still, in a way that the book never made me feel. This burned an indelible image in my mind, and even this morning, I was bothered by flashbacks to that scene. The camera dollied out and we see that Yun Hong’s little bamboo alcove is just one of dozens, in a prison housing comfort women. Then, a Japanese soldier entered the little space where Yun Hong was and began to rape her, while Yun Ling hid with her hands over her mouth. There is a flashback scene that occurred early in the movie when Yun Ling was talking to her sister, Yun Hong, about Japanese gardens through a window. There are many things that honestly excited me about the film’s craft. I will preface this by saying that while I liked the Mr Tan Twan Eng’s book, I did not love it, and had really wanted the film to surpass its ink-and-paper source material-and it did, at least in the first half. On 16th January 2020, I attended the sneak preview for the film adaptation of The Garden of Evening Mists, and I have Thoughts.

The garden of evening mists review