>>PREVIEW
EVE AND THE FIRE HORSE
STARRING Phoebe Jo Jo Kut, Hollie Lo and Vivian Wu.
DIRECTED BY Julia Kwan
Opens Friday, May 5
Uptown Screen
Hands up now – how many of you art-flick-loving, Can-indie-supporting moviegoers are excited to see a family-oriented movie that explores questions about faith? Ah, I see – none of you.
Obviously, that is not the most enticing description for Eve and the Fire Horse, a tale about two Chinese-Canadian sisters grappling with big questions about Jesus and Buddha in suburban Vancouver in the ’70s. And thankfully, Julia Kwan’s first feature is funny and engaging despite the subject matter’s potential for deadly earnestness.
As the B.C. filmmaker says in a recent interview, Kwan understands why some folks might have feared the worst.
"People have told me, ‘It’s nothing like the way you pitched it. It’s so much… better.’ I think the story was really hard to pitch because a lot of it is about the tone and mood and you don’t really get the full sense. People are put off automatically if you use the words ‘Catholicism’ or ‘Buddhism.’"
Sweet without being cloying, the film takes a mildly magic-realist approach to present the girls’ quest for reassuring answers as their family undergoes a crisis. Kwan is particularly good at conveying the ways that children regard religion. It’s easy to see why these two very different sisters – nine-year-old Eve (Phoebe Jo Jo Kut) and 11-year-old sibling Karena (Hollie Lo) – are open to the idea of a higher power.
"You’re so idealistic at that age," says Kwan. "I’ve talked to so many adult women who said, ‘When I was a child, I wanted to be a saint.’ I’m not sure where that comes from. Karena is drawn to Christianity because of this romantic idea of absolute goodness. But kids also have a high BS meter. If you say to a child that God works in mysterious ways, it doesn’t wash, especially with Eve. When she thinks about how the horses drowned after the parting of the Red Sea, that injustice seems very big."
Though the movie sides more with the dreamy yet conflicted Eve than with her more conservative-minded sister, Eve and the Fire Horse is refreshingly nonjudgmental. Audiences on the festival circuit – including Sundance, where the film won a special jury prize – proved to be equally open-minded.
"I was curious to the reaction because religion is such a touchy subject – people’s backs go up," says Kwan. "So far I’ve gotten pretty positive responses. A Christian woman came up to me and said, ‘I’m Christian, but I get it – some of the stuff they teach you as a child is crazy.’ Nobody’s picketing the film, but we were joking about us going outside and picketing our own film to generate some publicity."
As if the religious questions weren’t enough of a challenge, Kwan also found herself trying to portray the world from the children’s point of view. Taking her cue from Lynne Ramsay’s Ratcatcher, she tried to be as understated and unsentimental as possible.
"It’s difficult because you’re already in a sentimental area because you’re dealing with childhood. For instance, I didn’t want the music to be too much. I really tried to pull back. I feel like I did one too many pushes on the young girls’ faces because it’s so easy to use that emotionality – it’s such a cheap way. But for the most part, I stopped myself."
Even so, the movie’s skilful re-creation of the era of shag-carpeted rec rooms may have an unexpected poignance for viewers of a certain vintage.
"People who grew up in the ‘70s get really excited about the Pop Shoppe bottle," says Kwan, laughing. "They’re practically weeping when they tell me about it – that bottle is such a trigger for people’s nostalgia." |
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