The film is an extremely deadpan comedy about people resistant to change beyond all rational reasoning.
Manoel de Oliveira has mostly sidestepped the perils of the productive by falling into a satisfying pattern of major and minor works.
Film usually reveals itself to audiences with splices and scratches, while Eastwood has shown how DV printing and projection can look pristine.
Film is a phantom, but a living one.
Chongqing Blues is an unwieldy barge of clichés, heavy-handed symbols, and clumsy, inconsistent formal choices.