The Piano in a Factory

The Piano in a Factory is about a father who tries to secure a piano for her daughter during a custody fight. It's a very sweet story, with quite a few funny moments along the way. This movie reminded me of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Micmacs à Tire-larigot. It wasn't as stellar, but something about the band of hillbillies, their quirky sense of humour and the muted colours in the movie made me think back on that film.
I can't place my finger on why this film wasn't as good as Micmacs, but little touches like the use of Super Mario Brothers (the original!), and little musical interludes would seem like this film would have that special touch. It did, but I'm still not raving for some reason.
I did like watching the interaction of the main characters and their dedication to each other...I don't know. There just wasn't that extra something to get me hooked. I know that I wasn't feeling well that day, so maybe my grogginess didn't help the situation, but I'm not sure if that's a good enough excuse.
Unfortunately, the director, Zhang Meng wasn't in attendance so I couldn't get better insight into the film. He was supposed to come to the festival, however he had visa issues and I guess couldn't get one in time. His producer, Jessica Kam did attend, and she introduced the film and a very, seemingly prepared way. She gave the audience a nice context of the film and described how in the 90s, many factories in Northern China closed down or downsized, leaving many people out of work and finding it hard to make ends meet. These people end up looking for other opportunities to make money, although there are many empty factories still standing and their skills are going to waste...enter the central predicament of this movie.
I definitely did like it, and since I'm pretty sure that it won't be getting a wide release in North America (although, it will be getting released in Asia, and we were told that we actually watched the director's - longer - cut of the film), I'm glad I saw it at the festival. I'm disappointed in myself that I wasn't feeling 100%, so my interpretation of the film could be clouded by that fact, but such is life.

- picture courtesy of www.tiff.net