Yang Fudong for Prada: First Spring
http://shanghaiist.com/2010/02/10/yang_fudong_for_prada_first_spring.php

A quick take by Mia Rimpakone

First draft around Spring 2010

This was really my rift of an answer to a query from a colleague who's a film maker. He wanted to know what I thought about Yang Fudong's work here for Prada.

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From a pure creative and artistic perspective, i quite like it. it's beautiful and moody.

The first thing that got my attention, personally, being an Asian-American, is the juxtaposition of East-West, Past-Present. This immediately establishes the dream world in which we're about to enter. It also addresses the Prada-Shanghai connection. Nicely handled Ithought. And i like the drama and riches it tries to achieve with the huge medley of characters, story arcs, metaphors and motifs: the couples, the concubines, the court eunuchs, the horses, the trains, the 2 white men and their mysterious suitcases, the Hong Kong style high-wire act with bodies suspended in the air by invisible cables, and finally, the dining room scene and the object of intrigue.

I knew from the start that I wasn't going to find out what's what, but that was okay because the film felt so much like the many dreams I've had, and jotted down, thinking one day they'll inform a story i'll write or a short i'll make--things from you life, past and present, converging in non-liner cuts. And also because I had just been served a feast of beauty in sight and sound, and allowed a moment in time to voyeur into someone else' dream and being. For all this, it is artistically and humanistically affirming.