alr

Crazy English
(Fengkuang yingyu)

Screening on Film
Directed by Zhang Yuan.
China, 1999, 35mm, color, 90 min.
Mandarin with English subtitles.

Li Yang, China’s most famous motivational speaker, is the force behind Crazy English. His rallies, a blend of hilarious agit-prop theatre and linguistic aerobics, lead their massive audiences on a joyride through American English. Chiding his listeners for their love of Coca-Cola and Toshiba, Li prods them to train their "international muscle" by shouting such slogans as "I enjoy losing face!" or "I have been wanting to buy a car!" His message is crazily familiar as he equates freedom with getting rich and unmasks the insatiable consumerism at the core of market-driven democracy. This time, Zhang takes a crisply direct approach to his subject, slyly allowing Li’s fondness for repetition and paraphrase to speak for itself.

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