The Green Hat Movie Review:


“The Green Hat”, is without really knowing what it means, already a very curious title.

In China, “Green Hat” is actually an expression used to describe a man betrayed by his wife, as in, “She left him for another man and now he’s left wearing a Green Hat”

The bold opening line, “This is a movie…”, as a piece to camera leads on to a hilarious scene on the beach…almost an early assurance that no matter how heavy the subject matter gets (and it does), it is never going to descend into pomp.
Xiao and Wang are off to rob a bank. With his share of the spoils, Wang plans to go to America to set up home with his girlfriend. Having stayed faithful to her for two years, he’s naturally looking forward to his new start.

But when he calls her on the way to the airport, something has happened that leads to an abrupt halt to his plans, and a harrowing stand-off with the police.
From this point on, the film changes tone considerably, taking up a new story of a stressed out policeman with a cold unsympathetic wife who crosses paths with Wang.

The first part has by far the most energy and danger, no discredit at all to the second section which is paralleled in many ways - but there is a definite shift in tone. Looking back to thirty minutes previously you can scarcely believe it is the same movie.
“Green Hat” is, despite all the extraneous (but watchable) plotting, a brave attempt to tackle the plight of men who suffer from sexual dysfunction, and it longs with every fibre for people to understand the conditions on more than just a surface level, as well as the anguish and frustration they can cause.
In modern society, more and more people are suffering from stress related illness - often compounded by high pressure jobs, and anxiety certainly seems to have a bearing on the protagonist’s condition (although there are of course many other causes).
The physical and mental effects for sufferers, regardless of how they occur, receive a great deal of focus.

This longs with every fibre for people to understand the resulting feelings of male inadequacy, the difficulty some men have in discussing the subject and the pain of losing that intimacy as a very heartbreaking cycle, which it does very well by really getting into the heads of the leads. It creates a detailed (but sprawling) tale around these two men, one who longs to know what love is and one who just wants to hear the words.

For a first time director to take on such a delicate issue and present it in a truly honest way quite a feat - it even won awards at the Tribeca Festival.
“The Green Hat” is a mite too long, and it takes a little while to recover from the sudden change in storyline and characters - but once you do, you may realise that hey, it’s actually pretty good after all.

Terresa Gaffney

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