Two famous comedians from pre-Revolution days perform a series of sketches in a theatre for a group of Party cadres. The stage performances blend over into absurdist, self-contained fantasy episodes where the two comics allegorically parody Party propaganda and ideological orthodoxy.
Wiewnacheng de xiju, 没有完成的喜剧, Mei you wan cheng de xi ju, Meiyou wancheng de xiju, The Unfinished Comedy, Незаконченная комедия, 沒有完成的喜劇
China China 
Pendant quelques mois de 1957, il était permis de critiquer le parti communiste chinois, ça a même le joli nom de la Campagne des Cent Fleurs. C'est dans ce contexte que ce film-ci est produit... mais la campagne prend fin avant que le film ne puisse sortir.
Un duo de comédiens d'avant la révolution (Yin Xiucen et Han Langen, qui ont des airs de Laurel et Hardy, j'ai vu une dizaine de films avec eux mais je pense que c'est le premier où ils ont les premiers rôles) se réuni à nouveau après s'être perdus de vue. Ils ont du nouveau matériel, mais voilà qu'en cette nouvelle ère, il faut désormais soumettre ses gags à des cadres du parti pour…
The worst thing the Chinese Communist party have done is when they stopped Lu Ban from making any more films.
On YT unlisted (it's out of copyright): www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItGd2MX5wQk&ab_channel=JohnCrespi
also thank you julian ward for the suggestion 🫡
the second half is definitely funnier and better paced than the first
What a difference direction can make, even in the smallest details! This film is slightly amazing, despite some evident flaws--last segment is a bit maudlin, and the structure doesn't cohere (nor does it seem to want to). But the comic duo at the center of this movie have genius instincts, and director Lu Ban is clearly invested; even the credits sequence shows a flair for composition. It might be too much to call Lu Ban a master of the craft--pacing sometimes feels off, and he's not quite there with the simple scenes, nor is his organization of space especially noteworthy. But something about the comedic tone he infuses into the film is really unique. The funniest part in the movie,…
Being one of the rare films from the Hundred Flowers Campaign, a short period in which open criticism was encouraged by the Communist Party, it satirises the lavish lifestyle of high-ranked officials, the propensity for boasting about regional achievement under the Great Leap Forward, and the unaltered selfishness among the people who has only superficially adopted the teaching of socialism. It is certainly a satire China needed during a period where every problem in the regime was swept under the rug by a forced optimism. However, as a comedy, it simply fails to be funny. It is not especially revealing about the deep problems within the Communist regime neither. In other words, it is not something particularly interesting to watch nowadays, even if you're enthusiastic about the history.
This was made during a small period of relative artistic freedom called the Hundred Flowers Movement, it stars a comedy duo who had become famous in the 1930's apparently being reunited for the first time in years, the movie then has them performing short plays/movies each followed by the comments of an audience, including a critic being the official voice of the party. Suffice to say that he doesn't like what he sees, and the movie becomes an attack on the idea of official art and praise of the power of satire.
The director never worked again.
