In today’s time, all the big nations of the world invest a great part of their money in ammunition and war intelligence preparing for the unfortunate case of a war. The retired soldiers benefit from this fund having many things provided by the state, including psychological support to help them overcome the atrocities they saw. But at the end of the First World War things were a little bit different. After you came back (supposedly safe and sound) from the battlefield you would have been reunited with your family and, after that, life followed its natural course. Well, in a perfect world this would have been an ideal scenario, but this was not the case. Daniel Partcher, a former solider came back from the war trenches only to find out that his life couldn’t be the same as it was before the war. Ten years after his return from the war zone, the scars from the inside are bigger than the ones from the outside, with wounds that are still tormenting Daniel.
First thing we noticed in ‘Ming…Voice of Deception‘ was the score – original and highly adequate to the story. The whole plot is embraced by the soundtrack, which gives it the natural tint we want to see in a movie like this. Another exquisite feature of this film is the character construction. Daniel (played by Brian Lutes himself) struggles with the horrendous scars of the war, proving his good physical condition. Back home, the war never really ended for him and moved into his mind, a thing which ended up making him highly insecure. Not once he reacts hasty, the general opinion regarding his state starting to become questionable.
One thing that was a little bit exaggerated for the sake of the story was the balance between the two men competing for the heart of the same woman. As the director notices, one man is ‘broken and defeated, plagued with demons brought back from the war’, while the other ‘amasses great power and wealth’. This kind of antithesis is good for stating the point in a parabolic situation, but in a cinematic drama this case is a little bit too idealistic and not that truthful.
Whether you are a fan of war-related dramas or just a simple film enthusiast, ‘Ming…Voice of Deception’ is a movie you should not miss if you find it in cinemas. If you like big-budget productions, keen on special effects and stunt doubles, Brian Lutes’ film is exactly the opposite; you will be amazed to see how reality looks like through the eyes of a filmmaker that speaks more to your soul than to your basic instincts.
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