The Driver is carrying an Asian child who has been chosen for a strange ritual. He must drive him through a dark night in the city to get to a monk's house, while eluding several American cars out to get the child.
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This wonderful little short film finds Ang Lee at his best! Full of quiet Ang Lee-esquire moments(when the little Dalai-lama guy in the backseat feels hot, he opens the power window, then rolls it back up; the driver looks at him, understands the little guy's urge for cold air(much like that of his native Tibet), cranks down the temp to 65 on the BMW's climate control system.) Of course, the prominent humorous self-conscious Hulk reference didn't go unnoticed by the viewers, including the ones here on IMDb. This is just one instance of director's amazingly light touch.Also, the music is absolutely wonderful, which wouldn't be that much out of place in Lee's period piece Sense and Sensibility. The music had me smiling throughout this short film, thinking of the connection to the Sense and Sensibility.I'm amazed by how Ang Lee transformed the film(whose only aim was to advertise the great German cars) into the first-rate cinema by applying fully his sensibilities and preoccupations.
While John Frankenheimer's AMBUSH was a hardboiled vignette, Ang Lee's THE CHOSEN is an attempt at doing a lighthearted mixture of action and comedy. Unfortunately Ang Lee's comedy falls flat. While he might showcase the BMW's maneuverability to good effect; The actual chase between Clive Owen's enigmatic driver escorting a small Tibetan boy and the mysterious henchmen seeking to harm his charge, is staged in a light jokey tone that eliminated all tension and replaces it with uninspired slapstick. Indeed, as the film progresses to its punchline of a conclusion, one suspects that Ang Lee was seeing how to make a film that kids would like along with adults in preparation for his then-upcoming HULK movie (as hinted at near the end). While the final result might be something BMW owners can show to their children, adults will find themselves bored and frustrated.
Under the direction of Ang Lee himself 'Chosen' is a very nice short film. The Driver has to take a boy from the harbor. He has some trouble on his way. It is not really a chase, more like a car-dance, nicely choreographed. Together with a fine and funny ending another nice one.
Second in the BMW series, this film is very different from the first BMW short by John Frankenheimer. Not as tightly structured as that film, but it has moments of poetry--particularly a balletic chase sequence. Final "Hulk" scene wraps the film up tidily.