An Xstream Pictures (China)/Les Petites Lumieres (France) production, with the support of Fonds Sud, CNC, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (France) and the Hubert Bals Fund. (International sales: Xstream Pictures, Beijing.) Produced by Jia Zhangke. Executive producers, Chow Keung, Wang Yu. Co-producer, Natacha Devillers.
Directed, written by Han Jie.
With: Bai Paijiang, Guo Qiang, Hou Jing, Zhang Xingxing, Lu Jie, Tian Zhaoting.
Casting an unflattering light on three morally suspect loafers in a harsh environment may reveal the flip side of China's freewheeling capitalistic direction, but verisimilitude doesn't translate into sustainable interest. Novice helmer-scripter Han Jie drew on his own experiences in the desolate mining areas of Shanxi Province, and while he's flawlessly captured the unrelenting ugliness of the location, his slice-of-life objectivity offers little but random brutality and a hopeless future. "Walking on the Wild Side" scooped up one of three Tiger Awards at Rotterdam, but finding auds willing to amble alongside its harsh vision won't prove so easy.
In a gray world of barren trees, cold brick houses and dirt roads, Xiping (Bai Paijiang) hangs out with screw-ups Liu Liu (Guo Qiang) and Erbao (Hou Jing). He's having an affair with a neighbor's wife, but the sex is rote -- more a way of breaking the monotony than a sign of genuine feeling.
Liu Liu thinks nothing of raping local girl Guangxie (Lu Jie), but when he's taunted by school kid Xiaosi (Tian Zhaoting), he rounds up his buddies and raids the classrooms, slamming the boy's head into the floor so hard they have to flee town in Liu Liu's dad's car. His middle-class aunt takes them in, but they don't stop long, neither paying attention to news reports of a coal mining accident back home nor heeding a nonexistent moral compass.
All teens think they're rebels with a cause, and while the unrelieved lives of tedium and hopelessness surrounding these kids would make anyone want to lash out, Xiping's late bid for audience sympathy falls on deaf ears.
Producer Jia Zhangke's own helming also delves into lives left untethered by the Chinese miracle, but his characters, unlike Han's, are eminently watchable people whose anxieties amass sympathy. Where Han excels is in capturing the deadening landscape of barren hills and exhaust-filled skies, physical manifestations of the numbed inhabitants. With both nature and nurture conspiring against them, any hopes of exiting the misery become smothered under the weight of their leaden environment. Transfer from DigiBeta is faultless.
Camera (color, DigiBeta-to-35mm), Xu Wei, Li Hong Jian; editor, Zhang Yifan; music, Sheng Zi; production designer, Liu Qiang; sound, Bei Bei, Chan Ting; associate producers, Yu Lik wai, Zhu Jiong. Reviewed at Rotterdam Film Festival (competing), Jan. 29, 2006. Running time: 91 MIN.
Contact the Variety newsroom at
news@variety.com
Date in print: Mon., Mar. 20, 2006