By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Ye Lou
Starring: Hao Qin | Ming Liang | Xi Qi | Xiaorui Mao | Xuan Huang
Year: 2025
Running time: 107
Michael says: “The year is 2019 and in Shanghai, a director reunites the cast and crew from a film they were making ten years ago but were unable to complete due to loss of funding. As the shooting nears its end, we learn that the film is being shot in a hotel in Wuhan, as some of the team leave, others are trying to decide if they should do a few final shots to wrap the film, or head home for the New Year while murmurings start to emerge about people getting sick. the films star, director and some of the crew find their exit from the hotel prevented as a city-wide quarantine hits Wuhan and we are plunged back into the years of COVID-19.
“Part documentary/reenactment, part narrative, AN UNFINISHED FILMS is an intense and disorienting look at those first days in Wuhan when the world was about to change. The film focuses on Zheng, the film’s star, separated from his wife and newborn daughter with only the unknown facing him and the rest of the crew trapped in the hotel. Innovatively shot with cell phones acting as lifelines between the family he is separated from, and the rest of the crew isolated in their hotel rooms nearby by essentially miles away as they cannot interact.’
“About halfway through the film I found mind thrust back into those two surreal years when the world stopped and the future was uncertain. It was a disorienting feeling that was difficult to shake as the film we were watching concluded. While a little uneven, I found the film to be a remarkable chronicle of what happened in Wuhan — a city we all learned about as the epicenter of a worldwide pandemic. Incredibly powerful and personal at the same time. 4 cats
“Screened at the Independent Film Festival Boston, Brattle Theatre.”
Laks says: “We begin in July 2019 when Director Ye Lou and his production crew revive an ancient (albeit in pretty good condition) Mac that contained all the rushes from a previously unfinished film from about ten years ago in a semi docudrama production. The audience are left guessing if this is actual documentary footage or enactments. Ye Lou seems for reasons unknown to the audience and later even his cast, wants to finish the film ten years later and somehow manages to convince his baffled cast to return to the project and a joyous reunion takes places in a larger than life hotel takeover in preparation for shooting sometime in December 2019 or January 2020 just weeks before Chinese New Year. They are almost done with shooting with almost in a flash of lightning they start learning about bad sickness that is happening to people, before the day is even over, the hotel is sealed shut by officers in PPE and just days later the hazmat team arrives. From here onwards were experience the world from just one of the cast members room as he communicates with the world through his window or on his phone. We are given glimpses of consequential video clips to go viral international including the death of the whistle-blower. The film while keeping the narrative hyper local to handful of production crew trapped in the hotel for months never knowing if they will ever return to their families, they also experience the national emergencies through their phones.
“I’ve been looking forward to films depicting what may have been the worst or most surreal days, weeks, months and years for most people simultaneously around the globe. I liked the novel approach the film took to show us the tragedy unfolding for a film crew on location. The film captures the crew getting drunk on Zoom calls, occasionally “bending” the law just to get a glimpse of their own neighbours and then swiftly moving on towards crushing individual tragedies through phone screens and out of the window shots. The film does a good job of reminding us just how we experienced human interactions and tragedies in this way however effective I left the film feeling somewhat underwhelmed. For example, In a few viral videos of the anti lock down protests that erupted in 2022-2023 but it moved swiftly onwards with other videos recording other momentous situations but little else was explained. As we seem to be at a time where subversive authors, journalists and artists are only just able to publish their reflections on the many aspects of the era, it is good to get a film enacting a truly unique perspective, a perspective a lot of film lovers care about as we worried about our favourite cinemas, theatres, music venues, artists who lost their livelihoods for years and years – 3 Cats“