By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Xinyuan Zheng Lu
Starring: Dan Liu | Dong Kangning | Jin Jing | John Zhou | Ye Hongming | Zhou Chen
Original language title: Ta fang jian li de yun
Country: china, hong_kong
Year: 2022
Running time: 101
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9628568/reference
Michael says: “In a beautiful homage to the films of the French New Wave, first time feature director Zheng Lu, takes a melancholy look at a young woman returning home to divorced parents and wandering streets and the memories of her hometown. Muzi’s parents have recently moved out of her childhood home, and she spends part of her time revisiting the empty apartment, thinking about her childhood. She even brings her boyfriend there at one point to have sex. Her parents have both moved on, with her father starting a new family, and her mother enjoying a series of lovers. Neither, we find, are capable of the responsibility of parenting their young adult daughter. Muzi, while feeling untethered by this lack of parental care, is not portrayed as a victim of her loneliness, but rather self-sufficient and independent woman, spending her time having sex, singing karaoke at the local bar where she befriends the owner, having interviews, and wandering the city.
“Visually the film is quite beautiful. Shot in black & white, Zheng Lu makes interesting use of negative reversals, especially in some dramatic shots of the city. Another nod to the French New Wave is the rampant smoking that takes place throughout the film. Many scenes are just wreathed in smoke, creating a gauzy, disorienting feel to enhance the dislocation that Muzi is feeling. While the narrative is thin, it isn’t boring. Bitter humor throughout, and an amusing scene of a wedding photo shoot punctuate the melancholy and provide nice context to Muzi’s life.
“Jin Jing does a great job bringing Muzi’s inner psychological processing to life in her movements, facial expressions, and her ironic humor. The scenes where she is out drinking with her mother or bonding with her young stepsister are particularly notable. Liu Dan as her mother and Ye Hongming as her father do a great job showing lives shaped by regret and a difficulty in letting go of the past, while showing that despite their inability to show it, they love their daughter. Cinematography by Matthias Delvaux is impressive, with the city of Hangzhou acting as another character in the film, and the smoke-filled scenes adding so much texture to the story. 3 1/2 cats”
Screened at the New Directors/New Films Virtual Film Festival at Lincoln Center