Vivian Qu is a Chinese filmmaker who has directed three features and also produced the noir drama Black Coal, Thin Ice which in 2014 won Berlin’s Golden Bear. Now she brings this crime melodrama to Berlin, an engaging if tonally uncertain high-wire adventure that satirizes China’s hopeless addiction to gangster capitalism. It is also acidly unsentimental about the bread-and-circuit escapism of the country’s booming film and TV industry with all its period-costume wuxia nostalgia. It’s an appealing film, though it contains some strangely broad comedy and is also, in a couple of violent moments, a bit naive about exactly how easy it is for a young woman physically to fight off a big strong guy.
Most notably, Qu gives us what is perhaps the best-set piece in the entire film, set on the set of a wire-fu action movie, which feels real in a way the rest of the film, while being watchable, really doesn’t. Fang Di (Wen Qi) is a stunt double and a fierce woman. She portrays a black-clad, sword-wielding ninja, who is participating in the bouncing over the terracotta rooftops and whizzing through the air in a long shot. In the closeup, the strutting star in the same outfit takes over while Fang Di lumbers over to the craft table to get some coffee. The work is grueling and dangerous, with Fang Di doing it to pay off her family’s debts to mob matriarch Madame Wang.
In a bid to earn some extra cash, she takes on a physically demanding night shift where she must be submerged underwater and “fly” while attached to a wire harness. With each shot, the merciless director demands Fang Di to be underwater at freezing levels which is psychologically damaging. Each time the camera starts rolling, he orders her to remain submerged during the freezing period for longer than safe limits and pony up delay commands the surface.
Fang Di reaches rock bottom in her life until her cousin Tian Tian (Liu Haocun), whom she hasn’t seen in a long time, shows up. She is in a world of trouble, on the run from a debt-unpaid mob, a drug-filled life-addicted caretaker, and her father a leech who enjoys wasting his life. Now, Fang Di and Tian Tian are on the run not just from the thugs, but also from a local cafe owner from their old town whom the mob has bullied into following their orders, flagging toughs with real fists ready for violence.
There are absurd, humorous moments that poke fun at the antics of the show business industry. Something like trying to move on from stunt work, Fang Di attempts to audition for a drama where she does an absurd scene and starts laughing mid-dialogue, much to the director’s displeasure. Also, there is a rather silly and impossible moment where gangster tough guys, by mistake, find themselves in a film studio revolving around a hospital drama and a war epic and end up being recruited. All of it is comical, but not in the best way. Everything is accompanied by flashbacks revealing the two girls’ past closeness, and the deep pain of their family’s brokenness which creates a somber feeling, alongside the final, bleak image of their childhood. It isn’t polished, but manages to still grab interest.
To watch more movies visit Fmovies
Also Watch for more movies like:
