Gong Li stars in this moving drama about a mother bringing up her deaf child alone…
Gong Li (Raise the Red Lantern, The Emperor and the Assassin, To Live, The Story of Qiu Ju) stars as Sun Liying, a single mother trying to bring her deaf child up the best she can. She teaches her son Zheng Da (Gao Xin) on her own, despite not having been greatly educated herself. So determined is she that he will go to a normal school with normal children, and not a ’special’ school. But when Da fails to get in she gives up her job at the factory to find another position that will allow her more time with her son. Then Da breaks one of his hearing aids in a fight, and Sun must find a way to get the 5000 yuan to pay for a new one. With her divorced husband, Zheng Peidong (Guan Yue), hardly able to keep up child maintence payments she must turn to others for help. Like her old friend Da He (Yue Xiuqing), who runs a not strictly ligitimate books stall, and Fang Zipin (Shi Jing-ming), a friendly teacher at the school where Sun would like her son to go. But life has more in store for her…
The beautiful Gong Li, as usual, gives a spellbinding performance. Utterly convincing as a poor, purpose driven mother, she has rarely looked either less glamorous or more dowdy. There are solid actors in the supporting roles, like Xiuqing Yue as her longtime friend, who allows her to show a more playful side, and Gao Xin as her son, himself a child from a deaf school. But the film itself is centred on Gong Li’s character Sun and her child, with the other parts important but periphery. That it succeeds is mainly because of her. (She won Best Actress award for her portrayal at the Montréal World Film Festival.)
Cinematically too, director Sun Zhou has no real interest in the city of Beijing around him. His occasional circling of monuments is almost more of a critical statement. A look at Communist structures made to celebrate the power of the people, but look at them now. Sun Zhou’s vision of modern China may not be one the government themselves would like. Harsh and unforgiving, the lack of a social system only makes the mothers problem of bringing up a deaf child alone even harder. This is not the ‘New China’ they would like us to believe is happening, but looks, feels and smells the real China that affects the majority who can’t afford the freedom that promises.
Utimately positive and uplifting, this film doesn’t rely on the fairytale devices you’d find in American movies that would magic away problems, nor does it treat its audience like fools. It’s theme of a parent trying to give her child the best start possible, much better than she received herself, is universal. It breaks all boundaries of language, countries and race. This is a moving and powerful drama.
DVD details
Distributor:Widesight (Hong Kong)
Okay transfer with a slight widescreen of about 1:66. Embedded subtitles.
