While Chinese screens are often dominated by over-hyped, over-blown, over-budgeted epic films, a new, more subtle, more realistic and ultimately more relevant genre is beginning to emerge. Best described as down-to-earth tragicomedies, this genre places colorful working-class protagonists in tragic situations. Jiang Wen’s In the Heat of the Sun, produced in 1994, was arguably the first, followed by Peacock (Gu Changwei), Still Lives (Jia Zhangke), Getting Home (Zhang Yang) and The Postmodern Life of my Aunt, directed by Ann Hui On-wah.

The latter, set in Shanghai and Anshan (Dongbei), depicts Shanghai as a morally bankrupt city largely populated by shysters. The victim is played by sexagenarian Ye Rutang (Siqin Gaowa), a naïve, kind-hearted Dongbei lass, well schooled in the arts of honesty and citizenship. She thus becomes a magnet for dubious sorts, such as amateur opera singer Xiao Pan (Chow Yun-fat), who cajoles her into lending him money for trachoma meds and non-existent cemetery plots. Then there’s Ye’s roommate, Jin Yonghua (Shi Ke), who throws herself, porcelain vase in hand, in front of oncoming traffic in an effort to bilk insurance companies. Even Ye’s nephew Kuan Kuan (Guan Wenshuo) cons her by faking his own kidnapping to pay for his love interest’s plastic surgery.

This fresh and rambunctious script is the work of prize-winning novelist cum scriptwriter Li Qiang (Peacock) whose meticulous observations of Shanghainese lifestyle add depth and authenticity to the characters, especially its protagonist, Ye Rutang. In one scene, Ye, old-fashioned to a fault, knits herself a full-body swimsuit, but when she plunges into the pool the suit releases a slick of red dye.

“Our ambition was to shoot a movie which was highly entertaining as well as experimental and heartfelt,” says Hui. And that it is.

(c) that's Shanghai Magazine
Chief editor: Steven Crane
May 2007 issue