Ling yi ban

A friend of mine in China recommended films by the director Liang Ying. Since living in China for the past five years and having an interest in independent cinema, I checked his stuff out. The first film of his I viewed was The Other Half.

The most impressive part of the entire film is the story and its characters. With my experience in China, I can honestly say that Liang Ying has captured the personality of many of the average Chinese citizens. Through many of the character's mannerisms, I felt as though I could be listening to someone who could be living in my neighborhood here. Even with its somewhat comedic elements, the film felt realistic and gave a view of the population of China that is not reaping the cash rewards of its recent economic boom.

However, while the story itself was interesting, there were many problems with production. For example, the sound quality was sometimes annoying. Often times, the background sounds made it difficult to hear the dialog. For example, Xaofeng had a dinner date with a local Boss, the sounds of the surrounding tables often drowned out the dialog. In the film's defense, anyone, who has ever eaten at a typical Chinese restaurant within China, would tell you that often people get extremely loud there and it is difficult to hear your own conversations. Still, this problem did take away from the overall film.

Overall, the film is worthy to be viewed. However, if you are someone expecting the Western definition of "independent" films with HD video and a high dollar (or RMB in this case) amount spent in production or you are expecting hyper cuts in film as is common in music videos, you will probably be disappointed. However, if you are interested in characters and getting a glimpse into possibly a new culture, or you are interested in seeing what a guy with camera can do with no budget and while having his family and friends star in his movie, you just might like this film. It will inspire aspiring filmmakers just seeing what one can do with desire.

This film is a simple and direct portrayal of the lives of urban Chinese women in the interior of China - here Sichuan province. It is a world of quiet desperation as they struggle to survive and find meaning in a world filled with unreliable men, irresponsible employers and indifferent government. The gritty portrayal of Zigong City is particularly memorable. It shows a life with although far from wealthy is neither necessarily poor so much as uncomfortable and inconvenient and almost, but not quite, hopeless. Even though it does not have a strong plot line it is nevertheless completely involving. It is currently available for rent on Amazon's Video-On-Demand.

China is often depicted by the traditional media as a nation with a booming economy, a thriving middle class, and an unlimited future. We're led to expect that it soon will become the world's unchallenged economic and geopolitical superpower.

But there is another side to that narrative, a story of how the other half lives, those many millions who are caught up in the turbulent backwash of industrial and economic growth. This masterpiece of a movie tells a small but compelling part of that story, as seen through the eyes of a young woman trying to make her way through the maze of societal dead ends that confront her at every turn. Trying to find a decent job, dealing with a troubled boyfriend, fending off groping or overbearing suitors, or negotiating a hilly terrain of generational differences with her nagging mother, she does her best, as we all must do in our own circumstances.

Using natural lighting, ambient sounds, and a jerky or sometimes stationary hand-held camera, the director skillfully mixes a blend of professional and nonprofessional actors into a stunning triumph. Sometimes portrayed as quasi-documentary or shot as cinéma vérité, and at other times as a more straightforward low-budget melodrama, this highly unconventional effort shouldn't work, and yet somehow it does. Stick with the strange sound track and deliberately murky photography long enough, and eventually the power of what you're witnessing, in totality, may overwhelm you.

I had the experience of being completely consumed by this film, the essence of what Roger Ebert calls a "suspension of disbelief." I was in southern China -- Szechuan -- breathing polluted air, stifled by oppressive humidity, worn down by an incompetent strangling bureaucracy. I struggled, as our heroine struggled, to find a way out, to escape the dismal dead end that the other half must face each and every day of their lives. For me, of course, escape was as near as my theater exit. For her and for them, it's not so easy.

There's no doubt that this movie cannot compete with most of the usual standards a western moviegoer is accustomed to. The light in the movie is irritating, actors sometimes all-too theatrical in their gestures and one can observe a lack of finesse and professionalism in camera work and directing too. In short, one can easily say that the movie is a total low budget production and in many ways a bad one as well. Today, when I watched it in the cinema, a bunch of lads left well before the end. I can't blame them.

But still, I stood there in my seat, somewhere in the middle of the room. There was something that kept me from leaving. Kept me from fleeing that intermittent boring experience. I suppose it had something to do with what I mentioned at the beginning. I'd like to call it western decadence. What I mean by that is our high expectations, our greedy demand of perfection, all our cinematic standards. And many, by the way, many western movie makers nowadays try , at various success of course, to somehow get back to the roots of film. Trying to find again the essence what constitutes moving pictures. That's very very hard and I would definitely not go so far to say that Ling yi ban has achieved what others are trying to reach in vain. No, I'm simply trying to communicate the importance of giving different and alien movies a chance.

I still don't blame the folks who left one after the other and probably would laugh at what I'm writing here. But I guess it's significant to underscore the possible advantages of staying. For example, I've never seen such brutal and disillusioned images of Chinese industrial life. Though the medium wasn't very sophisticated, the essence somehow was. And that's what might be even more important from time to time. Still, the movie gets a 3 rating from me. I couldn't give it more but it's not a total waste. It has potential and I invite everybody to watch the full two hours and maybe one can understand why on my mind it is actually recommendable to rethink our standards and to engage in a different and embarrassing world of movies.