Dead Pigs

A pig farmer, a beauty salon owner, a young waiter, a wealthy girl and an architect share adventures when thousands of dead pigs appear in Shanghai's central river. Based on true events (in 2013, 16,000 pigs were found in the Huangpu River, infected with PCV), this film marks the debut of Cathy Yan as a director, who 2 years later (2020), makes herself known to the western world with Birds of Prey. The characters are excellent examples of the personification of various problems in modern societies, such as the lack of empathy, ambition, fear of facing reality or the social economic gap between classes. There's a clear western view on the narrative, so that the public can identify itself with the story, but it is still a very interesting set of ideas, and a kind of wake-up call for the Chinese boom at a global level.

As far as I can tell, she plays an inconsequential role, briefly shoehorned in and without much connection to the plot. Bizarre.

Anyway, as to the main core cast, there's quite a variety of mood and styles in this cautionary tale of ultra-capitalism; I suspect I was supposed to find more of it funny than I did (e.g. The father?) but Vivian Wu pulls it together as Candy with quite a nuanced performance in the (fairly ridiculous) circumstances. The young romance is OK also.

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to make of the ending though - "loose ends" doesn't even begin to cover it!

Worth a look nevertheless.

Cathy Yan's debut feature 'Dead Pigs (2018)' was actually released after her sophomore effort 'Birds Of Prey (2020)' in most territories, a year after releasing in China after making its way around the festival circuit for the prior year. That means that most people, including myself, will have actually been introduced to the director by her much weaker and more obviously studio-dictated second effort, rather than via this impressive and somewhat idiosyncratic first effort that interweaves the lives of several people who are connected to and affected by the actions of a real estate corporation. Loosely based around a real incident in which thousands of dead pigs were found floating in the Huangpu River, the film satirises China's current socioeconomic state by weaving the crushingly familiar with the delicately absurd. In turns downbeat and funny, the narrative hops from character to character as it slowly unveils the ties that bind them all together. Though some are more tangentially linked than others, they all naturally flow into and out of each others' stories. Perhaps the heart of the picture is Vivian Wu's Candy Wang, a stubborn salon owner who insists on staying in the house she grew up in even as everything around her is torn down to make way for a garish new housing project. Her seemingly senseless stubbornness is, in many ways, the bedrock of the narrative, as it reverberates across each storyline and essentially perpetuates the struggles of the characters within them. The picture is occasionally a little slow and its overall length is perhaps a tad indulgent. Some of its quirkier elements also come close to feeling entirely out of place (even if they never quite do) and its theming is a little elusive, comprised of several vague threads that never quite form a complete whole. However, this is a generally enjoyable and well-made effort that gets more and more satisfying as its various plot lines begin to converge. It's a really solid debut that makes some bold choices and is all the better for it.

I watched this film on a transatlantic flight having never heard of it before and choosing solely based on having heard the director being in charge of the upcoming DCEU venture. Overall, it paints a satirical picture of Chinese society, though you can't help feeling that the generic nature of the stories comments on societal paradigms globally. Certainly, many of the situations, actions and reactions would be quite commonplace in India. The cinematography was so amazing I felt annoyed watching it on a small screen, and the over the top acting was befitting the satirical nature of the piece. The recurring motifs of contamination and destruction really hit home, while carefully not banging you over the head with their message. If you can seek it out, definitely worth a watch

In 'Dead Pigs', we see a world where everyone is a liar and everything is faked and hyped. Everything that is real is dying off or being torn down, or at the least is undervalued. It's obviously a metaphor for modern Chinese society -- no, make that modern society in general. But the characters are vivid enough to ignore symbolism and enjoy the film at face value.

The only holdout is Candy Wang (played by Vivian Wu from 'The Joy Luck Club'), a cranky, shrill middle aged eccentric who is refusing to sell the family house to make way for a major new development.

We also follow a number of other characters, including the American architect for the development, who is portrayed in a surprisingly sympathetic light (even though he is as much of a fake as everyone else).

The only false note is a short stretch of sing-a-long karaoke. Maybe that is more meaningful to the Chinese audience. But overall, this is a good movie, well worth watching.