L'orphelin d'Anyang

The first half of the film is shockingly realistic in the reform era China: the rise of poverty and resurgence of decadence that is experienced by many Chinese accompanied the rise of wealth, which is not experienced by most Chinese. The latter half of the film shows the confusion and the difficulties of moral judgment.

This modern neo-realist pic by Wang Chao, former assistant to Chen Kaige, faithfully follows in the genre's credo (no professional actors used, ultra-long takes of banal activity, strong social commentary), but refuses to fall into the sentimentality trap and offers a touch more to ponder upon. Hapless unemployed man decides to take care of abandoned baby on the promise (made on a note attached to baby) of a monthly 200 yuan 'expense stipend' to be claimed by calling an anonymous phone number. While the plot, revealing itself on a very steady pace, contains some interesting twists and complications, the focus, gradually but increasingly more clearly, is on the characters, who become more and more known to us as the film progresses. While our hearts are tugged aplenty throughout, film clearly does not play the violin for any one character, instead placing each in the proper context of an overall unidentifiable malaise, unidentifiable precisely because it's so complete, so encapsulating. Even the line between good and bad becomes completely blurred, and, again, we are left with nothing but character.

Very ambiguous, almost abrupt, ending leads one to conclude that nothing's clear, nothing ever will be clear, that no one ever has full control over anything, which, ironically, offers the vaguest possibility of hope, something not hinted at throughout the film.

Orphan of Anyang, an uncompromising debut film by Wang Chao, conveys a powerful impression of a rotting urban center with its outdoor food stands, dingy industrial buildings, rancid-looking waterways, and people whose lives mirror the grimness of the physical space. Its portrayal of the struggle for survival in Anyang might seem strange to Western eyes accustomed to more glamorous Chinese films but its bleakness only reflects the daily experience of a large percentage of the world's population.

Based on a short story by the director, Orphan of Anyang focuses on the lives of three people, a criminal, a prostitute, and an unemployed industrial worker and how their lives intersect when a baby is abandoned at an outdoor food stand. The film takes up where Platform leaves off, documenting the results of the swift change from collectivization to individual enterprise in the lives of three marginal characters living in Anyang. As the film begins, Yu Dagang (Sun Guilin) has just lost his job as an industrial worker. Strapped for money he must barter with his former co-workers, exchanging meal coupons for cash.

While eating at an outdoor noodle stand, Dagang finds an abandoned baby with a note asking for the baby's care in exchange for 200 yuan each month. Desperate, Dagang takes the child home and awkwardly begins to care for him. He soon discovers that the mother Yanli (Yue Sengli) is a prostitute and the girlfriend of Boss Side, a small-time triad boss always surrounded by a gang of hoodlums. Dagang finally invites Yanli to live with him if she promises to give up her life of prostitution. When Boss Side is diagnosed with leukemia, however, he returns to Yanli's house and attempts to take back his child as his only legacy.

With little dialogue or cinematic embellishments such as background music or stylish cinematography, Wang delivers filmmaking stripped to its bare essentials with only the clatter of urban street sounds left to penetrate the dreariness. Wang uses a fixed camera and long takes as Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien. Unlike Hou, however, Wang's film lacks rhythm and energy and its extremely slow pace doesn't create tension or help to illuminate the characters. For example, when Yanli and Yu meet at a restaurant, both sit and eat noodles for a good two minutes until someone breaks the awkward silence. Orphan of Anyang is an important glimpse of China rarely seen and its ultra-realism is involving, but I found the film to be strangely distancing and the ambiguous ending left me unsatisfied.

In the past film maker Wang Chao has worked as an assistant to famous Chinese director Zhang Yimou.This is why "Orphan of Anyang" has some traces of Yimou's early films.For his debut film Wang Chao has filmed the novel which he wrote.It was easy for him to film this story as he was a part of it in the past and personally knew some of the people whose life he portrayed on screen.From a technical point of view the film is slow and contains many static shots.However this should not bother viewers as the film is very touching and audience will surely sympathize will the main protagonist who has lost his job.Orphan of Anyang presents a new face of China where there is misery,unemployment, gangsters and prostitutes.At Cannes Film Festival 2001 this film was chosen for Directors'fortnight section. It also won the audience prize for the best film at 7th International Film Festival of Kerala 2002.

This film as a dense, knotty little piece of poetry, clocking in at under 80 minutes with not an inch of fat on it. Wang deftly orchestrates single-take master-shots to keep our viewing at a distance. But, unlike other practitioners of the master-shot school -- filmmakers I admire in their own right, such as Hou Hsiao-hsien and Jia Zhang-ke -- Wang uses the stationary camera and long take to create slightly more obvious black comedy, like an episode of "The Carol Burnett Show" as directed by Samuel Beckett. In particular, Wang's use of the quick fade is excellent. Often, he'll go to blackout just as some funny or shocking occurrence becomes legible. I may be making this sound like "difficult viewing," but really, it struck me as a 6th-Generation Chinese stab at a Jarmusch film, and as such, it's utterly accessible. Here's hoping it gets picked up for U.S. distribution. It might prove to be a minor hit.