Chroniques chinoises

This work is so true that even triggered my traumatic memories from covid. I couldn't help but cry. Sitting in the completely dark cinema, I heard sobbing from somewhere near and far, echoing with mine. I realized that pain can even be a form of connection. The sick painful experience we shared allows us recognize each other just by our red and puffy eyes.

When lights turned up, applause erupted, walking out from the cinema, I put the tissue I cried on into jacket pocket and felt some relief and comfort. The pain that had never been allowed to spill out finally got understood... Because of the censorship, we don't have much our own Covid narratives, those produced by civil society rather government. But thankfully we have Lou Ye.

The first half, which moves from the pseudo-documentary format of the crew rebooting a decade-old project in late 2019, to positive footage shot ten years ago, eventually stopping at a screen shot of a documentary format blooper reel. And the second half gradually shifts from a pseudo-documentary at an isolation point to a cell phone vertical screen pseudo-documentary, and finally returns to real web footage. In the epilogue everyone gathers for a drink, speechless, just watching the real documentary material. The director's purpose is also called out. That is, under such a drastic change of the times, man-made movies will be forced to give way to real documentary material at the same time. Forced by the objective environment and the lack of filming conditions, active by the creators to recognize the powerlessness of man-made scripts, even if things have passed, the process of trying to restore the story in any case is not as powerful as the real material. Therefore, this movie is also very self-reflexive while being expressive at the same time. That is, through a pseudo-documentary movie format, it tells everyone about the powerlessness of drama and pseudo-documentary movies. That's why the rating for this movie itself is contradictory. On the other hand, in terms of scarcity, it is indeed one of the few non-main theme movies in mainland China with an epidemic as its background. After making these points clear, I believe we can all make our own judgments. The movie's score and awards thus become less important.

Just finished watching An Unfinished Film in the cinema. As a film that is prohibited from being screened in mainland China, it's actually quite restrained in its portrayal. The scene where the crew reunites and toasts as the song "Twilight" plays is both peaceful and poignant; the melody and lyrics feel so powerful.

When you think about it, what has Lou Ye captured in this film? Nothing more than documentation. The camera is honest, and the person holding it is not afraid of being blacklisted. A literally unfinished film, a banned old song-woven together, they fight against a memory that is fading and constantly redefined. Though the viewing experience was a bit traumatic, I don't regret it at all; I found it meaningful. Thank you, Lou Ye.

In the first half of the movie, the actors' performances were surprising, especially the awkward smiles between the director and Jianghao when they were trying to convince each other, which was completely subconscious. For a time, I really thought it was a documentary. However, regarding the beginning of the epidemic, maybe I had too high expectations. The director did not give some new pictures, and most of the pictures were from real clips on the Internet. The most heartbreaking thing is of course the girl crying for her mother and the lady crying on the street during the Qingming Festival. Maybe this is the director's restraint, or maybe it is his consistent film style. In short, to paraphrase the Chinese writer Shi Tiesheng: If there are things I haven't said, don't think it's because I've forgotten them, I haven't forgotten anything, but there are some things that are only fit to be collected. You can't talk about it or think about it, yet you can't forget it.

It is definitely worth watching and meaningful for exposing the truth of damage to people's physical and mental health. It showcases our people's history instead of the version beautified by the government. I should be proud and grateful to this movie because it wrote exactly what I have experienced. The director used lots of true videos of the Covid time which show our struggles, reactions, amusement and tragedy. This is totally fine, or even the best. The best argument is the real history and director Lou made a wonderful assembly of the social media materials. It is absolutely amazing and heartbreaking. I will say it is the most meaningful movie recently.