Freezing

冬天里

China, 2016, colour, 1.85:1, 97 mins.

Director: Peng Shigang 彭士刚.

Rating: 6/10.

Family drama about a father spurned by his kids is a modest but inspiring tribute to human endurance.

STORY

Xinglong village, Jilin province, northeast China, the present day, winter. Widower Old Liu (Liu Wenli), in his 70s but still working every day, lives on his farm with his elder son Liu Wei (Pan Fengzhi), daughter-in-law Lili (Liu Yonghui) and grandson. His younger son Liu Jie (Yang Fan) lives and works in the provincial capital, Changchun. When Liu Wei and Lili find out that Old Liu has transferred all his savings, RMB50,000, to Liu Jie, Lili nags her husband into getting his father to transfer the farm’s buildings and land to him. Liu Wei has a document prepared that needs only Old Liu’s thumbprint – which he provides. However, Lili still resents Lao Liu’s presence and, after an argument in which she spills boiling water on his leg, he quietly leaves and goes to stay with his daughter, Liu Yan (Xu Guiju). But when her husband (Peng Shiyong) objects, Old Liu quietly leaves there as well. The village head (Liu Xishan) gives him a roof for the night and next day calls a family meeting to resolve the problem. Liu Yan verbally attacks Lili, whom she hates, but no decision is reached on where Old Liu can stay. The village head, however, gets them to agree to donate a small amount of money to Old Liu each year – RMB1,000 by Liu Wei, RMB500 by Liu Yan – and finds him a dilapidated outhouse to live in. Old Liu takes his bull with him and moves there, making it habitable. Liu Yan sends over money and potatoes, but when Liu Wei doesn’t send anything Old Liu is forced to take a succession of lowly jobs, and even invests in a lottery ticket. Dogged by bad luck, he’s finally forced to sell his dear old bull – but even that doesn’t solve his problems as Chinese New Year approaches.

REVIEW

A drama about children’s indifference to their aged parent, set in wintry northeast China and shot on a small budget, sounds like a downer. In fact, Freezing 冬天里 is anything but. This first full-length feature by writer-director Peng Shigang 彭士刚 keeps moving, has some nicely etched performances by an (apparently) non-professional cast, packs in considerable social observation without labouring the point, and is leavened by a welcome strain of ironic humour as our septuagenarian hero, Old Liu, quietly overcomes one obstacle after another. The film has a simplicity that’s deceptive: like Old Liu himself, edged out of house and home by his own son and daughter-in-law – and in the bleak midwinter, too – it doesn’t apportion blame, instead seeming to say that’s just how life is. As such, Freezing becomes an inspiring tribute to human endurance rather than a depressing drama about familial nastiness.

Prior to turning to film direction, the 40-something Peng, who studied civil engineering at Jilin Institute of Architecture & Civil Engineering in the mid-1990s, worked in advertising in Shenzhen, where his company Big Image Films is based. Given his twin backgrounds, the surprise is that Freezing is neither rigorously structured nor slickly packaged; in fact, it’s somewhere in the middle, with clear, sharp images of the snow-covered northeast by Huang Hansen 黄汉森, plus unforced compositions that say a lot in an unostentatious way. (For example, one shot near the end of the son, his wife and child says everything about their family set-up without any words.) Peng’s “style” comes more from his script’s structure, which juxtaposes one after another simple but loaded scene, and from its overall tone, in which the main character, Old Liu, is a quietly independent and determined figure, not an object of pity.

The approach is very similar to Peng’s 60-minute featurette The Last Pupil 村小 (2013), also set in his native Jilin province but in summer not winter, and centring on an idealistic young teacher and the sole kid left in her class at a village primary school. As in Pupil, events in Freezing proceed with a slow, northern inevitability, and are what they are, no more.

Performances, seemingly by non-professionals, are unexaggerated, anchored by the uncomplaining, silent strength of the old father, played by the crusty Liu Wenli 刘文礼. Both Liu Yonghui 刘永慧 and Xu Guiju 许桂菊 strike sparks as the son’s nasty wife and the more caring daughter; but it’s the mellow chemistry between Liu Xishan 刘喜山 (as the well-meaning village head) and Liu Wenli that forms the film’s real emotional core, two old veterans of human nature who don’t need to spell everything out to each other.

Apart from a folksy-sounding song over the end titles, there’s no music but it isn’t missed, as the evolving story has its own rhythm. The Chinese title translates as “In Winter”.

CREDITS

Presented by Shenzhen Shenmei Advertising (CN). Produced by Big Image Films (CN).

Script: Peng Shigang. Photography: Huang Hansen. Editing: Peng Shigang. Music: none. Art direction: Yang Fan. Sound: Li Peng, Yong Ge.

Cast: Liu Wenli (Old Liu), Pan Fengzhi (Liu Wei, elder son), Liu Xishan (village head), Liu Yonghui (Lili, Liu Wei’s wife), Xu Guiju (Liu Yan, daughter), Peng Shiyong (daughter’s husband), Yang Fan (Liu Jie, younger son), Liu Weipeng (neighbour), Yang Jidong (Boss Cai), Wang Guiqiu (Boss Cai’s secretary), Liu Hongliang (cattle dealer), Li Jingxin (shopkeeper), Liu Hongbo (Li), Wang Zhihui (Dabao), Jiang Wei (doctor), Wei Xiaoyan (public-welfare lawyer), Zhang Guangyu (thief), Yu Yanjie (Old Liu’s grand-daughter).

Premiere: First Film Festival (Competition), Xining, China, 22 Jul 2016.

Release: China, tba.