My Running Shadow

我的影子在奔跑

China, 2013, colour, 1.85:1, 92 mins.

Director: Fang Gangliang 方刚亮.

Rating: 6/10.

Drama about a single mother and her autistic son defies simple expectations.

STORY

Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China, the present day. Xiuzhi (Li Zhaofeng), 17, is about to board a plane with his father (Zhang Guoqiang), who has come from the US to take him back to further his education. His father had originally moved there when Xiuzhi was only 11 months old, but Xiuzhi’s mother, Tian Guifang (Zhang Jingchu), had insisted on staying in China to look after their son. It had soon became clear that Xiuzhi was not an ordinary child: he lived in his own world, was precociously intelligent, and was always causing trouble at school due to his inability to get on with other kids. Even while having his tonsils removed one day, he ran off halfway through the operation and hid until Tian Guifang found him. Eventually it was confirmed that Xiuzhi had Asperger’s Syndrome, and Tian Guifang offered to do menial jobs at the kindergarten in order to help the staff to look after him. By the age of six, when he went to primary school, Xiuzhi was already super-intelligent, with a ruthlessly logical, mathematical mind. Tian Guifang found comfort in a close friendship with Li Yahui (Wang Tonghui), a travelling businesman with whom she slept when he was in town; but when he suggested transferring Xiuzhi to a school in Tianjin, Tian Guifang rejected the idea. As a devoted single mother, she worked round the clock to support Xiuzhi, though he never seemed to appreciate her efforts. When she was laid off at at work, Tian Guifang was faced with the further challenge of making economies for the two of them to survive.

REVIEW

The combination of a fine, understated performance by Zhang Jingchu 张静初, a pragmatic approach by director Fang Gangliang 方刚亮, and naturally lit, handheld camerawork by d.p. Xu Wei 徐伟 turns what could have been a worthy drama about a single mother and a kid with Asperger’s Syndrome into a surprisingly likeable film with a variety of moods. Though not much more than a well-meaning footnote in Zhang’s career, My Running Shadow 我的影子在奔跑 contains one of her best performances – not least in the way she convinces the viewer that her character’s dogged personal sacrifice is, against all the odds, worthwhile – and shows the actress is still willing to branch out from commercial fare when a challenging part beckons. (Now 33, she’s also just about the age where she can convince as a young mother.)

Director Fang, 40, has plenty of experience with kids (A Unique Schooling 上学路上, 2006; Home Run 回家的路, 2007; Looking for Jackie 寻找成龙, 2009) and the amazing performance by young Long Pinxu 龙品旭 as the volatile but fiercely intelligent Asperger’s kid is much to his credit. The script by Shu Shu 疏疏 – pen name of Guangdong writer Hu Yonghong 胡永红 – finds time for plenty of lighter moments between the emotional outbursts by the kid (splendidly played by Long with a beatific charm) and scenes showing the enormous stress under which he puts the mother. It also adopts the fresh trick of showing the point-of-view of the child himself – portrayed in garish, prismatic colours, with a voice-over by the boy – as he constantly criticises his mum (whom he objectively refers to by her full name, Tian Guifang) for being “illiterate in mathematics” and thus unable to understand his higher mental state. It’s a tad over-used, but done in a lightish way, and the gradual lessening of his superciliousness towards his mother prepares the audience for their final rapprochement.

At the end of the day, however, it’s director Fang’s unmelodramatic approach, supported by Xu’s plain, everyday photography, that grounds the whole thing. Shadow is a modest movie that won’t get much farther than the small screen and special showings, even on the strength of Zhang’s name, but is worth a look for the way in which it defies simple expectations. Fang spent four years bringing the project to the big screen.

[The film’s Chinese title was subsequently changed to 我不是傻瓜, literally “I’m No Fool”.]

CREDITS

Presented by Jiangsu Massway Film Investment (CN), Guangdong Southern Lead TV & Film Communication (CN). Produced by Jiangsu Massway Film Investment (CN).

Script: Shu Shu. Photography: Xu Wei. Editing: Tu Yiran. Music: Dou Peng. End titles song: Yico Zeng. Art direction: Yuan Feng. Costumes: Xie Huizhen. Sound: Qi Sining, Tao Junjie. Artistic advice: Tian Zhuangzhuang. Executive direction: Shi Ang.

Cast: Zhang Jingchu (Tian Guifang), Li Zhaofeng (Xiuzhi, her son), Long Pinxu (young Xiuzhi), Wang Tonghui (Li Yahui, Tian Guifang’s male friend), Zhang Guoqiang (Xiuzhi’s father), Wu Haiyan (grandmother), Wu Ruolin (Yuan Qi), Li Na (Mo Fei), Ye Wanxian (teacher), Yu Yindi (fat woman).

Premiere: Shanghai Film Festival (Focus China), 19 Jun 2013.

Release: tba.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 4 Jul 2013.)