River of Exploding Durians

榴莲忘返

Malaysia, 2014, colour, 16:9, 127 mins.

Director: Yang Yiheng 杨毅恒 [Edmund Yeo].

Rating: 5/10.

Good-looking but dramatically muddled combo of young love and political activism.

STORY

A coastal town in Malaysia, the present day, autumn. Ming (Gao Sheng) and Mei Ann (Liang Zuyi) are students at the same high school. He is from a middle-class family and bored with studying, and his father (Chew Kin Wah) intends to send him to Australia after he graduates; she is from a much poorer family, with two younger siblings and a fisherman father (Kenji Sawahii). For some reason, Mei Ann’s father is finding his catch decreasing, and one client complains his fish are causing stomach poisoning. Near the town an Australian company is building a rare-earth processing plant; at school a group of students, including Ming’s class monitor Liu Hui Ling (Liu Qianwen), are organising a petition against the plant, which they believe is affecting the environment. Mei Ann starts skipping school to help out her father, and one day tells Ming that she is to be married to Wong, the mayor’s younger brother. Ming is shocked and splits with her. Sandy (MayJune Tan), a former student who now works in a karaoke bar, makes a move on Ming but he turns her down. Later, he hooks up again with Mei Ann, and they spend time in Kuala Lumpur together; later, however, they quarrel and split up, with her leaving him a message that she’s pregnant. Her marriage to Wong is called off and she and her family move away. Following the death of a worker at the rare-earth plant, the students find their protests being blocked by the government. Led by their high-school teacher, Lim Su Yee (Zhu Zhiying), and her favourite pupil, Liu Hui Ling, they become more and more radicalised, with even Ming joining the group as he continues to pine for Mei Ann. However, after breaking into the plant one night and injuring an employee, Liu Hui Ling starts to wonder if Lim Su Yee is going too far. And Lim Su Yee is also warned by the school headmistress (Cai Baozhu) against politicising her class, especially so close to exam time.

REVIEW

Following several shorts, and co-writing and producing credits on festival favourite The Tiger Factory 虎厂 (2010) by Hu Mingjin 胡明进 [Woo Ming Jin], Malaysian film-maker Yang Yiheng 杨毅恒 [Edmund Yeo], 30, makes a good-looking but dramatically muddled feature debut with River of Exploding Durians 榴莲忘返. Despite its catchy English title – the durian being a famously stinky Southeast Asian fruit that is a very acquired taste – the movie is neither a comedy nor a combustible drama. It is, however, a welcome departure from the minimalist Malaysian school that Yang has been associated with to date and gives promise that, if he can hone his scripting skills or partner with an experienced writer, the Singapore-born director could become a fresh, politicised voice in the region’s cinema.

The movie falls into two distinct halves, with the first 50 minutes concentrating on a fairly standard love story between two high-school students in a small coastal town and the remaining 70-or-so minutes following a group of the same school’s students as they become increasingly radicalised by a teacher in protesting the building of a rare-earth processing plant nearby. Structurally, the problem is that the script makes no convincing connection between the two parts, apart from the character of Ming – played okay by Gao Sheng 高圣 [Koe Shern], from the charming rom-com short 32°C Fall in Love 32°C深夜KK (2013) by Chen Shengji 陈胜吉 [Tan Seng Kiat] – belatedly becoming radicalised after being dumped by his girlfriend of the first half. But he has a very minor role in the second part, which centres more on the teacher, Lin (Taiwan actress Zhu Zhiying 朱芷莹, Zoom Hunting 猎艳, 2010, A Complicated Story 一个复杂故事, 2013, in the film’s best performance), and her favourite pupil Liu Hui Ling (Liu Qianwen 刘倩妏 [Daphne Low], also strong, from Yang’s 2013 short, Floating Sun 浮阳). The yawning gap between the two halves is further accentuated by the fact that there isn’t the slightest hint in the first part about Lin’s activist leanings. (The character actually deserves a whole movie of her own.)

Yang paints a broad canvas of characters who are all somehow dissatisfied with either their life or their country – from Ming’s girlfriend, fisherman’s daughter Mei Ann, who talks of “we small Malaysians”, through Ming’s father who clearly prefers life abroad, to the radical Lin, fighting against government censorship and the education system’s suppression (or deliberate “forgetfulness”) of unpalatable past events. Yang accurately nails the country’s lack of confidence in itself, but his dialogue sits uncomfortably in his characters’ mouths, sounding either arch or unnaturally flowery or too simplistic, and often falling into film-buffy references.

Technically, however, the film earns an extra point for its clean, good-looking photography by Kong Pahurak and simple piano underscoring by Wang Yuanfeng 王涴凤 [Wong Woan Foong], both of which enhance the film’s ingenuous feel and Southeast Asian listlessness. Pacing is not too mannered, though Yang’s own editing could be more ruthless, easily losing 15 minutes from the two-hour running time. Dialogue is largely in Mandarin Chinese.

CREDITS

Presented by Greenlight Pictures (MY), Indie Works (MY).

Script: Yang Yiheng [Edmund Yeo]. Photography: Kong Pahurak. Editing: Yang Yiheng [Edmund Yeo]. Music: Wang Yuanfeng [Wong Woan Foong]. Art direction: Edward Yu. Costumes: Wong Pui Kay. Sound: Sorayos Prapapan.

Cast: Gao Sheng [Koe Shern] (Ming), Liang Zuyi [Joey Leong] (Mei Ann), Zhu Zhiying (Lim Su Yee, teacher), Liu Qianwen [Daphne Low] (Liu Hui Ling), Kenji Sawahii (Mei Ann’s father), Chew Kin Wah (Ming’s father), Chen Meijun [MayJune Tan] (Sandy), Angel Chang (Lisa), Cai Baozhu [Pearlly Chua] (Li, headmistress), Chan See Sheen (Wu, replacement teacher), Zareman B. Zainal Abidin (Malay teacher), Kwan Ji Lian, Foo Yong Sheng (Mei Ann’s classmates), Yeong Chen Hau (Fatt), Luo Shengyao [Loo Sheng Yau] (Wei Lun), Mohd. Farez Ridzwan (Zi Zan), Joshua Tai (Min Fuh), Dai Junhao [Ivan Tai] (Guo Xiang), Gabby Cheang (Pey Chi), Maggie Ng (Lily), Kayce Koh (Jing Hui), Liew Chee Choong (Tan, lawyer), Tan Haw Lee (Mei Ann, aged 8), Pua Hong Jie (Ming, aged 8), Tiong Chew Ping (bun seller), Tee Kim Hock (Mei Ann’s grandfather).

Premiere: Tokyo Film Festival (Competition), 24 Oct 2014

Release: Malaysia, 7 May 2016 (online).

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 30 Nov 2014.)