I Hope You Are Well
天堂的张望
China, 2020, colour, 2.35:1, 116 mins.
Director: Du Bin 杜斌.
Rating: 3/10.
Child leukaemia drama is well-intended but little more than a standard tear-jerker.
STORY
A village in Yunnan province, southern China, 2004. Basket-weaver Zhang Guohua (Du Yiheng) lives with his seven-year-old foster-daughter Zhang Wang (Zhu Ziyue), to whom he is devoted. But he barely makes ends meet, and the two exist on a frugal diet. Zhang Wang is top of her class at the local primary school but in any kind of physical exercise runs out of breath very easily. One day she starts having nose bleeds, and the local doctor tells Zhang Guohua to take her to Kunming, the provincial capital, for a full checkup. There she’s diagnosed with acute leukaemia, which will cost around RMB300,000 to treat. Zhang Guohua’s sister, Cuihua (Wang Like), keeps Zhang Wang company in hospital, where she’s also befriended by an idealistic volunteer nurse, Xiaoxia (Lu Qiuhong), who’s just started work there, and by Titi (Du Yuchen), a child in the next bed, and Titi’s artist father (Hou Shuai), who sketches Zhang Wang and encourages her to draw. Back in the village some locals, like the butcher Qiangzi (Zhao Zhizhe), lend Zhang Guohua some money but the total is only a paltry RMB11,000. Local businessman Sui Dafu (Liu Liu) says he has no cash to lend but is owed RMB80,000 by a foreman (Wu Zhixiong) – which Zhang Guohua can have if he can get it. Zhang Guohua tries but is beaten up by the foreman’s gang. Desperate, Zhang Guohua tries to sell one of his kidneys for RMB30,000 but ends up scammed. Meanwhile, Xiaoxia, upset by the iniquity of the system, considers giving up her job. She takes her cousin, journalist Wang Xiaoyue (Ma Yuyao), to meet Zhang Guohua; the latter writes a newspaper article about the case, which starts to attract media interest.
REVIEW
A Mainland “social-issue film” that’s sincerely intended but wears its heart too much on its sleeve, I Hope You Are Well 天堂的张望 follows the desperate attempts by an impoverished Yunnan basket-weaver to raise a (for him) huge sum to pay for his young foster-daughter’s leukaemia treatment. Inspired by a true story, it’s the first theatrical release by Shandong-born writer-director Du Bin 杜斌, 45, who started out in commercials, then turned to event organising, and finally made his debut as a feature director with the horror movie Bride with Double Face 双面新娘 (2018). Shot in 2018, Hope made only a microscopic RMB330,000 on release in late 2020; nowadays it’s pure TV fare.
Du’s film is a common genre in Mainland cinema that highlights social issues and ends with news of their rectification. China having no free healthcare system, stories centred on paying hospital bills are quite common – the latest being the satirical episode with actor Ge You 葛优 in the portmanteau My People My Homeland 我和我的家乡 (2020). In Hope, set in 2004, a devoted but broke dad is faced with raising RMB300,000 and, after his various attempts to borrow, the main drama comes from how on earth he’ll ever raise such a sum. The outcome is a straight tear-jerker, with a final intertitle noting how rural medical insurance has been improved for cases of child leukaemia; but apart from an idealistic nurse considering leaving her job, any critique of the system is implied rather than stated. Characterisation is standard and performances ditto, though child actress Zhu Ziyue 朱梓玥, seven at the time of shooting, is spirited and upbeat, which is more than be said for Du Yiheng 杜奕衡, 40, as her one-note-glum father. Technically the film is modest but okay, but at almost two hours it’s way too long for the thin content.
The film’s Chinese title literally means “Heaven’s Peep”. Photos of the real-life characters, She Yan 佘艳 (1996-2005) and She Shiyou 佘世友, are shown at the end.
CREDITS
Presented by Century Lealo Film (Beijing) (CN).
Script: Du Bin. Photography: Zeng Wu. Editing: Yang Yang. Music: Wei Hua. Art direction: Huang Jin. Sound: Ma Jin, Hou Tao, Qi Huailin, Zhang Yong. Executive direction: Hou Shuai.
Cast: Du Yiheng (Zhang Guohua), Zhu Ziyue (Zhang Wang), Ma Yuyao (Wang Xiaoyue), Lu Qiuhong (Xiaoxia), Wang Like (Zhang Cuihua), Gong Xiaoxuan (Liu Xia), Zhang Yongda (Zhao Rui, Wang Xiaoyue’s fiance), Du Yuchen (Titi), Wu Zhixiong (foreman), Liu Liu (Sui Dafu), Zhao Zhizhe (Qiangzi), Hou Shuai (Titi’s father).
Release: China, 20 Nov 2020.