Awakening Spring

温柔壳

China, 2023, colour/b&w, 16:9, 103 mins.

Director: Wang Mu 王沐.

Rating: 5/10.

Drama centred on two young people with mental problems has strong lead performances but doesn’t touch the heart or really go anywhere.

STORY

Liquan city, somewhere in Fujian province, eastern China, the present day. Dai Chun (Yin Fang) works as food-delivery boy but clearly has some mental problems; Jue Xiao (Wang Ziwen) works in a nail bar but rarely speaks to anyone. The two live together and, when Dai Chun freaks out at home one day, Jue Xiao calms him. (One year earlier, Dai Chun had become fascinated by Jue Xiao when both were patients at Yannanfei rehabilitation centre. When she had slit her wrist by the seaside, he had carried her back; but after recovering she had shown no interest in befriending him. According to her exasperated maternal aunt [Yong Mei], who’d been thanklessly looking after her since her mother disappeared, Jue Xiao had always had psychological problems. On a visit to the rehab centre one day, she had told Jue Xiao that her mother never wanted to have her. Dai Chun, who always seemed playful and normal, had still tried to get to know Jue Xiao and eventually they had started a low-key relationship. One day he had skipped out of the rehab centre and bought her a new pair of plimsolls. Jue Xiao had always wanted to leave the centre as soon as possible, as she considered it was full of strange people, so during a tea-picking outing she and Dai Chun had run away. They had made love in the flat of his elder brother, Dai He [Bai Ke], where they were found by Jue Xiao’s aunt. Jue Xiao had insisted that she wanted to stay with Dai Chun and, when Dai He arranged for Dai Chun’s discharge, her aunt had finally accepted the decision. The two had started living together.) One day Jue Xiao announces that she’s pregnant. When Dai Chun tells his brother, the latter is not pleased, pointing out that both of them have psychological problems. How will they raise the child and do they even have enough money? The brothers’ father, Dai Guoping (Zhang Qi), has Alzheimer’s and the two of them can’t even take care of him properly. Dai He gets Dai Chun a better-paid job in a garage and the two brothers try to look after their father better. When Dai He is attacked by some thugs, Dai Chun takes them on but has a serious mental relapse. His doctor recommends electro-shock therapy. But then one day Dai Chun is deeply traumatised by a shocking family incident.

REVIEW

Two young people with mental problems meet, fall for each other and finally live a life together in their own special way in Awakening Spring 温柔壳, a drama that manages to go the distance without really touching the heart in any significant way. It’s an interesting if evanescent debut as writer-director by Dalian-born Wang Mu 王沐, 37, who previously co-scripted two films by Li Xiaofeng 李霄峰 (Nezha 少女哪吒, 2014; Ash 灰烬重生, 2017), as well as the online TVD Kidnapping Game 十日游戏 (2020), all three of which contained strong psychological elements to varying degrees of success. Though the film is in no way the hard sit suggested by its subject matter, and is kept watchable by its strong lead performances, it wanders in the second half and ends up going nowhere in particular. Local box office was a tiny RMB17 million, okay for this kind of specialised fare.

The film is set in a fictional city in Fujian province, east China, but was actually shot in three locations – Quanzhou (in Fujian), Beijing, and Dalian (in Liaoning province, northeast China) – with slight changes to the crews. Shooting, which was done in sequence, wrapped in Dec 2020. Despite having two DPs – Taiwan’s Xu Zhijun (Thanatos, Drunk 醉•生梦死, 2015; Breathing 你在哪, 2016) and the Mainland’s Piao Songri 朴松日 (The Crossing 过春天, 2018; Back to the Wharf 风平浪静, 2020; Sister 我的姐姐, 2021) – the film manages to have a cohesive look but without any distinctive style: the largely handheld photography is all centred on the actors, who were encouraged, reportedly, to do their own thing during takes. Though Wang’s aim seems to have been as naturalistic a look as possible, the film switches to b&w for the young man’s dreams and fantasies – an unnecessary visual distraction.

Despite frequent mention of the two main characters’ “problems”, Wang’s script never spells out exactly what they are suffering from. In the first half, the young woman, Jue Xiao, is portrayed as the more mixed-up one, with Dai Chun just a playful fellow inmate trying to befriend her; in the second half the roles are switched, with Dai Chun clearly suffering from some mental disorder and Jue Xiao largely normal and acting as his nurse when he has relapses. To all intents and purposes she appears to be just a moody, self-obsessed loner rather than anyone with a clinical disorder. But Wang’s script leaves all this vague, as well as Dai Chun’s exact problem – leaving the audience free to view the film as a relationship drama between two bipolar types, rather than a medical melodrama.

The most involving stuff is in the first half, as the relationship slowly develops. Sichuan-born Wang Ziwen 王子文, 37 at the time of shooting, is excellent as the self-centred grouch who’s closed herself off to the outside world; more often seen on TV, Wang is always worth watching when she’s occasionally on the big screen (Cool Young 正•青春, 2010; Lee’s Adventure 李献计历险记, 2011; Fall in Love 爱神, 2013; costume fantasy Dream of Eternity 晴雅集, 2020) and renegotiates her initially unsympathetic character with skill. As the more problematic one of the pair, Hunan-born Yin Fang 尹昉, then 34, also nicely balances charm and mental rage, pairing off well in the second half with Bai Ke 白客 as his barely tolerant elder brother; it’s another feather in the cap of the dancer-turned-actor who’s proved especially good playing other halves (I Love You 我要和你在一起, 2022; Tale of the Night 长沙夜生活, 2023). In a small cast, Inner Mongolian TV veteran Yong Mei 咏梅 pops up in a couple of strong scenes as Jue Xiao’s exasperated aunt.

It’s not clear exactly what the film’s English title refers to – unless it’s Dai Chun’s name, whose second character means “spring”. The Chinese title means “Soft Shell”.

CREDITS

Presented by Shanghai Maoyan Pictures (CN), Tianjin Maoyan Weiying Cultural Media (CN), Shanghai Ruyi Film & TV Production (CN), Shanghai Passion Fruit Pictures (CN). Produced by Shanghai Ruyi Film & TV Production (CN), Shanghai Passion Fruit Pictures (CN).

Script: Wang Mu. Photography: Xu Zhijun (Quanzhou, Dalian), Piao Songri (Beijing). Editing: Zhu Lin. Music: B6. Art direction: Du Luxi. Styling: Wang Tao. Sound: Si Yilin, Gao Ruifeng, Li Danfeng, Li Junyi. Action: Sun Yilei. Visual effects: Chen Suihua, Sun Haidong. Executive direction: Dai Jingjing.

Cast: Yin Fang (Dai Chun), Wang Ziwen (Jue Xiao), Yong Mei (Jue Xiao’s maternal aunt), Bai Ke (Dai He, Dai Chun’s elder brother), Zhou Yiran (Xiaoma, Jue Xiao’s former roommate), Zhang Qi (Dai Guoping), Bu Guanjin (nail-bar owner), Sun Yang (garage owner), Zhang Xiran (young girl), Zhao Shiyi (nurse), Li Mei (Hua, doctor).

Premiere: Pingyao Film Festival (Opening Film; Hidden Dragons Competition), 14 Jan 2023.

Release: China, 26 May 2023.