Ocean Heaven

海洋天堂

China, 2010, colour, 1.85:1, 93 mins.

Director: Xue Xiaolu 薛晓路.

Rating: 7/10.

An engaging, simply-told story of a widower and his autistic son that avoids tearjerker cliches.

STORY

Qingdao, China, the present day. Following the death of his wife (Gao Yuanyuan) years ago in a swimming accident, acquarium worker Wang Xincheng (Li Lianjie) was left to raise his autistic son Dafu (Wen Zhang) on his own. However, Wang Xincheng has terminal liver cancer and realises he must try to equip Dafu, now 21, to a life without him – which is easier said than done.

REVIEW

Any fears that Ocean Heaven 海洋天堂 – the first non-action movie by Li Lianjie 李连杰 [Jet Li] – is going to be a worthy, big-star, disease-of-the-week melodrama are immediately put to rest by its opening scene, which leads the audience in one direction and then neatly pulls the carpet from under it. From the atypically unvarnished photography of the Qingdao locations by Australian d.p. Christopher Doyle 杜可风 to the straightforward performances of the small but well-chosen cast, there’s a simplicity to the whole movie that’s much to the credit of first-time director Xue Xiaolu 薛晓路. A screenwriter who previously worked on TV dramas, she also penned the rather more fulsome Together 和你在一起 (2002), directed by Chen Kaige 陈凯歌.

For a film that is virtually plotless, and depends much on performances and small behavioural details, there’s no sense of drag across the tight, 93-minute running time. The main character is not so much the autistic son – played without exaggeration by Wen Zhang 文章 – but his average, blue-collar father, a devoted parent with an endless supply of patience for whom his son’s future place in the world after his death is the one and only thing. With glasses and grey-flecked hair, the 47-year-old Li plays the role with an upbeat simplicity that mirrors the son’s own child-like universe without showboating too much. There’s never any doubt that this is a character performance by a major star, but it’s a genuinely likeable one, and a long way from the blank-faced Li of so many action movies.

The other actors adopt a similar tone, especially Taiwan’s Gui Lunmei 桂纶镁 (Blue Gate Crossing 蓝色大门, 2002; All about Women 女人不坏, 2008) as a travelling circus clown who befriends the autistic son and Zhu Yuanyuan 朱媛媛 (so good as the wife in The Forest Ranger 天狗, 2006) as a neighbour who clearly has a liking for the father. Both relationships could have been unbearably cute and/or mushy, but Xue’s script leaves the deeper currents largely to the audience’s imagination, with just a few brief scenes sketching the characters’ attraction to each other. (As the son’s mother, Gao Yuanyuan 高圆圆 is only on screen for a few seconds in a flashback.)

Scoring by Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi 久石让 is warm but not sentimental, and the strain of humour which runs right through the movie also prevents it from curdling in any well-meaning, politically correct juices. Like its lead character, Ocean Heaven is a small, unpretentious film with a big heart.

CREDITS

Presented by BDI Films (CN), Beijing H&H Communications Media (CN). Produced by BDI Films (CN).

Script: Xue Xiaolu. Photography: Christopher Doyle. Editing: Zhang Shuping [William Chang], Yang Hongyu. Music: Joe Hisaishi. Production design: Xi Zhongwen [Yee Chung-man]. Art direction: Su Guohao. Costume designer: Zhang Shijie [Stanley Cheung]. Sound: He Wei. Visual effects: Wang Lifeng.

Cast: Li Lianjie [Jet Li] (Wang Xincheng), Wen Zhang (Wang Dafu, his son), Gui Lunmei (Lingling), Zhu Yuanyuan (Auntie Chai), Dong Yong (Tang, acquarium director), Gao Yuanyuan (Wang Dafu’s mother), Yan Minqiu (Miss Tan), Chen Rui (Xiaoya).

Premiere: Shanghai Film Festival (Opening Film), 12 Jun 2010.

Release: China, 18 Jun 2010.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 13 Jun 2010.)