Island Keeper
守岛人
China, 2021, colour, 2.35:1, 124 mins.
Director: Chen Li 陈力.
Rating: 6/10.
Well-played drama, based on a real-life story, of a couple on a lonely outpost in the East China Sea.
STORY
Guanyun county, Jiangsu province, East China, autumn 1986. Wang Jicai (Liu Ye), 26, a battalion commander in the Militia, has been stationed alone for 76 days on Kaishan island, a rocky forward outpost with no water or power or living beings that is 12 nautical miles off the coast. Troops were withdrawn in 1985 and the tiny island has since been a Militia post for navigation and meteorological observations. Alone, apart from the dog Da Huang and her two puppies, Wang Jicai has been waiting for someone to relieve him from duty. A force 10 typhoon is now battering the area, and Wang Jicai struggles to keep his living quarters dry and the shipping beacon lit; in the underground store room he imagines seeing a “fox fairy” in his semi-crazed state. Da Huang manages to swim to the coast and is rescued by Wang Jicai’s wife, Shihua (Gong Zhe), a teacher on probation at a local kindergarten who lives with his parents (Sun Weimin, Song Chunli) and cares for her young daughter Xiaobao. Shihua is angry because she wasn’t told that Wang Jicai’s job was with the Militia; she also urges Wang Jicai’s superior, Wang Changjie (Hou Yong), to quickly find a replacement. After the storm subsides, Wang Jicai saves a young fisherman, Xiaodouzi (Zhang Yishan), from drowning; Xiaodouzi also urges Wang Changjie to find a replacement. Shihua and Xiaobao visit by boat with fresh supplies, along with Wang Changjie who tells Wang Jicai that, after more than 100 days, he still can’t find anyone to take over his job. As winter arrives, Wang Jicai seems resigned to staying on the island; but then Shihua arrives and stays with him while his parents look after Xiaobao. Chinese New Year 1987 comes round and Wang Changjie, still feeling guilty, tells Wang Jicai’s family that he’s arranged residency permits in Guanyun township for them all. Months later, when Wang Changjie pays a visit, Shihua is already heavily pregnant and Wang Jicai has become a hero to local fishermen. But during a typhoon Wang Jicai’s father is suddenly rushed to hospital, and at the same time Shihua goes into labour on the island.
REVIEW
Based on the true story of a Militia man and his wife who spent three decades looking after a tiny outpost off the coast of East China, Island Keeper 守岛人 rises above its obvious themes of selflessness and patriotic duty thanks to engaging performances by its two lead players, actor Liu Ye 刘烨 and actress Gong Zhe 宫哲, plus a good-looking package by veteran writer-director Chen Li 陈力. At just over two hours, the film could profitably lose some 15 minutes, especially in its later section where the human drama is already exhausted and the messages are hammered home more obviously, but it still has some very moving moments. Released in mid-2021, along with several other films marking the 100th anniversary of the CPC (1921 1921; The Pioneer 革命者), it took RMB138 million, a relatively polite figure but Chen’s biggest success (as well as critically) to date.
A longtime August First Film Studio staffer, Chen, now in her late 50s, has consistently come up with some above-average relationship dramas (Duet 两个人的芭蕾, 2005; Love on Gallery Bridge 爱在廊桥, 2012) inbetween standard military potboilers (Battle of Xiangjiang River 血战湘江, 2017). Rather like her 1930s civil war drama drama The Bugle from Gutian 古田军号 (2019), Island Keeper falls between the two extremes in her career, except that, where Gutian is a political drama with a human edge, Island Keeper is a human drama with a political edge.
The script, by Chen, young writer Ding Han 丁涵 and writer-director Zhao Zhe’en 赵哲恩 (Fragrance 芬芳, 2019), opens when the main character, Wang Jicai, has already been on the island for 76 days and is now being battered by a mega-typhoon while his wife and young daughter are on land with his parents. The enforced separation of the couple, and Wang Jicai’s need for company to stop himself going mad, dominates the first half-hour or so; after his wife finally joins him and a replacement still can’t be found, the film morphs into a study of acceptance and duty, as the couple make the barren lump of rock into a long-term home to raise a family. The sense of guilt of Wang Jicai’s superior (restrainedly played by veteran Hou Yong 侯勇) in not being able to find a replacement provides a strong secondary strand, as well as the couple’s family (including Sun Weimin 孙维民, a Chen regular, as the hero’s father) on the mainland and the gratitude of local fishermen he’s helped (especially Zhang Yishan 张一山 as a young guy saved from drowning). All these various strands, as well as a few big dramatic setpieces like a birth during a typhoon, keep what is basically a modest two-hander set on a big lump of rock both lively and interesting – and unrepetitive. In the second half it also becomes another movie charting China’s modernisation to the present day.
In his biggest role for some time, Liu (City of Life and Death 南京！南京！, 2009; Driverless 无人驾驶, 2010; Cock and Bull 追凶者也, 2016), now in his early 40s and with some character in his features, manages to convincingly traverse the story’s 30-year arc, as well as the lead’s weather-beaten existence. Though he and co-star Gong look nothing like the real-life characters (seen in photos at the end), they have excellent screen chemistry and grow into their roles, especially as they both age. Liu fills the screen but Gong, 38, who was so good as the student in You and Me 我们俩 (2005) and local village girl in Good Earth 大地 (2009), comes through gradually but equally strongly, in a role that would have been played by Gong Li 巩俐 30 years ago, underlining the fact that the film is basically a love story set in any remote location.
Widescreen photography by Liang Ming 梁明, himself a director of some note (key Mainland horror The Lonely Spirit in an Old Building 黑楼孤魂, 1989; A Deux World 旗, 2015), is beautifully composed without becoming picturesque, and melds naturally with studio interiors. Music by Ju Wenpei 居文沛 (Gutian) is restrained, even in big moments with noisy sound effects. The film was largely shot on Pingtan island, off Fuzhou city, Fujian province, south of the real-life location.
CREDITS
Presented by August First Film Studio (CN), Jiangsu Omnijoi Movie (CN), Hebei Radio & TV Culture (CN), Fujian Film Studio (CN), Huaxia Film Distribution (CN).
Script: Chen Li, Ding Han, Zhao Zhe’en. Script planning: Gao Mantang. Photography: Liang Ming. Editing: Mo Tianjie, Wu Lin. Music: Ju Wenpei. End-title vocals: Lei Jia. Art direction: Huo Tingxiao. Costume design: Sui Yimeng. Styling: Liu Xiaoli, Fan Minglai, Fan Yongjie. Sound: Ji Chenggang, Wang Yin’gang. Visual effects: Ma Xiaorui, Shen Shiying, Cao Yong. Artistic supervision: Zhang Heping. Executive direction: Cao Hong.
Cast: Liu Ye (Wang Jicai), Gong Zhe (Wang Shihua), Hou Yong (Wang Changjie), Sun Weimin (Wang Jicai’s father), Zhang Yishan (Feng Zheng/Xiaodouzi), Chen Chuang (Bao Zhengfu), Song Chunli (Wang Jicai’s mother), Tao Huimin (Wang Changjie’s wife), Ma Shaohua (Wang Shihua’s father), Chi Peng (Wang Shihua’s mother), Liu Zhiyang (headmaster), Lan Lan (Zhao, obstetrician), Xu Jian (Wang Shihua’s elder brother), Duoxi (Wang Jicai’s no. 2 younger sister), Su Li (Wang Jicai’s no. 1 younger sister), Jiang Miao (Bao Zhengfu’s wife), Lu Yang (adult Wang Xiaobao), Zhang Zhilu (adult Wang Zhiguo), Ma Mingyu (Li), Wang Guodong (Wang Xiaobao’s husband).
Release: China, 18 Jun 2021.