All Ears
不虚此行。
China, 2023, colour, 16:9, 117 mins.
Director: Liu Jiayin 刘伽茵.
Rating: 4/10.
Over-long study of an introverted funeral eulogist and his various clients doesn’t go anywhere but a name cast just about makes it watchable.
STORY
Beijing, spring 2022. Wen Shan, almost 40 and originally from the south, is a well-known writer of funeral eulogies 悼词. But he is not very business-like and always insists on taking his time to get to know the deceased, priding himself on his talent for observation and interest in human behaviour. He gets a new commission from Wang (Huang Lei) to write a eulogy for his father’s funeral, but says he must first finish his current job, for the elder brother of a restaurateur (Hu Yaozhi), whose younger sister (Zhao Qian) keeps calling from overseas with unsavoury facts about her late brother. When he gets to Wang’s job, the latter is unable to provide him with many details about his late father; Wang’s wife (Gong Beibi) is more helpful, and their young son (Xiao Li Zhenzhen) very much so. Wen Shan’s undertaker friend, Pan Congcong (Bai Ke), who first got him into eulogy writing, offers him a fulltime job at the funeral parlour but Wen Shan says he’ll think about it. Wen Shan almost turns down a new client, Lu (Gan Yunchen), as he can’t get a feel for the subject. Wen Shan lives alone in a tiny flat but shares it with an imaginary character whom he calls Xiaoyin (Wu Lei). His only close friend is an elderly woman, Fang Xinlai (Na Renhua), who is slowly dying of cancer but doesn’t know exactly when. Wen Shan visits his old film-school teacher (Sun Chun) and tells him he’s no longer writing scripts; he says he feels stuck in the “second act” of his life. Then one day a young woman, Shao Jinsui (Qi Xi), arrives in Beijing specifically to take Wen Shan to task for inaccuracies in his eulogy for her late friend, Gan Ming. The two end up talking at length, with Shao Jinsui staying overnight in Wen Shan’s flat.
REVIEW
Beijing-born writer-director Liu Jiayin 刘伽茵, she of Oxhide 牛皮 (2005) and Oxhide II 牛皮贰 (2009) renown, returns to directing after more then a decade with All Ears 不虚此行。, a way less marmite movie than her previous duo but equally likely to annoy viewers who like some direction of travel in plotting, motivation and characterisation. Now 42, Liu has directed a couple of shorts in the meantime but little else; creative producer 监制 on All Ears is writer-director Cao Baoping 曹保平 (Einstein and Einstein 狗13, 2013; The Dead End 烈日灼心, 2015; Across the Furious Sea 涉过愤怒的海, 2023), with whom she originally started as a scriptwriter on TV dramas. Centred on an introverted funeral eulogist who was once a film student and wannabe scriptwriter, the watchable but finally pointless movie took RMB27 million this autumn, a reasonable amount for such accessibly arty fare and no doubt due to the popularity of lead actor Hu Ge 胡歌, 41, who made his name in TVDs but has also made occasional films (Diva 华丽之后, 2012; Last Letter 你好，之华, 2018; and most unmemorably, The Wild Goose Lake 南方车站的聚会, 2019).
The film’s content is reportedly semi-autobiographical, reflecting some of Liu’s own struggles to find a direction in her life. Here it’s personalised in the form of Wen Shan (Hu), almost 40, who has built up a reputation as a fine writer of funeral eulogies but insists on taking his time and really getting to know the deceased via family and friends. Wen Shan’s own background gradually emerges as we follow him from job to job, each with its set of challenges: he once attended film school, is still in touch with his scriptwriting teacher, tried unsuccessfully to get into writing TVDs, and then, via an entrepreneurial undertaker friend (entertainingly played by actor-comedian Bai Ke 白客, Nice to Meet You 遇见你真好, 2018, The Best Is Yet to Come 不止不休, 2020), started writing eulogies on demand. Embarrassed by his lack of success in showbiz, he still tells his parents he’s writing TVDs.
The film is basically a set of chapters, with each new commission bringing a set of characters. Everyone says Wen Shan is the best eulogist but the audience never gets to hear his work, so it’s difficult to get involved with the character’s self-belief, especially given Hu’s expressionless performance. Some side characters – his entrepreneurial undertaker friend, an old woman who’s slowly dying of cancer (classily played by Inner Mongolian veteran Na Renhua 娜仁花, 61), a young woman (under-rated actress Qi Xi 齐溪, 39) who comes to Beijing to take him to task – generate passing involvement. But they don’t shine much light on the central character, or his central dilemma that he feels trapped in the “second act” of his life.
After almost two hours – at least 30 minutes too long, given the thin content – the film ends pretty much as it began, though Wen Shan has a haircut and appears, in some unexplained way, to be exiting his “second act”. The device of an imagined flatmate (played by popular TV actor Wu Lei 吴磊), who turns out to be a character he never finished writing in a TV script, is both pretentious and meaningless.
The unusually restrained but always well-composed photography by d.p. Zhou Wencao 周文操 (Only the Wind Knows 那一场呼啸而过的青春, 2017; Love You Forever 我在时间尽头等你, 2020; Five Hundred Miles 交换人生, 2023) never shows the audience the bustling, sprawling Beijing the characters are always describing but keeps the focus tight on Wen Shan’s introverted universe. Music is only used occasionally, for gentle atmospherics. Shooting wrapped in May 2022. The Chinese title is a four-character phrase meaning “a worthwhile trip”, which is marginally better than the meaningless English one.
CREDITS
Presented by Chengdu Duanying Lianjin Pictures (CN), Beijing Alibaba Pictures Culture (CN), Beijing Benchmark Pictures (CN), Horgos Lian Ray Pictures (CN), Zhejiang Hengdian Film (CN), Aranya Pictures (CN). Produced by Beijing Benchmark Pictures (CN).
Script: Liu Jiayin. Photography: Zhou Wencao. Editing: Yan Yiping. Music Li Heng. Art direction: Fan Yahui. Costumes: Bi Xuewen. Styling: Zhang Weichen. Sound: Zeng Xiaoming, Liu Jie. Visual effects: Liang Haoyi, Zhao Zixiao (Dream Collector). Executive direction: Ren Maocheng.
Cast: Hu Ge (Wen Shan), Wu Lei (Xiaoyin), Qi Xi (Shao Jinsui), Na Renhua (Fang Xinlai), Gan Yunchen (Lu), Huang Lei (Wang), Hu Yaozhi (Wan Xiaoyong, restaurateur), Bai Ke (Pan Congcong, undertaker), Sun Chun (film-school teacher), Yang Qingsheng (farm worker), Gong Beibi (Wang’s wife), Zhao Qian (Wan Xiaomei, Wan Xiaoyong’s younger sister), Xiao Li Zhenzhen (Feifei, Wang’s young son).
Premiere: Shanghai Film Festival (Competition), 10 Jun 2023.
Release: China, 9 Sep 2023.