The Love Songs of Tiedan

美姐

China, 2012, colour, 2.35:1, 88 mins.

Director: Hao Jie 郝杰.

Rating: 6/10.

Lightly ironic village drama, built round traditional songs, is more secure in its second half.

STORY

A village in northern China, near the Inner Mongolian border, the mid-1950s. Eight-year-old Tie Dan (Shi Weicheng) is enamoured of Sister Mei (Ye Lan), a pretty young neighbour in her early 20s who has been taught traditional errentai 二人台 singing by his father (Feng Yun). He is upset when her husband appears and carts her off to West Side, in neighbouring Inner Mongolia province. In 1966, with the start of the Cultural Revolution, such singing is banned. Ten years later, Sister Mei (Du Huanrong) returns to the village and re-meets Tie Dan (Feng Si), now in his 20s. Tie Dan’s father, who went blind during the Cultural Revolution, has not sung since, even though traditional singing is now allowed. Sister Mei’s husband also turns up, along with her three daughters. Tie Dan and the first daughter (Ye Lan), who reminds him of the younger Sister Mei, are attracted to each other and are later caught having sex in an underground barn; however, she’s promised to a man from Inner Mongolia (Ilatu), who eventually comes to claim her and take her away. In compensation, and after advice from a village witch, Sister Mei offers her second daughter (Ge Xia), a mute, as Tie Dan’s bride. The pair unwillingly marry, and, still thinking of the first daughter, Tie Dan sets out on the road with the Inner Mongolian Hong Teng Errentai Troupe, of which he eventually becomes vice-leader. On a visit home, Tie Dan finds his wife is pregnant. Sister Mei then asks him to help her third daughter, Hao Yan (Ye Lan), to join the group. At her audition she performs a modern ballad by her idol, Taiwan singer Deng Lijun. It’s now the 1980s and, to keep its audience and stay solvent, the troupe is forced to modernise its act by performing contemporary ballads and pop songs. And on the road, the extrovert Hao Yan keeps coming on to him.

REVIEW

Less lusty than his first village film Single Man 光棍儿 (2010), more a semi-romantic tribute to a local musical culture, The Love Songs of Tiedan 美姐 is still marbled with a dry black comedy and rustic sexual frankness that totally reflects the locale in which it is set. Young writer-director Hao Jie 郝杰 again draws on his home region of “northwest China” – an area roughly grouping Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Ningxia and western Inner Mongolia – for a much longer-spanned story that moves from the mid-1950s to the early 1980s, following a villager, Tie Dan (“Iron Egg”), whose whole life is marked by his affection as a kid for Sister Mei (“Beautiful”), a pretty young singer of errentai 二人台 (two-person opera). When she returns to his village after the Cultural Revolution with three daughters in tow, he first falls for the eldest one (who reminds him of her mother) and, after that is stymied, later finds himself pursued by the third daughter (who also reminds him of her mother).

Hao has considerable fun by casting the same actress, 25-year-old Ye Lan 叶兰, in all three roles – which gives Chengdu-born Ye, who played the bought southern bride in Single Man, a star-making chance to strut her stuff with considerable variation (cute, quiet, extrovert). In the title role, Feng Si 冯四 is a little overshadowed by both her and the rest of the female cast, though his strong features and impassioned performance of traditional errentai songs – which are used to roughly parallel the main story – do much to compensate.

The film’s main weakness, compared with Single Man, is its lack of an overall tone. Hao’s tendency towards arty framing for its own sake, and ellipses in the action, get in the way of the narrative in the first half, sometimes making it difficult to follow, especially given the multiple family characters. The second half, and particularly the final half-hour that’s dominated by Ye’s character of the third daughter, is almost a different movie, with photography by Du Pu 杜普 (Single Man) markedly warmer and more richly hued, and Hao’s direction much more straightforward – to the benefit of the whole film. Editing by South Korea’s Baek Seung-hun 백승훈 | 白承勋, who also worked on All Apologies 爱的替身 (2012) by Tang Xiaobai 唐晓白, is cleaner in the latter half, while a modest piano score by Xiaohe 小河 (The Case 箱子, 2007) provides discreet support.

[The film’s Chinese title means “Sister Mei”.]

CREDITS

Presented by Beijing Yuan Qi Culture & Development (CN), Heaven Pictures (Beijing) Culture & Media (CN). Produced by Heaven Pictures (Beijing) Culture & Media (CN).

Script: Hao Jie, Ge Xia. Photography: Du Pu. Editing: Baek Seung-hun. Music: Xiaohe. Art direction: Li Cunwang. Sound: Pan Xiaolong.

Cast: Feng Si (Tie Dan), Ye Lan (young Sister Mei; adult first daughter of Sister Mei; Hao Yan, adult third daughter of Sister Mei), Feng Yun (Tie Dan’s father), Li Yuqin (Tie Dan’s mother), Hao Guoying (Tie Mei, Tie Dan’s younger sister), Hang Zhipeng (adult Leng San), Du Huanrong (adult Sister Mei), Miao Sanren (Hao Gui), Ge Xia (adult second daughter of Sister Mei/Tie Dan’s mute wife), Sun Yifan (young first daughter of Sister Mei; Xing/Apricot, Tie Dan’s daughter), Shi Weicheng (young Tie Dan), Li Kaijie (young Xiao Yan), Fan Jianyu (young second daughter of Sister Mei), Wang Hongjing (young Leng San), Sun Jingwen (young Tie Mei), Tian Weihu (Huhu), Fourth Daughter (village witch), Ilatu (Mongolian husband of Sister Mei’s first daughter).

Premiere: San Sebastian Film Festival (New Directors), 25 Sep 2012.

Release: China, 18 Oct 2013.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 25 Feb 2013.)