Chinese Doctors
中国医生
China, 2021, colour, 2.35:1, 127 mins.
Director: Liu Weiqiang 刘伟强 [Andrew Lau].
Rating: 6/10.
Wuhan-set Covid drama has a propulsive, convincing first half but slacker, over-doctrinaire second.
STORY
Wuhan city, Hubei province, central China, 30 Dec 2019. Wuhan Municipal Heath Commission announces an emergency over the outbreak of a pneumonia virus. Wen Ting (Yuan Quan), ICU head at Wuhan Jinyintan hospital, alerts her superiors and an emergency meeting is called by hospital head Zhang Jingyu (Zhang Hanyu). Wen Ting reports that the cases are from different districts with no overlapping. Yang Xiaoyang (Yi Yangqianxi), an inexperienced young doctor who’s just joined the hospital, says pharyngeal tests had showed no virus present; afterwards he is ticked off by Wen Ting for speaking out of turn. The hospital, which specialises in infectious diseases but is not large, is short of the necessary staff and equipment to deal with an emergency of this size; but Zhang Jingyu orders cases from other hospitals in the city to be admitted. The infection is diagnosed as a novel coronavirus, and patients start to die. On 12 Jan 2020 the National Health Commission shares the viral genome sequence with the World Health Organisation. On 18-19 Jan the commission organises a team to go to Wuhan to investigate; on 19 Jan the team hurries back to Beijing to report. Meanwhile, at Jinyintan hospital, oxygen supplies start to run out and some support staff leave in fear of their lives. Zhang Jingyu gives a pep talk to the medical staff, reminding them of their duty and saying help from central government is on its way. Wen Ting texts her daughter (Xie Jiatong) not to come home for Chinese New Year, which is in a week’s time. The hospital sets up a second ICU ward from scratch. On 23 Jan, from 10:00, all public transport in and out of Wuhan is suspended; panic buying hits the shops. As part of a national medical task force, quietly dedicated Shanghai doctor Wu Chenguang (Li Chen) is ordered to go immediately to Wuhan, despite the concern of his parents (Liu Wei, Liu Jia) and wife (Tong Liya). From Guangzhou, the fearless but short-tempered Tao Jun (Zhu Yawen) is ordered to join the task force. The hospital is now besieged by people wanting to be admitted, and panic breaks out until Wu Ting restores order, reminding people not to be selfish. Tired hospital staff start to feel the pressure. Zhou Ruoju (Ni Hongjie), Zhang Jingyu’s wife, reports symptoms but he can’t find a bed anywhere for her and refuses to pull rank. On 25 Jan the medical task force arrives and immediately starts work. A power cut hits the hospital amid mass emergencies and the inexperienced Yang Xiaoyang panics. At a candid meeting afterwards there is a discussion on whether or not to intubate patients, as the process increases the oxygen flow to the lungs but also increases the risk of infection. Everyone agrees too little is known about the virus so far. The mortality rate at the hospital continues to go up. Tao Jun tells Yang Xiaoyang to leave the ICU, as they can’t afford mistakes. Wen Ting has to ignore a request from an old friend for a bed, as none are available. On 27 Jan another task force arrives, to strengthen controls in the city, carry out large-scale disinfection, and bring in supplies. In 10-12 days two new mobile hospitals are constructed, providing badly needed beds. Zhou Ruoju is finally taken to hospital, as well as Xiaowen (Zhou Ye), the pregnant young wife of delivery man Jin Zhigang (Ou Hao). As the latter’s condition worsens, Wen Ting wants to perform a Caesarean but others, including chief anaesthesiologist Xin Wei (Feng Wenjuan), object. Zhang Jingyu orders the risky operation to go ahead. Meanwhile, the mortality rate in Wuhan, and Hubei province in general, is still increasing.
REVIEW
The first major Covid drama made in the Mainland, Chinese Doctors 中国医生 is a largely involving, cameo-studded production that centres on the first three months of the pandemic as experienced by the staff of a real-life Wuhan hospital that bore much of the brunt. It’s the latest large-scale Mainland outing by veteran film-maker Liu Weiqiang 刘伟强 [Andrew Lau], 61, the only Hong Kong director – with the arguable exception of Wang Jing 王晶 [Wong Jing] – to have fully embraced Mainland prestige productions (PLA blockbuster The Founding of an Army 建军大业, 2017; aeroplane drama The Captain 中国机长, 2019). Made with many of the same crew and cast as The Captain (though in contrasted roles), it’s not on the same level as that crackerjack thriller and becomes slacker and over-doctrinaire in its second half; but like The Captain it benefits from Liu’s typically procedural, semi-documentary approach, with edgy hand-held camerawork, brisk editing, tight dialogue and no-nonsense performances. In a slow summer, it proved a major hit in the Mainland, taking a meaty RMB1.3 billion and overshadowing CPC centenary productions 1921 1921 (RMB504 million) and The Pioneer 革命者 (RMB135 million), both released a week earlier.
Like The Captain, it’s scripted by Yu Yonggan 于勇敢 (literally, “Brave Yu”), pen name of film academic Yu Yanlin 于彦琳, who previously wrote firefighter drama The Bravest 烈火英雄 (2019), another tribute to Chinese public-service heroism, as well as contributing to the script of cancer melodrama A Little Red Flower 送你一朵小红花 (2020), a surprise turn-of-the-year hit. Instead of trying to cover the whole of Wuhan – a city of over 10 million on the banks of the Yangtze – her screenplay concentrates on the real-life Wuhan Jinyintan hospital, a smallish operation specialising in infectious diseases that found itself at the epicentre of the pandemic.
The hospital’s real-life head, 56-year-old Zhang Dingyu 张定宇, is fictionalised as Zhang Jingyu 张竞予, meatily played by veteran tough-guy Zhang Hanyu 张涵予 (the taciturn lead in The Captain) with a thick Wuhan accent, theatrical limp and hair-trigger temper. He’s rejoined by several players from the previous film, including under-rated actress Yuan Quan 袁泉, 43, in a leading role as the tireless ICU head, and the versatile Zhu Yawen 朱亚文, 37, as a ballsy Cantonese doctor from Guangzhou. Though the action sometime fans out around the city, its dramatic epicentre remains the hospital and its staff, with only one substantial plotline (a pregnant young woman and her devoted delivery-man husband, played by actor-singer Ou Hao 欧豪, the cocky co-pilot in The Captain) taking place among the city’s normal inhabitants.
In that respect, much of the drama and excitement is of the A&E kind, with cases rushing in, much running and shouting, and discussions of whether or not to intubate as numbers flash up on screens. The editing (by Hong Kong’s Huang Hai 黄海 this time) and hand-held camerawork (by former d.p. Liu and regular Feng Yuanwen 冯远文 [Edmond Fung]) is occasionally too fast for the emergencies to fully register, but as these sequences are the only opportunities for physical action it’s understandable why the film-makers sometimes over-play them. Character conflict is terse and pragmatic, with no long story arcs or internal politics. Only after the on-the-nose first half, with its realistic mixture of panic, mistakes, accidents, public selfishness and bureaucratic caution, does the film become more introspective and doctrinaire, carefully ironing out characters’ faults and underlining the central themes of victory through mass effort and that life goes on.
As in the best hospital dramas (mostly on TV), there’s a real sense of veracity in the medical sequences (kudos to Hong Kong art director Zhuo Wenyao 卓文耀 [Andrew Cheuk]) and in the sheer weariness among staff working round the clock, with faces marked by the perpetual wearing of masks. Behind all the PPE, it’s often difficult to recognise who’s who, though names are handwritten in Chinese on the front of plastic gowns. But in the event a large number of name cameos whizz by, hardly registering; in line with the film’s title, Liu has made the whole hospital (and, by inference, the country’s whole medical workforce) the thing, rather than individual players.
Without overpowering the film, Zhang, 57, fills the shoes of the driven hospital head with a focused intensity, handling both official pep talks and quieter moments with conviction. As the ICU head, and de facto deputy in the emergency, Yuan shows a realistic balance between duty and pragmatism, balancing in a quieter way the more forceful presence of Zhu as the Cantonese doctor who doesn’t tolerate amateurs. Baby-faced Mainland boybander Yi Yangqianxi 易烊千玺 (Better Days 少年的你, 2019; A Little Red Flower) is suitably cast as a green young doctor who learns on the job, though he hardly rises above the cliches of the role, while actress Feng Wenjuan 冯文娟 (The Perfect Victim 完美受害人, 2021) makes as much as possible of the underwritten role of the sharp-tongued chief anaesthesiologist.
At just over two hours, Chinese Doctors is 15-20 minutes too long, with the second half – after a tight, propulsive first – noticeably light on new drama and padded out with soppy soundtrack songs and heroic exhortations. A small amount of actual documentary footage is included at the end, as the narrative, which started on 30 Dec 2019, ends on 8 Apr 2020 as the city’s 76-day lockdown is lifted. The film was shot in Wuhan, and other locations, from Oct to Dec 2020.
CREDITS
Presented by Guangdong Bona Film Group (CN), Pearl River Film Group (CN), Hubei Yangtze River Film Group (CN), China Film (CN), Huaxia Film Distribution (CN), Alibaba Pictures (Beijing) (CN).
Script: Yu Yonggan. Photography: Liu Weiqiang [Andrew Lau], Feng Yuanwen [Edmond Fung]. Editing: Huang Hai. Music: Chen Guangrong [Comfort Chan], Chen Yongjian. Art direction: Zhuo Wenyao [Andrew Cheuk]. Costume design: Li Bijun [Lee Pik-kwan]. Sound: Chen Hui, Yao Junxuan. Action: Li Dachao. Visual effects: Huang Hongda, Xie Yiwen, He Zhongning (vfxNova).
Cast: Zhang Hanyu (Zhang Jingyu, Jinyintan hospital head), Yuan Quan (Wen Ting, ICU head), Zhu Yawen (Tao Jun, doctor from Guangzhou), Li Chen (Wu Chenguang, doctor from Shanghai), Yi Yangqianxi (Yang Xiaoyang, young doctor), Ou Hao (Jin Zhigang/Jin Zai, delivery man), Feng Wenjuan (Xin Wei, chief anaesthesiologist), Geng Le (Jiang Yayuan), Liang Dawei (Zhao Jinsheng, ICU staff), Xiao’ai (Wan Dongfang), Zhang Yamei (Ma Xiaoning), Yang Qiru (Zhang Lu), Ye He (Huang Chaoyang), Gao Ge (Zhou Yong, first dead patient), Bao Dan (Zhou Yong’s fan), Zhang Jia’ni (lab worker), Shi Xiaolong (power-division head), Ni Hongjie (Zhou Ruoju, Zhang Jingyu’s wife), Zhou Ye (Xiaowen, Jin Zai’s pregnant wife), Huang Jinkun (Guangzhou hospital head), Li Yimin (Guangzhou hospital party secretary), Liu Lin (Yang Xiaoyang’s mother), Gao Tian (support worker), Tong Liya (Wu Chenguang’s wife), Lai Xi (Zhang Jixing, patient), Yu Ailei, Yin Xiaotian (Hubei provincial leaders), Zhang Duo (Duoduo, young girl volunteer), Mei Ting (Xu Hui), Wang Ting (He Siyuan), Zhou Bichang (Du Jian), Xie Jiatong (Wen Ting’s daughter), Song Jia (Huang Jiahui, chief obstetrician), Yu Feihong (Lin Zhonglu), Zhang Zifeng (Zhang Xiaofeng, Zhang Jixing’s daughter), Gu Jiacheng (grandson of body donor), Zhang Tian’ai (Zhou Lan, nurse from Liaoning), Li Qin (Xiang Nanfang, nurse from Jiangsu), Hu Ming (Huoshenshan hospital doctor), Huang Lu (sick woman), Feng Shaofeng (Shang Zheng), Zhang Songwen (Huang Xiaoyang), Lai Xiaosheng (Zhao), Jia Ling (Jia, doctor), Liu Xueqing (Liu, doctor), Hu Daling (Hu, head nurse), Tong Xin (Tong, nurse), Ran Xiao (Ran, doctor), Jiang Linyan (Tang Xiaoshan), Liu Jia (Wu Chenguang’s mother), Liu Wei (Wu Chenguang’s father), Yu Peishan (Xiaoma), Zhao Ningyu (specialist), Wan Guopeng, Wang Zhao, Shi Haozheng, Zhao Linhe (food delivery men), Zhao Liang (Li, fattie), John F. Cruz (Bruce), Wang Zichen (worker in 120), Qu Shaoshi (haematology worker), Sang Ling.
Release: China, 9 Jul 2021.