In Search of Lost Time
海的尽头是草原
China, 2022, colour, 2.35:1, 123 mins.
Director: Er Dongsheng 尔冬升 [Derek Yee].
Rating: 4/10.
Light drama based on the 1960 relocation of 3,000 Han orphans to Inner Mongolia lacks dramatic traction.
STORY
China. (In the late 1950s the country was ravaged by natural disasters, and victims in the Yangtze river delta had flooded into coastal cities like Shanghai. In southern China nurseries had become crowded with children. On a chaotic, rain-swept street in Shanghai, Zhang Fengxia [Wang Churan], the mother of young Du Siheng [Luo Yichun], had desperately searched for her husband Du Yi [Zhang Ming’en]). In the present day Zhang Fengxia (Li Bin), who now has Alzheimer’s, is visited by her son, Du Sihan (Chen Baoguo). He takes over the job of searching for his elder sister, Du Siheng, that has occupied his mother all her life. In a village, he tracks down a man called Deng Xianfeng (Xu Huanshan) who once gave some clues to Zhang Fengxia some 20-30 years ago as to Du Siheng’s whereabouts. Du Sihan knows his sister was sent to Shanghai No. 3 Orphanage, but Deng Xianfeng says it was all so chaotic back then. (In 1959, after a report on the orphan situation in the south by Kang [Wu Yufang], chairwoman of the All-China Women’s Federation, premier Zhou Enlai had ordered other provinces to help and Inner Mongolia had been among those offering supplies. As Deng Xianfeng [Bai Yufan] had once lived in the provincial capital Hohhot, Wang had put him in charge of the operation. When he arrived in Baotou city, he was told to bring orphans to the province rather than the province sending scarce supplies down south.) Deng Xianfeng gives Du Sihan an address for Unumunkh (Ayurdari), an Inner Mongolian civil servant who was involved with the transfer of orphans at that time. Du Sihan immediately flies to Inner Mongolia: he hasn’t much time to find his sister as, unknown to most people, he has a brain tumour and only six to nine months to live. He’s met by a driver, Dbu (Atgon), who has no sense of urgency. (In 1959 Unumunkh [Suryaa] had visited the Shanghai orphanage, which was packed with mostly girls. In spring 1960 the first orphans, including Du Siheng, had arrived in Inner Mongolia, where locals had built nurseries and engaged the whole population in the project. At Han Uul commune, Du Siheng, who still missed her mother, had proved quite a handful but she was eventually tamed by a volunteer, Sarnaa [Ma Su]. She has a son of her own, Namuuhan [Wang Qiang], who has a speech impediment, and a husband, Ider [Ayanga], who is away in the army.) Du Sihan can’t find out who Du Siheng was adopted by but is given the name of someone who was a fellow-orphan at the time, Huang Baoge (Bayan), now a successful cattle breeder out on the grasslands. Du Sihan meets him and his old friends (Baasanjav, Jambal, Chanart) from those days, who decide to tell Du Sihan what exactly happened to his sister.
REVIEW
Six years after his last feature, the good-looking but undramatic swordplay movie Sword Master 三少爷的剑 (2016), Hong Kong actor-turned-director Er Dongsheng 尔冬升 [Derek Yee], 64, makes a soft return with the 100% Mainland-funded In Search of Lost Time 海的尽头是草原, a flashback-heavy light drama in which a man searches for his long-lost sister in the northern province of Inner Mongolia. Er’s 18th feature in an up-and-down directing career, it’s a long way from his last major movie, classy period comedy The Great Magician 大魔术师 (2012), and even further away from earlier successes like C’est la vie, mon cheri 新不了情 (1993), One Night in Mongkok 旺角黑夜 (2004) or Protégé 门徒 (2007). Based on a true event in 1960, when some 3,000 Han orphans from flood-hit southern China were resettled in Inner Mongolia, the film has a plodding, dutiful feel as a dying man in the present tries to find out what happened to his sibling 60 years ago. After opening this year’s Beijing film festival in August, it went on to take a nothing RMB36 million.
Lost Time reunites Er with Shanghai-born, Hong Kong-based creative producer Li Jinwen 李锦文, who worked on The Great Magician. But the star of the movie is actually the widescreen photography of the endless northern grasslands by versatile Hong Kong d.p. Chen Weinian 陈伟年, who’s risen up through the ranks with Er over the years, from second-unit work to camera operator on Er’s film-extra wannabe comedy I Am Somebody 我是路人甲 (2015) prior to being co-d.p. on Sword Master. Chen has also done notable work on other Hong Kongers’ movies in the Mainland, like My War 我的战争 (2016, dir. Peng Shun 彭顺 [Oxide Pang]) and Jade Dynasty I 诛仙I (2019, Cheng Xiaodong 程小东 [Tony Ching]). But spectacular as they are, Chen’s landscapes still aren’t enough to sustain a two-hour film with so little dramatic traction.
Looking very like Er himself, veteran actor Chen Baoguo 陈宝国, 66, returns to the big screen after a long absence as Du Sihan, who belatedly takes it upon himself – after hearing he has only months to live – to track down his long-lost sister. With its manufactured plot and flashbacks, the first half-hour is clumsily constructed and the grumpy Du Sihan is hardly a sympathetic character. Eventually the film settles down with longer flashbacks to the sister’s story, as she’s relocated to Inner Mongolia among a people, culture and language that are radically different from her southern Han upbringing. Sparky young actress Luo Yichun 罗意淳, 7, and later Ai Mi 艾米, 14, as the teenage girl, do good jobs in drawing her alienation, while dancer-turned-actress Ma Su 马苏, 41 – so good as the heroine’s BFF in Suddenly Seventeen 28岁未成年 (2016) – anchors the flashback sections with an unglamorous portrayal of the girl’s adoptive Mongolian mother. But the film as a whole would have worked so much better, and developed some emotional power, if it had been set entirely in the past.
The heavily desaturated colour used for the flashbacks hardly impinges on the film’s clean, handsome look. However, the portrayal of 1960s Inner Mongolia is standard generic, with a well-laundered look, happy grasslands life and lots of local ethnic colour (nomad games etc.). The score by Hong Kong’s prolific Jin Peida 金培达 [Peter Kam] is gentle and respectful, with an ethnic flavour, and supports rather than invigorates the leisurely pacing.
A good chunk of the dialogue is in Mongolian. The film’s Chinese title literally means “At the End of the Sea Is Grassland”.
CREDITS
Presented by Inner Mongolian Film Group (CN), Beijing Bona Film Group (CN), Huaxia Film Distribution (CN), Alibaba Pictures (Beijing) (CN). Produced by Inner Mongolian Film Group (CN), Beijing Bona Film Group (CN), Huaxia Film Distribution (CN), Alibaba Pictures (Beijing) (CN), Inner Mongolia Film Studio (CN), Inner Mongolia Cultural Industry Development Fund (CN), Shanghai Bona Cultural Media (CN), Beijing Bona International Cineplex Investment & Management (CN).
Script: Shang Yang, Shi Ling. Adaptation: Er Dongsheng [Derek Yee], Li Miao. Photography: Chen Weinian. Editing: Li Ruiliang. Music: Jin Peida [Peter Kam]. Art direction: Wu Zhen, Ma Beibei. Costumes: Ru Meiqi. Styling: Ru Meiqi. Sound: An Yuxuan, Guo Xiaoshi, Yao Junxuan. Action: Song Guangpeng. Special effects: Wen Yi. Visual effects: Chen Zhijie.
Cast: Chen Baoguo (Du Sihan), Ma Su (Sarnaa), Ayanga (Ider, Sarnaa’s husband), Wang Qiang (Namuuhan, Sarnaa’s son), Luo Yichun (young Du Siheng), Wang Churan (Zhang Fengxia), Huang Yao (Zhao Mingna), Bai Yufan (young Deng Xianfeng), Cao Jun (Li Defu, teacher), Zhang Ming’en (Du Yi), Ding Chengxin (Ma Zhengyuan), Li Bin (old Zhang Fengxia), Xu Huanshan (Deng Xianfeng), Ayurdari (Unumunkh), Uujim (Tuya), Bayan (old Huang Baoge), Baasanjav (old Nars), Jambal (old Batu), Chanart (old Khongor), Badamaa (old Du Siheng), Kham (old Sarnaa), Cao Yang (Aunt Wu), Wu Yufang (Kang, All-China Women’s Federation chairwoman), Shen Kai (Wang, Party secretary), Zhang Qian (Deng Xiaomeng), Zhulaa (Bai Bing), Atgon (Dbu, Du Sihan’s driver), Pan Yunde (Chen, doctor), Suryaa (young Unumunkh), Tanaa (young Tuya), Chu Jian (orphanage head), Wang Zhao (Wang, cadre), Aruna (health department cadre), Tsars (civil affairs department cadre), Mi Ke (young Ma Zhengyuan), Gegeensuvd (Chimeg, nursery volunteer), Hurts (Suhee, director), Qianshu (young Huang Baoge), Nomindalai (Tulguur), Khorovoo (Nars), Bayalag (Batu), Uyanga (Khongor), Senggerenqin (adopted man), Oyunsan (Father Ochir, wild old man), Ai Mi (teenage Du Siheng), Lin Ruogu (Huang Baoge), Soyoldalai (Bazar, husband of Du Siheng), Xu Yichen (young Du Sihan), Kong Lingping (Ma Zhengyuan’s father).
Premiere: Beijing Film Festival (Opening Film, Tiantan Award), 13 Aug 2022.
Release: China, 9 Sep 2022.