The Midsummer’s Voice

倒仓

China, 2024, colour, 1.85:1, 100 mins.

Director: Zhang Yudi 张裕笛.

Rating: 6/10.

A coming-of-age-one-summer movie, set among teenagers in a provincial opera school, is likeable and with an authentic setting, but doesn’t quite fulfil its promise.

STORY

A city in central China, summer 2014. Teenager Sun Xiaolei (Bian Cheng), whose grandfather Sun Yuanlei was a well-known Peking Opera singer and father Sun Jianjun (Liu Jun) runs an opera costume business, is a member of the Provincial Opera School, training in a class of eight that’s instructed by Wang (Zhang Chi). Sun Xiaolei and the six other boys in the class are at the age when their voices are about to break, which will require changes to their vocal technique. The sole girl in the group, the tomboyish Shi Jiahui (Zhou Mejun), is not affected by this but faces increasing pressure to take on female roles rather than the male ones she prefers. Along with other young members of the school, Sun Xiaolei auditions for the prestigious Sprout Award 小青苗 for promising talents. He fails to make the final three – who are composed of his classmates Shi Jiahui, playboy Xie Tianci (Chen Shaoxi), and Liu Yuhang (Zhou Yi’nan) – and hides the news from his father, who has high hopes his son will carry on the family tradition in Peking Opera. In his sexual innocence, Sun Xiaolei doesn’t realise than Shi Jiahui secretly likes him; one day she confidentially tells him it’s her 18th birthday, which technically disqualifies her from the Sprout Award. Sun Jianjun insists on coming to the school’s announcement and Sun Xiaolei panics that he’ll discover the truth. On the day, however, Liu Yuhang is disqualified because his voice has suddenly broken, and Sun Xiaolei takes his place, later travelling with Shi Jiahui, Xie Tianci and other classmates to the national competition. Shi Jiahui helps Sun Xiaolei when the time comes to perform before the jury. On a double date that evening, Xie Tianci and Shi Jiahui’s best friend Zheng Yiwen (Xu Shixin) go off alone together, leaving Sun Xiaolei alone with Shi Jiahui. She flirts with him but he’s very shy. Sun Xiaolei, Shi Jiahui and Xie Tianci get through to the next round and spend the summer together, becoming very close. But then, at the finals, Sun Xiaolei’s voice suddenly breaks and he passes out on stage.

REVIEW

A coming-of-age movie, but set among a group of pupils at a Peking Opera school rather than a senior high, The Midsummer’s Voice 倒仓 is a strong first feature by writer-director Zhang Yudi 张裕笛 that’s unfortunately let down by a colourless male lead. It’s not enough to sink the film, as the script surrounds him with interesting characters as well as plenty of atmosphere, both sexual and operatic. But it does prevent the film from fulfilling its inherent promise as a study of teenage sexuality in a rarified, very controlled setting. Shot back in the summer of 2022, it took a tiny RMB3.3 million on release in August 2024.

Beijing-born Zhang, 30, studied film at the University of Southern California, where her graduation work was Marie (2019), a 15-minute English-language short about a transgender woman who goes to visit her estranged father. The genesis of Voice goes back to a short that Zhang filmed in the summer of 2018 with the same Chinese title – 倒仓 dăocāng, Peking Opera slang for when a male singer’s voice breaks (see poster, left). Co-written with Huo Xueying 霍雪滢, known for her considerable knowledge of the Peking Opera world, it was gradually developed into the present feature with the additional help of Song Xiaochuan 宋小川, an experienced professional who’s credited with directing the film’s opera scenes and who can also be seen playing a respected master. The original short was played by Zhang Zhijie 张志杰, Zheng Qiandan 郑茜丹 and Song Chao 宋朝, and shot by Li Fannong 李樊农; the feature version was entirely re-cast and also has a new d.p., Yan Yu 言于, who’s also one of the two creative producers 监制.

Voice takes a while to reveal its true focus. During the opening half hour it apears to be a light drama centred on a shy teenage pupil at a provincial opera school. His grandfather was a well-known opera singer, and his widowed father, who runs an opera costume business, is still deeply attached to the art form and hopes his son will carry on the family tradition. Initially the plot looks like focusing on the boy’s inability to measure up to his father’s dreams: in an important competition for rising opera talent, he places fourth, not good enough to make the team being sent to the national finals – a fact he tries to hide from his father. When, at the half-hour mark, he does make it to the nationals after all – along with several classmates including a famous singer’s playboy son and a determined tomboy who prefers playing male roles to female ones – Voice finally reveals its true colours as a coming-of-age film that just happens to be set in a very rarified world.

The Peking Opera world is one where genders can often blur and the breaking of the male voice during puberty – seen as the mark of becoming “a real man” – can require major changes to technique. Our Shy Hero, Sun Xiaolei, is happy within its stylised confines, as he’s been raised in that world. But in the real world, he’s a sexual innocent, who can’t even see that his tomboy colleague, Shi Jiahui, really fancies him, and can’t even respond when she makes it clear. Though a more forthright character, and used to being “one of the boys”, Shi Jiahui also has her issues: already 18, she hides her fear of developing into a grown woman behind a preference for playing male roles on stage. Between the two is their playboy friend, Xie Tianci, who knows exactly what he wants as a teenager – and it’s not to follow his famous father on the stage.

As the film focuses on these three friends, it develops into a likeable it-happened-one-summer light drama, with the opera background remaining but not dominating the plot. For knowledgeable viewers, opera extracts are used with precision to delineate characters; otherwise, the performances by the young cast, playing roughly their real ages, are clear enough, especially by Zhou Meijun 周美君 (one of the two schoolgirls in Angels Wear White 嘉年华, 2017) as the tomboyish Shi Jiahui and Chen Shaoxi 陈少熙 (ironically, a real opera performer) as the easygoing Xie Tianci. As the central character, TV actor Bian Cheng 边程, then in his late teens, develops a little more character in the final stages but for much of the going leaves Sun Xiaolei as a frustrating blank. In older roles, Liu Jun 刘钧 is good as Sun Xiaolei’s strict but understanding father and Zhang Chi 张弛 notable as the pupil’s hard-driving teacher.

Bian and Zhou mime their singing convincingly, and the mostly gentle, fretted background score, by the busy Dong Dongdong 董冬冬, is effective, especially in underlining the film’s hot summer vibe. (Though the location is unspecified on screen, most of the shooting took place in Wuhan, central China, during a real summer.) Photography is smooth and natural, centred on the actors, with only the opera finale featuring more flashy camerawork. Editing by the experienced Kong Jinlei 孔劲蕾 (known for her work on artsy fare, as well as commercial movies) is clean, with no waste.

CREDITS

Presented by MaxTimes (Hubei) (CN), Hubei Yangtze River Film Group (CN), Hubei Media Group (CN), Unison Frame Pictures (Hubei) (CN), Beijing Zhengqian Media (CN). Produced by MaxTimes (Hubei) (CN).

Script: Huo Xueying, Zhang Yudi. Photography: Yan Yu. Editing: Kong Jinlei. Music: Dong Dongdong. Music direction: Chen Xi. Art direction: Xu Yao. Costumes: Li Yu. Styling: Liu Yimu. Sound: Li Ran (Wuhan), Qiao Mingzi (Beijing). Action: Wang Chuantao, Xiao Hanjun. Peking Opera direction: Song Xiaochuan. Executive direction: Ma Shuaifeng.

Cast: Bian Cheng (Sun Xiaolei), Zhou Meijun (Shi Jiahui), Zhang Chi (Wang, group’s instructor), Chen Shaoxi (Xie Tianci), Xu Shixin (Zheng Yiwen), Liu Jun (Sun Jianjun, Sun Xiaolei’s father), Song Xiaochuan (Zhang Yongming/Master Zhang), Yao Wen (Xie Zhengxi, Xie Tianci’s father), Zhou Yi’nan (Liu Yuhang), Xu Honggen (Yang).

Premiere: Far East Film Festival, Udine, Italy, 28 Apr 2024.

Release: China, 24 Aug 2024.