The Photographer
照相师
China, 2018, colour, 2.35:1, 100 mins.
Director: Zhang Wei 张唯.
Rating: 4/10.
Family drama celebrating 40 years of Shenzhen’s economic development is efficient but uninvolving.
STORY
Bao’an county, Guangdong province, southern China, 23 Aug 1978. Cai Anguo (Liu Mu) is one of many trying to swim along the coast during a typhoon to illegally enter Hong Kong. The rebellious son of photographer Cai Xiangren (Xie Gang), he has tried several times to follow his mother Lian, who attempted the same journey to earn money in Hong Kong but has not been heard from since. Cai Anguo fails again and is arrested but let go by the authorities. On 26 Aug 1980 the idea of making Bao’an county (renamed Shenzhen city in 1979) a “special economic zone” is approved by the National People’s Congress, and Cai Xiangren opens a photo studio, in which his son also works. In 1982 some 20,000 PLA soldiers arrives to help with construction of the SEZ, and Cai Anguo befriends an official PLA photographer, Liu Beifang (Ma Dongyan). In 1985, Cai Anguo is smuggling gold across the border on Zhongying Street between Shenzhen and Hong Kong, in cahoots with Chen Wenjuan (Juanzi). She’s 30, five years older than him. In Jul 1987 she visits his home; after falling down the stairs she discovers she’s pregnant. They marry and have a son, Cai Zhengxiong; and Cai Anguo starts his own wedding-photography business. By 1992 the economy in Shenzhen is booming and thousands of migrant workers are flocking there. They need photos for IDs, so business for Cai Anguo is good. In August the Shenzhen Development Bank has another issue of shares and millions snap them up. Chen Wenjuan becomes interested in the stock market and acts as a broker for neighbours and friends; like his father, Cai Anguo distrusts share-dealing and says he wants to open a factory. At a birthday dinner for Cai Xiangren family tensions boil over and Chen Wenjuan moves out that night. In Dec 1996 the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets crash; Cai Xiangren tracks down Chen Wenjuan and gives her his shares from the SZDB’s original share offer so she can pay back friends and neighbours. On 1 Jul 1997 there’s the Hong Kong Handover, and Cai Xiangren has a talk with his son about his mother. In 2007 Cai Zhengxiong (Kang Lei) starts at Shenzhen University; but the US mortgage crisis triggers a slowdown in China and a technology company in which Cai Wenjuan has invested goes bankrupt. However, she settles the problem and finally reunites with her family. After graduating, Cai Zhengxiong sets up his own company, Huahao Science & Technology, but faces major challenges along the way.
REVIEW
It took 17 scriptwriters, two literary consultants and three script consultants to forge The Photographer 照相师, a conventional and rather bland tribute to Shenzhen city, just across the border from Hong Kong, on the 40th anniversary of the Mainland’s economic reform. Basically a family drama hung on the development of Shenzhen as a “special economic zone” founded on technology, it follows three generations from 1977 to 2018 as the family business evolves from traditional still photography, through wedding portraits and early digital photography, to high-res snaps on mobile phones, mirroring Shenzhen’s growth into a modern megalopolis. It took a blah RMB28 million on release in late 2018.
Though its quotidian atmosphere is pretty typical of the half-dozen-or-so features by Hunan-born director Zhang Wei 张唯, 55, it’s the least interesting in execution and content, and has none of the underpinning of a specific social issue that most of his movies have (child autism in Destiny, 喜禾; blindness in Ballad from Tibet 天籁梦想, 2017; gender surgery in The Rib 肋骨, 2018; old-age loneliness in The Empty Nest 空•巢, 2020). The Photographer looks like a commissioned project, does its job professionally, but is never far from a date caption as the story crawls from 40 years ago to the year of release (2018). The recurrent chaptering, with descriptions, as well as broader chapter divisions into decades or shorter, gets in the way of really becoming involved with the main characters, despite the actors’ efforts.
Actor Xie Gang 谢钢 (Blood 13 血十三, 2018), son of the late director Xie Tian 谢添 and a veteran of official dramas, gives the film a strong, chucklesome spine, while Liu Mu 刘牧 is better in the later scenes as his once-rebellious son and Juanzi 涓子 projects strongly as the son’s wife who’s more into share-dealing than photography. Despite its title, the film never shows any great interest in the finer points of the profession, though it always looks okay in the widescreen photography by Hong Kong’s Lin Binghua 林炳华 (Men Suddenly in Black 大丈夫, 2003; David Loman 大尾鲈鳗, 2013). Editing by the experienced Zhou Xinxia 周新霞 is conventional but gets the job done, as does the score by Lao Zai 捞仔 [Loudboy] which is emotional but restrained. Period detail is okay without drawing attention to itself. The film was shot where it’s set, around Shenzhen and Huizhou in Guangdong province.
CREDITS
Presented by Huahao Film & Media (CN).
Script: Zhang Min, Li Dan, Chen Ruirui, Ge Lou, Lian Xiufeng, Yang Haibo, Chen Yong, Li Yanbo, Chu Jianfu, Du Zhihua, Yu Gezi, Fu Yin, Lei Chengyun, Dai Bing, Wang Yi, Chen Kangtai, Chu Zheng. Photography: Lin Binghua. Editing: Zhou Xinxia. Music: Lao Zai [Loudboy]. Art direction: Zhang Nan. Sound: Gu Changning. Executive direction: Yang Qiming.
Cast: Xie Gang (Cai Xiangren), Liu Mu (Cai Anguo), Kang Lei (Cai Zhengxiong/Xiongzai), Juanzi (Chen Wenjuan), Qin Chuming (Zhao Weimin), Ma Dongyan (Liu Beifang, PLA photographer), Yu Huiyi (Mei), Shang Ze (Dai Wei), Zhang You (Li Dake, dormitory roommate), Fang Ziyi (Ding Weiwei), Liu Yulong (Fattie), Lyuda (Annie, Cai Zhengxiong’s American girlfriend), Li Wenzhong (village head), Han Ying (soldier), Wang Ying (female neighbour), Yang Zicheng (taxi driver).
Premiere: Hainan Film Festival (Opening Film), China, 9 Dec 2018.
Release: China, 12 Dec 2018.