Malan Flower Blooms
马兰花开
China, 2018, colour, 2.35:1, 91 mins.
Directors: Wu Shuang 吴双, Huang Xiaojiang 黄笑江.
Rating: 4/10.
Routine village drama centred on an idealistic Party worker embroiled in a clan feud.
STORY
Bafeng village, Hubei province, central China, the present day. Ma Lan (Kong Yinghong) arrives back in her home village after completing her post-graduate Party studies, having asked to be posted there to “achieve my dream”; in so doing, she has also split up with her boyfriend of seven years, Qianghao (Kong Junying). Ma Lan’s mother (Xu Mingxiu), now widowed, cannot understand why she has come back and why she’s ditched Qianghao. On her first day back, Ma Lan asks to be put in charge of a dispute over the demolition of a fish shed owned by Hu Xijin (Lu Wenfei) to make way for a new road that local Party secretary Ma Zaiquan (Ni Tu) – Ma Lan’s uncle – has been tasked with pushing through. The mayor (Li Baolong) appoints Ma Lan first secretary of the village so she can carry out her duties. The dispute opens up 10-year-old wounds between the Hu and Ma clans and quickly escalates into a full-scale confrontation. Ma Lan, whose own father was head of Ma township, persuades both sides to go home by promising to reach a fair solution. She finds herself at odds with Ma Zaiquan, who’s been responsible for Hu Xijun’s younger son, Hu Xiao (Zhang Bo), getting 15 days’ detention for disturbing the peace. Ma Zaiquan also resents being lectured by Ma Lan, whom he sees as a rookie postgraduate with no grassroots experience. Ma Lan manages to get Hu Xiao released early and win his trust. She then attends a Party conference in Wuxue city centred on giving more responsibilities to non-professional Party members. But when she returns to the village, she finds she has more trouble to deal with in the feud between the two families.
REVIEW
After postgraduate studies a dedicated Party worker returns to her home village and tries to sort out a clan feud in Malan Flower Blooms 马兰花开, a routine CPC drama co-directed by former stuntman-turned-journeyman film-maker Wu Shuang 吴双. The story’s central point is the clash between theory and practice in dealing with grassroot problems – here, pushing through a road-construction government scheme – as the idealistic worker comes up against a veteran Party member who’s also her uncle. But despite natural performances by most of the cast, the movie is let down by a wooden, almost 1950s-style performance from lead actress Kong Yinghong 孔莹虹 and a script that vacillates between being a Party recruitment pamphlet and a more human look at conflicted village relationships. Despite the lack of any real drama, technically the film is smooth, with especially good widescreen photography of the Hubei landscape by d.p. Wang Ruike 王瑞珂. Box office was a microscopic RMB380,000.
Malan 马兰, aka Indian aster, is a herbaceous flower used in East Asian cooking; in the film the word is used as the name of the heroine, in which case it is written Ma Lan. The film has no connection with an identically titled 1956 release, directed by Li Enjie 李恩杰 and starring Shanghai actress Qin Yi 秦怡 – apart from being centred on a dedicated Party worker (see poster, left).
CREDITS
Presented by Hubei Jianhong Film & TV Culture & Media (CN), Henan Huanyu Film & TV Production (CN).
Script: Chen Jichun, Xiao Ping. Photography: Wang Ruike. Editing: Lian Weijing. Music production: Ji Yafei. Art direction: Yang Lin. Styling: Zhao Hai. Sound: Zhu Kaishuai. Executive direction: Tian Ge.
Cast: Ni Tu (Ma Zaiquan, Party secretary), Kong Yinghong (Ma Lan), Lu Wenfei (Hu Xijin, fish-shed owner), Chen Jing (Chen Ying, Ma Lan’s high-school friend), Zhang Bo (Hu Xiao, Hu Xijin’s younger son), Li Zhanjun (Niu Deli, Party committee deputy head), Pang Lei (Hu Gang, Hu Xijin’s older son), Sun Xiyao (Ma Chao), Kong Junying (Qianghao, Ma Lan’s boyfriend), Zhang Zhiliang (Jiang Chun, Ma Lan’s former fellow student), Zhou Ling (Ma Chao’s mother), Xu Mingxiu (Ma Lan’s mother), Li Baolong (Cao, mayor), Song Yuhuan (Hu Gang’s wife), Ye Jin’gen (Hu Jinliang), Jin Sangfen (Hong, mayor’s office staffer).
Release: China, 26 Jun 2018.