Mumu
不说话的爱
China, 2025, colour, 1.85:1, 110 mins.
Director: Sha Mo 沙漠.
Rating: 6/10.
Drama about a deaf father battling for custody of his young daughter has a strong cast (especially actor-singer Zhang Yixing) but a more conventional third act.
STORY
Yujiang city, somewhere in China, the present day. Sign-language interpreter Ma Mumu (Zhang Ruonan) is brought in by the police when a deaf waitress at a hotpot restaurant is accused by her boss (Liang Chao) of stealing money. Under police questioning, the waitress insists she wanted to leave the job and the money was just wages owed to her that the owner refused to pay. Highly emotional, she has difficulty expressing herself, so Ma Mumu tries to win her confidence, explaining how she grew up with deaf people, including her father. She tells the police that she is sure the waitress is innocent. (Back in 2010, when Ma Mumu was seven years old, she was a cute, self-possessed young girl, adored by her deaf-mute father, Ma Da [Zhang Yixing], a jobbing repair man, who’d raised her on his own since his wife Xiaojing [Huang Yao] had divorced him five years earlier. One day, Xiaojing had suddenly returned, wanting to take custody of Ma Mumu to give her a better life. When Ma Da had refused, Xiaojing, who had since remarried and had a young stepson, said she would take him to court. One of Ma Da’s circle had recommended a woman, Li Mei [An Tian], who was used to working with deaf people and knew a lawyer, Chen Zhicheng [Li Dong], who could represent Ma Da. To improve his chances of winning the case, Li Mei had told Ma Da to get Ma Mumu out of the illegal majiang parlour where they’d been living with other deaf people and into a school as soon as possible. Thanks to a friend, Hong [Ailiya], Ma Da had found a job as a cleaner in a hotel but got many complaints because of his deafness. Finally, he had agreed to join a gang, led by Zhao Liang [Yuan Wenkang] and Li Mei, which faked car crashes to get the insurance money. However, one night, without her father’s knowledge, Ma Mumu had stowed away in a car he was due to crash.)
REVIEW
The close relationship between a deaf father and his self-possessed seven-year-old daughter is put to the test when her mother suddenly returns and tries to get legal custody in Mumu 不说话的爱, the second theatrical feature by Beijing-born director Sha Mo 沙漠, 35, following his generic but excellently played youth romance Love Will Tear Us Apart 我要我们在一起 (2021). The film shares the same creative producer – Taiwan-born, Mainland-based Chen Guofu 陈国富, prominently billed at the start – and one of Love’s writers – generic youth scribe Fu Dandi 付丹迪, 35 (Lost and Found 以年为单位的恋爱, 2021; My Blue Summer 暗恋 橘生淮南, 2022) – and is largely told, like Love, in flashback. It unfortunately becomes more conventional and didactic as it progresses but is rescued by the lead performances, especially newcomer Li Luo’an 李珞桉 as the cute but sassy Mumu and actor/Mandopop singer Zhang Yixing 张艺兴 (the lead in hit scamming drama No More Bets 孤注一掷, 2023) as her devoted but hopeless father. Box office was less than half of Love’s but, at RMB144 million, okay for such specialised appeal.
The film was inspired by a 23-minute short (see left) that Sha earlier made, about a young deaf-and-dumb couple, their six-year-old daughter Mumu, and an older neighbourhood friend who’s partly deaf-and-dumb and very close to Mumu. The short, which premiered on the iQiyi platform on 23 Jan 2022, had the same Chinese title as Mumu – which literally means “Dumb Love” or “The Love That Cannot Speak” – but no official English one. Though it had many of the same crew (writer Fu, d.p. Li Jianeng 黎佳能, editor Chen Cheng 陈诚, composer Li He 李赫, soundman Tu Hao 涂灏), it had a different cast, with Yang Enyou 杨恩又 as Mumu and Hong Kong veteran Hui Yinghong 惠英红 [Kara Hui] in a heartfelt performance as the friendly, impaired neighbour with her own family problems.
Sha felt that the subject-matter demanded feature-length treatment, so Mumu was born, though with major changes. In the short, the drama centred on Mumu, despite being born with her full faculties, refusing to speak and join the “normal world” in an act of solidarity with her parents and their friend. In the feature, the young girl is now seven, her mother divorced her father five years ago and re-married, her devoted father struggles to raise her on his own, and in so doing gets caught up in a scamming operation. In addition, the story is framed as a memory flashback by the adult, 20-something Mumu, who now works as a sign-language interpreter and is helping the police question a deaf women wrongly accused of theft by her shifty boss.
After being a fairly routine young-daughter-and-deaf-dad story for the first 40 minutes, the film shifts gears and become a much darker drama when the father – desperate for money to fight the custody battle – is inveigled into joining a gang that crashes cars in order to gain the insurance. He’s lured in by a so-called friend who recommends a glamorous scammer (icily portrayed by 30-year-old, US-born An Tian 安沺 [Vivienne Tien], The Unseen Sister 乔妍的心事, 2024) who preys on deaf people, and the father’s move almost leds to tragedy. Around the 70-minute mark, the film becomes less dark and more emotional as the story’s parameters change; when the story returns to the present day, it becomes very didactic on the situation of deaf/mute people in society. The incredibly slow end titles account for 12 minutes of the total running time.
As the well-meaning but sappy father, Changsha-born Zhang, 33, is very impressive, not only laying aside his whole background as a boybander/rapper (under the name Lay) but also blending seamlessly into a cast where all the impaired roles are played by actual deaf people. It’s also a totally different role from, say, his ambitious young programmer in No More Bets or his stand-up comic in the Changsha-set Tale of the Night 长沙夜生活 (2023). Chemistry with the seven-year-old Li, who manages to blend cuteness with resilience, is good. As the girl’s absent mother, the always dependable Huang Yao 黄尧 (The Crossing 过春天, 2018; The Italian Recipe 遇见你之后, 2022; Raid on the Lethal Zone 绝地追击, 2023) balances a difficult role, while Zhang Ruonan 章若楠 (so good as the lead in Love Life Light 照明商店, 2023) is believable as the adult Mumu.
As in the short, the soundtrack occasionally cuts out to underline the father’s sonic isolation from his daughter’s world. The conventional, soupy score by Chinese American composer Li (Warm Hug 温暖的抱抱, 2020; To Be with You 我的青春有个你, 2021; 0.1% World 好想去你的世界爱你, 2022) is typical of her film work and comes into its own in the film’s more melodramatic later stages. Though the story is set in the fictional city of Yujiang, the film was actually shot in Chongqing, central China.
CREDITS
Presented by CKF Pictures (Ningbo) (CN), iQiyi Pictures (Beijing) (CN), Shanghai Taopiaopiao Movie & TV Culture (CN), Zhujiang Film & Media (CN), China Film (CN).
Script: Fu Dandi. Photography: Li Jianeng. Editing: Chen Cheng. Music: Li He. Art direction: Li Tong. Costumes: Song Xinying. Styling: Tang Ning. Sound: Tu Hao. Action: Yang Gil-yong. Visual effects: Li Deyu.
Cast: Zhang Yixing (Ma Da), Li Luo’an (Ma Mumu), Huang Yao (Xiaojing), An Tian [Vivienne Tien] (Li Mei), Yuan Wenkang (Zhao Liang, gang leader), Ailiya (Hong), Zhang Ruonan (adult Ma Mumu), Jin Shijia (labour market boss), Dai Lele (Xiaojing’s lawyer), Liang Chao (hotpot restaurant owner), Xiao’ai (hotel manager), Li Dong (Chen Zhicheng, lawyer), Wang Xianhe (Si Yan/Four Eyes), Liu Xianda (Guangtou/Baldy), Yuan Ying (deaf hotpot waitress), Dai Wenjun (primary school admissions officer), Liu Mengmeng (Ma Mumu’s teacher), Li Minlu (Linlin, Ma Mumu’s schoolfriend), Qiu Sheng (Xiaojing’s second husband), Kong Dehan (Ma Mumu’s younger brother), Ding Zidi (prosecutor), Zhou Yueqi (lawyer), Yang Jiguang (judge).
Release: China, 3 Apr 2025.