Don’t Expect Praises
有人赞美聪慧, 有人则不
China/South Korea, 2012, colour, 16:9, 99 mins.
Director: Yang Jin 杨瑾.
Rating: 6/10.
Unaffected, charming portrait of two schoolkids visiting family in the countryside.
STORY
Yuncheng city, Shanxi province, northern China, summer. On the day of graduating from 5th grade in elementary school, Yang Jin (Wang Chen), 12, leaves a note for his parents and sets off with classmate Wang Xiaobo (Li Shuchen) to visit his grandmother in Pinglu county. First, however, they go to Crow Gully to visit Wang Xiaobo’s family, whose father (Ma Youguan), who works as a supervisor at the local coal mine, scolds him for being academically inferior to Yang Jin. They stay the night there, and next day visit Wang Xiaobo’s grandmother, who plies them with sweets and snacks, and then Wang Xiaobo’s uncle (Pan Xuebo). Next they go fishing in the Qingshui River, a tributary of the Yellow River, along with Wang Xiaobo’s younger brother (Peng Kehao), who has a crying fit. The following day, Yang Jin goes with Wang Xiaobo to visit the latter’s elder sister, Xiaoping (Zhang Yuxuan), who was given up for adoption by another family when she was young. Now 19, Xiaoping has a boyfriend and is studying irrigation. Finally, Yang Jin leaves to find his grandmother, who has been getting worried by his non-arrival.
REVIEW
After his second feature, the two-and-a-half-hour snooze-athon Er Dong 二冬 (2008), lowbudget Mainland film-maker Yang Jin 杨瑾, 30, does a major about-turn with Don’t Expect Praises 有人赞美聪慧, 有人则不, a lightweight but utterly charming portrait of two boys who set off to visit family members in the remote countryside. With none of the irritating longueurs and arty affectations of the previous movie, Praises, which is directly lifted from Yang’s own childhood memories, is narratively slim but still engaging, as the two very different classmates – the serene and academically gifted Yang Jin and the thick, pugnacious Xiaobo – wander around the hot summer landscape calling on the latter’s relatives and generally playing around.
Yang’s portrait of his native Shanxi province is natural and unaffected, with taciturn country types who span the whole range from truculent through caring to senile, all portrayed with an understated wit. The film belatedly gains some more heft during a visit to Xiaobo’s elder sister, adopted by another family when young, who has made a life of her own but warmly greets her little brother with an improvised meal. Yang draws especially good playing from the two boys, and variation is added by short animated sections (cleanly crafted) that either introduce characters or, as in the most elaborate segment, illustrate young Yang’s boast that he’s related to warrior god Erlang Yang Jian 二郎神杨戬 who once beat the Monkey King. However, the live-action material is still the heart of the movie, which would have worked equally well with no animation.
The Chinese title means “Some Praise Intelligence, Some Don’t”. Digital production is fine, with good-looking photography by Li Hongjian 李红建 of the dusty landscape in southern Shanxi province.
CREDITS
Presented by Heaven Pictures (Beijing) Culture & Media (CN), Beijing Yi De Culture Communication (CN). Produced by Heaven Pictures (Beijing) Culture & Media (CN), Beijing Yi De Culture Communication (CN), Hi Film (CN), Beijing Yuan Qi Cultural Development (CN), Lu Film (SK).
Script: Yang Jin. Photography: Li Hongjian. Editing: Yang Jin. Music: Xiaohe. Art direction: Ma Dadi. Costumes: Jin Jie. Sound: Wang Changrui. Animation: Zhao Ye, Zhang Bo.
Cast: Li Shuchen (Wang Xiaobo), Wang Chen (Yang Jin), Ma Youguan (Wang Xiaobo’s father), Zhao Jun’ai (Wang Xiaobo’s mother), Peng Kehao (Wang Xiaobo’s younger brother), Pan Xuebo (Wang Xiaobo’s uncle), Zhang Yuxuan (Xiaoping, Wang Xiaobo’s elder sister), Wei Yongshao (Ma, teacher).
Premiere: Cinema Digital Seoul Film Festival (Asian Competition), 23 Aug 2012.
Release: China, 21 Oct 2012; South Korea, tba.
(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 24 Jan 2013.)