Records without Words
沉默笔录
China, 2023, colour, 2.35:1, 92 mins.
Director: Hao Feihuan 郝飞环.
Rating: 7/10.
Psychodrama-cum-whodunit set in mid-1990s rural China is strongly written and nicely mounted, with a twist-filled plot and good supporting cast.
STORY
Pingxi township, somewhere in Guizhou province, southwest China, 19 Oct 1995. Li Lizhong (Zhang Yu) is the new head of the town’s “public-order squad” 联防队, a motley group of ex-soldiers, the unemployed and local layabouts which helps to keep order but is not officially part of the police force. On one mission Li Lizhong and his men – who include the spaced-out, punkish Luo Changming (Chubu Huajie) and the tubby Kang Wei (Tan Tian) – come across a dog that has been cruelly slaughtered. Li Lizhong’s girlfriend, Ye Qing (Ma Yinyin), is desperate to leave the small town and move to Shenzhen, but the morose Li Lizhong won’t listen to her. He’s still haunted by the death of his father, Li Baoguo (Liu Songbin), who officially fell off the local dam when drunk; but Li Lizhong suspects he was murdered, as his expensive watch was not stolen even though his wallet was. Li Lizhong is constantly at loggerheads with an older member of the squad, Zhou Shengkui (Sun Min), a duplicitous and fractious friend of his late father. During a visit to the township by an important businessman, Qian (Zheng Qingfang), to whom Zhou Shengkui cosies up, Qian’s beloved dog is killed. Li Lizhong asks police chief Fang Shi’an (Li Qiang) for a week to solve the case, as success could lead to him becoming an official police officer. Zhou Shengkui, however, says he can solve the case in three days. Li Lizhong suspects that Zhou Shengkui had something to do with his father’s death, though his mother, Yu Huilan (Dong Fan), insists that the two were devoted war comrades, despite their constant arguing. She also says Zhou Shengkui was responsible for Li Lizhong becoming head of the public-order squad. When Zhou Shengkui’s own dog is found strung up at the old town gate, he arrests Tu Lanhuo (Luo Qiang) for the crime. Li Lizhong realises that Zhou Shengkui sacrificed his own dog to set Tu Lanhuo up – and thus “solve” the case. But the real dog-killer is still at large. Noting that it’s only white dogs that are slaughtered, Li Lizhong works out where the killer will strike next, and his public-order squad stakes out various locations that night. During a chase Zhou Shengkui is injured and the suspect escapes; but the latter drops his coat, inside which is the wallet of Li Lizhong’s father. It contains a clue that points towards Jiang Zilong (Chen Yingjian), the corrupt manager of a sand factory, being Li Baoguo’s murderer. However, Jiang Zilong has disappeared – and later he’s found murdered.
REVIEW
A police support volunteer tries to find his father’s murderer inbetween solving the mystery of a serial dog-killer in Records without Words 沉默笔录, a psychodrama-cum-whodunit written and directed by Hao Feihuan 郝飞环. Set in mid-1990s rural China, it’s similar to, but much better than, the recent Only the River Flows 河边的错误 (2023), despite taking only a tiny fraction (RMB1.4 million) of River’s surprising box-office hawl of RMB310 million. It’s superior on a writing level, with a more intricate plot and better psychology of its main character, as well as having a stronger supporting cast and a running time that’s just right. Beautifully lit and composed by young d.p. Li Xiang 李想, who also shot Hao’s 2020 short 人间百太之夏日新年 (“Hundred Beauties in the World: Summer New Year”), it’s not as artily umbrous as River but still scrapes through as a China Noir.
Records is the first feature-length film by Hao, who studied at Sichuan Film & TV University and Beijing Film Academy, and previously made a handful of shorts, starting with Amuse to Death 北方乐园 (2011). Since shooting Records back in 2018, he’s directed the glossy, 24-part youth rom-com The Science of Falling in Love 理科生坠入情网 (2023), shown on the iQiyi platform. Like River, Records is set in a small rural community faced with a series of unsolved murders – in this case, of local dogs, not people. Where the investigator in River was gradually driven crazy by his lack of progress and the pressures of the case, the one in Records, Li Lizhong, is haunted by the unsolved death of his father – which he suspects was murder.
The whole background of the film is very specific to 1990s China, when so-called “public-order squads” 联防队, composed of ex-military, the unemployed and local layabouts, helped the official police in keeping law and order. By the 1990s such squads were being slowly eliminated, and the main impetus to Li Lizhong solving the dog murders is that he could then get a chance to become a proper policeman. In any event, Li Lizhong has to prove himself, as he’s the new, young leader of the squad and permanently watched by a slippery older member, Zhou Shengkui, who was his late dad’s best pal and made way for Li Lizhong as a mark of respect. To add to all the pressures on him, Li Lizhong’s girlfriend is desperate to get out of town and move to the bright lights of Shenzhen, and wants him to go with her.
The fact that the central investigation is into a series of canine murders is a clear signal to the audience that it’s no more than a MacGuffin. The real drama is centred on Li Lizhong solving the murder of his father, in which Zhou Shengkui may have been involved. However, Li Lizhong’s mother insists that Zhou Shengkui is a good man – and one of the film’s several subtleties is the unspoken attraction between her and Zhou Shengkui that’s never allowed to become explicit. The film is percolated by brief flashbacks that fill in Li Lizhong’s backstory as well as the death of his father, fleshing out the typically morose performance by Zhang Yu 章宇 (An Elephant Sitting Still 大象席地而坐, 2018; Manchurian Tiger 东北虎, 2021; Tainted Love 鹦鹉杀, 2023) in the central role. Though Zhang is a lesser actor than River’s Zhu Yilong 朱一龙, he’s supported here by a stronger screenplay.
Among the supports the biggest delight is that of veteran character actor Sun Min 孙敏 (The Unexpected 原祸, 2016) as Zhou Shengkui, whose character slides between the sleazy and kind-hearted in a way that deliberately befuddles the viewer. Equally good, in a different way, is Li Qiang 李强 as the quietly supportive police chief. As Li Lizhong’s girlfriend, Yunnan-born singer Ma Yinyin 马吟吟 (the cheeky “masseuse” in A Cool Fish 无名之辈, 2018) is effective in her few scenes, as is theatre and TV actress Dong Fan 董凡 (Wonder in the Temple 一百零八, 2019) as his widowed mother. And just when the film, after several twists and turns, seems to be wrapped up by the 70-minute mark, Hao’s screenplay springs one more surprise that turns the whole psychological premise of the story on its head.
The film was shot in northern Guizhou province, in southwest China, under the slightly different Chinese title 野犬笔录 (literally, “Stray Dog Notes”). The dialogue is a mixture of Mandarin and Guizhou dialect.
CREDITS
Presented by Shanghai Toupiaopiao Movie & TV Culture (CN). Producd by Longying Pictures (Beijing) (CN).
Script: Hao Feihuan. Photography: Li Xiang. Editing: Hu Shuzhen. Music: Liang Yiyuan. Art direction: Fu Wei. Costume design: Wang Tong. Sound: Sun Xiaolin, Hao Gang. Visual effects: Bai Yu. Executive directors: Fu Peng, Yu Shixue.
Cast: Zhang Yu (Li Lizhong), Ma Yinyin (Ye Qing), Sun Min (Zhou Shengkui), Chubu Huajie (Luo Changming/Huangmao/Yellow Hair), Tan Tian (Kang Wei), Zhong Bo (Er Chen, Buddhist priest), Dong Fan (Yu Huilan), Li Qiang (Fang Shi’an, police chief), Zheng Qingfang (Qian, manager), Yu Shixue (Man Chun), Wang Yingming (Jin Fu), Zhao Liang (Cai Heshang), Liu Songbin (Li Baoguo, Li Lizhong’s father), Chen Yingjian (Jiang Zilong, sand-factory manager), Luo Qiang (Tu Lanhuo), Yang Changjin (Ye Yadan), Zhang Dunyou (Gong Dehua), Yang Feng (Hao Kezhang), Xiao Xiao (Xie, factory head), Zhang Jianshe (Shi Bazi, gang leader), Xiao Yuanhua (Duan, grandfather).
Premiere: Pingyao Film Festival (Hidden Dragons), 14 Oct 2023.
Release: China, 1 Dec 2023.