Suburban Birds

郊区的鸟

China, 2018, colour, 1.33:1, 112 mins.

Director: Qiu Sheng 仇晟.

Rating: 3/10.

Vague elegy for simpler times is an empty can, and too film schooly for its own good.

STORY

Wenjing, a city in southern China, the present day. A team of engineers, led by Han Xiao (Xiao Xiao) and including Xia Hao (Li Chun) and Ant (Deng Jing), are investigating reports of subsidence in buildings that could affect the construction of a large train tunnel. The team is accompanied by Jiang (Wang Xinyu), a section head. During interviews with witnesses, Xia Hao, who is in his late 20s, notices a woman who calls herself Swallow (Huang Lu) and who tells a story about taking in a stray dog; Xia Hao later sleeps with her back at his hotel. Next day, while investigating a derelict building, he finds some papers that take his mind back to a period during his young schooldays, when he (Gong Zihan) went around with a group including Fatty (Chen Yihao), Coal (Chen Zhihao), Old Timer (Xu Chenghui), and two girls, Fang Ting (Xu Shuo) and Foxy (Qian Xuanyi). Foxy made no secret of her liking for Xia Hao but it was Fang Ting who wrote him a secret letter in which she proposed being his grilfriend if he could solve a riddle. He never did but she still went out with him. Soon afterwards, he was invited out by Foxy, who hugged him; the incident was reported to Fang Ting, who was not happy. One day, in October, Fatty didn’t come to school. Foxy, who’d once visited his house, led an expedition there, but en route others dropped out, leaving just Xia Hao and the two girls. In a building due for demolition, Xia Hao meets a young woman (Liu Qi) who refuses to leave until her stray dog comes back. Later, Xia Hao, joined by Swallow, finds the letter written by Fang Ting and tries to solve the riddle. Meanwhile, Xia Hao has presented his theory over the subsidence to his colleagues but they are not convinced.

REVIEW

Suburban Birds 郊区的鸟 promises much but delivers almost nothing. The first feature of Hangzhou-born writer-director Qiu Sheng 仇晟, who studied engineering prior to film and has a couple of shorts under his belt, it’s shot through with magical-realist touches and seems to be some kind of elegy for simpler times and one’s own childhood. There’s no shortage of such movies in Chinese cinema and Qiu’s doodlings on the subject are hardly original. The film works best when starting to explore a magical-realist vein; the frustrating thing is that Qiu seems to have no idea how to develop it in a meaningful way and, to make things worse, has nothing original to say. It’s a typical film-schooly first feature that probably looked trenchant on paper but fails as a piece of cinema. [Box office, when the film was released 2½ years later, was microscopic.]

Prior to the heart of the film – a flashback to the schooldays of the main character, Xia Hao – there’s a leisurely 25-minute intro which takes some working out while it flirts with the idea of magical-realism. A small team of engineers appears to be in a city checking out reports of subsidence and taking measurements. Unexplained events are presented to the viewer: as the team works, a boy climbs a radio antenna in the distance; at a meeting, a young woman called Swallow tells a story of caring for a a stray dog; Xia Hao later sleeps with her at his hotel; and so on. The film then gains some kind of traction as it flashbacks some 15 years or so to Xia Hao’s youth, as he hangs out with a regular crowd and is separately targeted by the two girls in the group, Fang Ting and Foxy. Gradually the past and present overlap and, after some further explanation of the subsidence story, the film ends with another flashback, but to a more recent time.

The film is often so busy keeping the viewer in the dark, or simply ticking film-school boxes, that it loses track of the few emotional threads that bind the material together. The relationship between Xia Hao and Swallow is purely a dramatic contrivance; more affecting are the schoolday flashbacks, with shifting friendships and Xia Hao’s (somewhat offhand) relationship with the two girls. It’s during one extended sequence – a long walk to see a friend, during which the group becomes smaller and smaller – that the film’s brushes with magical-realism are most successful. But again, Qiu simply leaves the sequence hanging in the air, as if he has no idea (or interest) in resolving the viewer’s built-up expectations. From that point in (some 70 minutes), the movie starts seriously going off the rails as it becomes obvious it’s an empty can.

Xia Hao remains an enigma, difficult to empathise with, and in the modern sequences isn’t helped by a bland performance from Chinese American actor Li Chun 李淳 [Mason Lee], 28, son of director Li An 李安 [Ang Lee]. To be fair to Li Chun, the script doesn’t give him much to work with; unfortumately, the casting of indie icon Huang Lu 黄璐, 35, as the mysterious Swallow, and the actress’ affected performance, further underlines the air of pretentiousness which surrounds the whole enterprise. The younger cast members in the flashbacks are more involving, especially Qian Xuanyi 钱炫邑 as Foxy and Chen Yihao 陈义豪 as Fatty, another member of the group.

Though the setting is fictitious, the film was shot in director Qiu’s native Zhejiang province, nicely caught in summery/autumnal moods by d.p. Xu Ranjun 徐燃俊 though shot, for no obvious reason, in a 1.33 aspect ratio. Other technical credits, including editing by Taiwan veteran Liao Qingsong 廖庆松, are okay, though the end-title music by Xiaohe 小河 – a drony, plangent song about “love birds” – is perversely unsuitable.

CREDITS

Presented by Beijing Transcend Pictures (CN), Shanghai Kueisa Pictures (CN), Beijing Zhongli International Pictures (CN), Beijing YoShow Culture Development (CN), Shanghai Three Monkeys Pictures (CN), Beijing Zhuizong Film & TV Capital (CN), Beijing Duke Yueying Culture Communication (CN), Shanghai Kiframe Studio (CN). Produced by Beijing Transcend Pictures (CN), Shanghai Kueisa Pictures (CN), Beijing Zhongli International Pictures (CN).

Script: Qiu Sheng. Script advice: Mei Feng. Photography: Xu Ranjun. Editing: Liao Qingsong, Jin Di. Music: Xiaohe. Song: Xiaohe. Art direction: Yu Ziyang. Styling: Wu Fengmei. Sound: Lou Kun, Yan Xuelei, Du Duzhi, Wu Shuyao.

Cast: Li Chun (Xia Hao), Huang Lu (Yanzi/Swallow), Deng Jing (Mayi/Ant), Xiao Xiao (Han Xiao, chief engineer), Wang Xinyu (Jiang, section chief), Liu Qi (Liang Shuang), Gong Zihan (young Xia Hao), Qian Xuanyi (Huli/Foxy), Chen Yihao (Pangzi/Fatty), Xu Shuo (Fang Ting), Xu Chenghui (Lao Tou’er/Old Timer), Chen Zhihao (Hei Tan/Coal).

Premiere: First Film Festival (Debut Spotlight), Xining, China, 24 Jul 2018.

Release: China, 26 Feb 2021.