Forgetting to Know You

陌生

China, 2013, colour, 1.85:1, 88 mins.

Director: Quan Ling 权聆.

Rating: 7/10.

Subtle portrait of a marriage under pressure is a promising debut by Mainland novelist Quan Ling.

STORY

Baisha township, near Chongqing, central China, the present day, summer. Chen Xuesong (Tao Hong) and Cai Weihang (Guo Xiaodong) have been married for seven years and have a young daughter, Yuanyuan (Zhang Wan). Chen Xuesong runs a small general provisions shop and Cai Weihang works at a furniture factory that is in financial difficulties and owes its staff back wages. Chen Xuesong, who is originally from the northeast, has never got on with her husband’s family, including his mother and younger sister, and spends her days at the shop, where a young taxi-driver, Wu Junyan (Zi Yi), drops by regularly for change and a chat. Cai Weihang tries to save the factory by discussing a deal with an old schoolfriend, Lin. The marriage of Chen Xuesong and Cai Weihang is now marked by constant small rows and mutual suspicions, though they are both devoted to their daughter. One day, on the internet, Cai Weihang comes across a picture of Chen Xuesong and her former boyfriend, Yang Jiucheng (Zhang Yibai), now a property tycoon. He takes out his frustrations by sexually assaulting her. He later regrets his action but doesn’t like her apparent growing friendship with the taxi-driver. While Cai Weihang tries to arrange a staff buy-out of the furniture factory, Chen Xuesong decides to visit Yang Jiucheng on her own initiative.

REVIEW

A promising first film by 37-year-old novella writer Quan Ling 权聆 that gains considerably from its lead performances and unaffected portrayal of quotidien life in modern China, Forgetting to Know You 陌生 could almost be called The Seven-Year Itch, though it’s no rom-com and is basically not about infidelity. Quan’s script centres on a difficult thing to dramatise convincingly on screen: the gradual sense of alienation or unfamiliarity (the meanings of the Chinese title) that can eat into an otherwise loving relationship. Chen Xuesong, a shopkeeper, and Cai Weihang, a carpenter, have been hitched for seven years and are both devoted to their young daughter but a mixture of boredom (on her side) and financial pressures (on his) exacerbate dormant tensions between them: she’s originally from Northeast China and has never been really accepted by his family; he’s a local and still remains jealous over a relationship she had prior to their marriage, with a guy who’s now a property tycoon (prolific director-producer Zhang Yibai 张一白 in a cameo). During a long hot summer in central China, the gears in their marriage start grinding, though both basically want to keep it together.

The screenplay – which won top prize in the Shanghai Film Fesival’s 2010 project market, where it had the English title Lost in Touch – is a litle uncertain in the early stages in laying out its basic information, especially regarding Cai Weihang’s work situation, which is only clarified an hour into the film. Otherwise, Quan gradually layers the movie with small, telling details: there’s virtually no “plot” in the accepted sense, rather a succession of everyday incidents as she sweats it out in her quiet shop and meets her daughter from school, and he sweats it out trying to get things in financial order. A gentle strain of humour runs through several of their marital squalls but not in an overstated way. In fact, it’s a curious tribute to the rest of the film that its most dramatic scene, in which Cai Weihang sexually assaults Chen Xuesong one day in frustration, seems forced and out-of-kilter.

Aside from the technical production – with good-looking, natural photography by Hong Kong’s Yu Liwei 余力为, very different from his trademark cold look, and atmospheric scoring by fellow indie craftsman Lin Qiang 林强 [Lim Giong] – the film is made engrossing by its two lead actors, ironically playing characters contrary to their real-life origins. Now in her early 40s, actress Tao Hong 陶虹, is still best known internationally for earlier movies like A Beautiful New World 美丽新世界 (1998), but simply gets better and better with age, drawing a subtle portrait of a bored wife who still longs for more than she’s ended up with: tiny details in costuming, gestures and looks make this a performance that could so easily have been over-ripe. As her husband, the versatile Guo Xiaodong 郭晓冬, so good as the Mainland villain in Motorway 车手 (2012) and wily CPC agent in Qiuxi 秋喜 (2009), is all the more powerful for downplaying his physicality. The chemistry between the two actors, which rarely leads where expected, manages to bring off the final open-ended sequence.

Produced by Jia Zhangke 贾樟柯, as one of a series of projects designed to launch first-time directors, Forgetting has nothing in common stylistically with Jia’s own movies. The punning English title seems a little too clever, given the film’s discreet qualities. [For eventual Mainland release, the Chinese title was changed from 陌生, under which it premiered at the Berlin festival, to 忘了去懂你, the latter translating the English title, which remained the same.]

CREDITS

Presented by Xstream Pictures (CN), Hansen Media (CN).

Script: Quan Ling. Photography: Yu Liwei. Editing: Wang Yuan. Music: Lin Qiang [Lim Giong]. Art direction: Liu Weixin, Li Jun. Styling: Wang Tao. Sound: Si Zhonglin, Zhang Yang. Executive direction: Wang Jing.

Cast: Tao Hong (Chen Xuesong), Guo Xiaodong (Cai Weihang, her husband), Zi Yi (Wu Junyan, taxi driver), Zhang Yibai (Yang Jiucheng), Zhang Wan (Yuanyuan), Wang Min, Yang Fan, Li Hongjuan.

Premiere: Berlin Film Festival (Forum), 13 Feb 2013.

Release: China, 29 Aug 2014.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 15 Feb 2013.)