Before Next Spring

如果有一天我将会离开你

China/Hong Kong, 2021, colour, 2.35:1, 107 mins.

Director: Li Gen 李亘.

Rating: 6/10.

Well-acted, authentic portrait of Chinese expats in a Tokyo suburb is pleasant but lacks real drama.

STORY

Fuchinobe, Chuo-ku ward, Sagamihara city, Kanagawa prefecture, Greater Tokyo, Japan, the present day. Li Xiaoli (Xie Chengze), a one-year exchange student from China, gets a job, with the help of a friend, Qiuqiu (Qiu Tian), in the Chinese restaurant Nankokute 南国亭, run by the strict Guan Wei (Qi Xi). His Japanese is poor and he starts by doing menial jobs; initially he’s pushed around by Zhao Qingmu, aka Aoki (Niu Chao), a half-Chinese, half-Japanese who works there as a waiter. Qiuqiu takes Li Xiaoli along to a class in Japanese etiquette and culture run by a Chinese woman, Li Lili (Zhang Aijia). Despite years living in Japan, Guan Wei still doesn’t have permanent residency: her applications have been repeatedly rejected because she’s unmarried and without children. Her live-in boyfriend, Song (Song Ningfeng), works at the restaurant but has no work permit, so has to hide in a storeroom whenever the authorities come on check-ups. Guan Wei has recently been told to have a hospital check-up for possible uterine cancer. Zhao Aoki and another of the restaurant’s employees, Watanabe Rie (Matsumoto Junko), have second jobs as after-hours cleaners in a supermarket, where Zhao Aoki eats the expired food. Li Xiaoli helps out Li Lili and she cooks him a thankyou meal at her home. She tells him her daughter has been in the US for five years and her husband, also a teacher, has gone back to China to work, so she lives alone. Li Xiaoli explains that his family is now relying on savings, as his mother retired to look after his ill father. Guan Wei learns the results of her hospital test, and later has a bust-up with Song over whether to have children. Meanwhile, Zhao Aoki is arrested for using his father’s bank card to withdraw cash without his knowledge.

REVIEW

A collection of small events that builds into a group portrait of expat Chinese in Japan, Before Next Spring 如果有一天我将会离开你 doesn’t reach down very far but is an easy sit and occasionally touching. Centred on a one-year exchange student who arrives with almost no knowledge of the country or language, and ends up working in a Chinese restaurant on the edges of Greater Tokyo, it’s a typical first feature that’s more suited to festivals or TV as, despite several plus qualities, it’s short on dramatic architecture and any sense of ebb and flow, mostly doodling along on the same level. Strongly cast, though not with big names, it took a tiny RMB4.3 million on Mainland release this spring.

The film feels like a very personal work by writer-director Li Gen 李亘, who also lived as a student in Japan for a year. The son of veteran mainland actor Li Xuejian 李雪健 (Back to 1942 一九四二, 2012), Beijing-born Li, now in his mid-30s, graduated in Japanese from the Beijing Language & Culture University in 2009 and four years later from the Beijing Film Academy with the 20-minute short One Night 一夜 (2013). Following that he worked as an editor on the Shanghai segment, directed by Dong Runnian 董润年, of the enjoyable portmanteau feature Cities in Love 恋爱中的城市 (2015). He takes solo credit for the screenplay of Spring, but has been careful to surround himself with experienced hands on the technical side, including Taiwan d.p. Yao Hongyi 姚宏易 (black comedy The Laundryman 青田街一号, 2015; time-travel rom-com Take Me to the Moon 带我去月球, 2017), arty French editor Matthieu Laclau (Mr. Tree Hello! 树先生, 2011; A Touch of Sin 天注定, 2013; The Crossing 过春天, 2018), and veteran Hong Kong art director Wen Nianzhong 文念中 [Man Lim-chung] (Snow Flower and the Secret Fan 雪花秘扇, 2011; Overh3ard 窃听风云3, 2014; The Vanished Murderer 消失的凶手, 2015).

The result is a well-tooled look that’s very Japanese, shot by Yao with natural-looking precision and edged along by occasional gentle music from the three-man Mainland rock group HuaLun 花伦乐队. As the central character who’s more an observer than a catalyst, Shanghai-born newcomer Xie Chengze 谢承泽 is suitably neutral in a Gen-90 way, ceding the spotlight to more characterful types like the tough restaurant owner (interesting actress Qi Xi 齐溪, 37, so good in films like Mystery 浮城谜事, 2012, and So Long, My Son 地久天长, 2019, finally back in a meaty part), a cocky half-Japanese waiter from a dysfunctional family (young TV actor Niu Chao 牛超), and a kind but lonely teacher deserted by her husband and daughter (Taiwan veteran Zhang Aijia 张艾嘉 [Sylvia Chang], in a touching extended cameo). Even smaller roles like the watchful cook (Chen Yongzhong 陈永忠), a jolly Japanese staffer (Matsumoto Junko 松本淳子) and an old local woman with little money (Imamoto Yoko 今本洋子) register.

Li’s problem is not individual character detail; it’s more knitting everything into a dramatically compelling whole. The revelation of the waiter’s family background is clumsy; the lead character’s uncertain relationship with a female friend (well played by newish Qiu Tian 邱天, 23) demands more screen time; and the restaurateuse’s own relationship with her live-in man (the experienced Song Ningfeng 宋宁峰, 40, Qi’s actual ex-husband) is bumpily developed. On the plus side, Li’s script always has an authentic feel for background, especially in the way that Chinese (or any foreigners) are forced to defer to locals and even longtime residents are never fully accepted.

The film’s Chinese title means “If a Day Will Come When I Will Leave You”. The fishy image in the film’s poster refers to carp flags for Boys’ Day, a Japanese custom briefly referred to at the start of the film.

CREDITS

Presented by Huace Pictures (Beijing) (CN), Huace Pictures (Tianjin) (CN), Chengneng Pictures (Beijing) (CN), Xiamen Inkstone Technology (CN), Risen (Shanghai) Pictures (CN), Dream-Creek Production (HK), Huace Pictures (Hong Kong) (HK). Produced by Unique Films International (HK), Huace Pictures (Beijing) (CN), Morning Star Pictures (Ningbo) (CN).

Script: Li Gen. Photography: Yao Hongyi. Editing: Matthieu Laclau, Cai Yanshan. Music: HuaLun. Production design: Wen Nianzhong [Man Lim-chung]. Art direction: Zeng Jiabi. Styling: Chen Ziqing. Sound: Du Juntang, Du Duzhi, Du Zegang. Visual effects: Zhang Wenchao (123 Visual Effects [Beijing]).

Cast: Qi Xi (Guan Wei), Xie Chengze (Li Xiaoli), Niu Chao (Zhao Qingmu/Aoki), Qiu Tian (Qiuqiu), Song Ningfeng (Song, Guan Wei’s boyfriend), Chen Yongzhong (Wan, head cook), Matsumoto Junko (Watanabe Rie), Otsuki Shuji (Iwakata Yasuo, old husband), Imamoto Yoko (Iwakata Setsuko, old wife), Zhang Aijia [Sylvia Chang] (Li Lili, teacher), Hisa Hitoshi (drunk in street), Oikawa Izo (Wada, policeman), Kanaya Mayumi (female metro passenger), Obana Kanji (doctor).

Premiere: Far East Film Festival, Udine, Italy, 1 Jul 2021.

Release: China, 11 Mar 2022; Hong Kong, tba.