Bystander
旁观者
China, 2025, colour/b&w, 2.35:1, 86 mins.
Director: Sonthar Gyal 松太加.
Rating: 7/10.
Low-key drama centred on a doctor who returns to his hometown after a long absence maintains interest thanks to its finely calibrated emotions.
STORY
Jiangcheng town, somewhere in China, the present day. After 16 years away, Chen Jiahui (Chen Kun), a doctor in Beijing, finally returns to his hometown, having received a call from his elder brother Chen Jiaxing (Wang Yanhui) that their father Chen Weimin (Wang Jinsong) is dying from a fall. Chen Jiahui, who hasn’t spoken to his father since he left, goes straight to the hospital but hasn’t the courage to enter the room. Chen Jiaxing invites him to stay at his place but finds himself locked out by his wife. Chen Jiahui stays in a hotel instead. Next day, he and Chen Jiaxing visit their father, who’s unconscious following some surgery but is said to be stable. A business friend, Lan (Jie Bing), who claims he found Chen Weimin unconscious on Mt. Feng and brought him to the hospital, arrives to pay his respects but brings along a local reporter (Kang Xuan) to get some publicity for himself. Chen Jiaxing asks them to leave. Chen Jiahui’s elder sister, Chen Jiayuan (Liu Mintao), arrives to take care of their father. Chen Jiaxing takes Chen Jiahui to show him how the renovation is going of their father’s old family house in the countryside; Chen Jiayuan’s husband, Zhang Lei (An Zehao), is supervising the project and says they have been finding empty bottles of alcohol everywhere. The house stirs memories for Chen Jiahui of his troubled youth when he was at odds with his father. When the local newspaper publishes Lan’s story, Chen Jiaxing goes round and vents his anger. Chen Jiahui also drops by, and then goes up Mt. Feng himself to check Lan’s story. En route he meets a middle-aged woman (Chen Yisha) he recognises but doesn’t want to talk to; she asks him why people are enquiring about Chen Weimin being on the mountain recently. At the government relay station on top of the mountain, family friend Liao (Yungdrung Gyal), who looks after the station, confirms that Chen Weimin did come by recently. He adds that in 1997, when Chen Jiahui’s mother died from a fall, Chen Weimin, who then looked after the relay station, had come by and wrecked it, leading to his dismissal. Next day Liao visits Chen Weimin, who is still unconscious. That evening, as Chen Jiahui is due to leave next day, Chen Jiaxing arranges for a family dinner, which turns into a tense affair. Chen Jiayuan confesses to Chen Jiahui that she also tried to escape “this small town” but, unlike him, failed. Chen Jiaxing confesses to Chen Jiahui that he’s getting divorced once his teenage daughter (Jiang Yinghan) takes the university entrance examination. Back in Beijing, Chen Jiahui receives the news that his father has finally died. At the crematorium in Jiangcheng the family is given a metal support that was found inside the father’s body – a mystery that Chen Jiahui is determined to solve, despite his brother’s opposition.
REVIEW
Shot in late 2021, passed for exhibition in 2023, but only released late last year, Bystander 旁观者 is among the best work to date by Sonthar Gyal 松太加, now 51, a writer-director of Tibetan ethnicity who hails from Qinghai province, northwest China. His first film centred on Han Chinese rather than Tibetan Chinese characters, and with a simplicity that recalls his equally strong second feature, River གཙང་པོ | 河 (2015), it shows him finally throwing off the arty influence of his longtime mentor, the late Tibetan Chinese film-maker – and festival darling – Pema Tseden 万玛才旦 (1969-2023). The story of a doctor who returns to his hometown after a long absence and faces long-standing family issues also provides a leading role for onetime heartthrob Chen Kun 陈坤, 50, nowadays rarely seen on the big screen, as well as an especially strong one for veteran character actor Wang Yanhui 王砚辉, 55, as the doctor’s elder brother. Box office last November was a microscopic RMB2.8 million, about par for the course for this director.
Prior to directing his first feature, the formulaic and film-schooly The Sun Beaten Path 太阳总在左边 (2011), set in Tibet, Sonthar Gyal worked on several of Pema Tseden’s films either as d.p. or art director (The Silent Holy Stones 静静的嘛呢石, 2005; The Search 寻找智美更登, 2009; Old Dog 老狗, 2010). River, set in the director’s native Qinghai province, first raised hopes of him developing a separate voice – a hope not fulfilled by his subsequent features, the strung-out and poorly scripted Ala Changso 阿拉姜色 (2018) and Lhamo and Skalbe ལྷ་མོ་དང་སྐལ་བྷེ། | 拉姆与嘎贝 (2019). Sonthar Gyal’s films have always centred on either a search for self or a spiritual journey; Bystander centres on both, as Chen Jiahui (Chen), a successful doctor in Beijing, returns after 16 years away to his hometown following the news of his father’s impending demise.
Though clearly somewhere in the south, a long way from Beijing, the hometown is never exactly specified and goes by the fictional (and often used) name of Jiangcheng. (The film was actually shot in and around Ganzhou, in the south of Jiangxi province, just above Guangdong.) The father is still unconscious after surgery when Chen Jiahui arrives, and he’s hosted by elder brother Chen Jiaxing (Wang) as well as elder sister Chen Jiayuan (Liu Mintao 刘敏涛). During the next couple of days, long-buried family issues, as well as Chen Jiahui’s own troubled relationship with his father, come to the surface. It’s hardly an original concept but Sonthar Gyal makes it his own by not letting obvious emotions dominate the film and by subtly calibrating the tensions between the characters.
Though technically the lead player, Chen Kun in fact gives a very withdrawn, emotionally shut-off performance. It’s Wang (so good as the father in On Your Mark 了不起的老爸, 2021, and as Peng Dehuai in the Volunteers 志愿军 trilogy, 2023-25) who powers the film as the outgoing, rather clumsy elder brother who, unlike his brother, never had a higher education. Developing more slowly but coming into her own later, the always excellent Liu, 50 (Revival 回廊亭, 2023; One and Only 热烈, 2023), is good as the elder sister who observes everything in a knowing way and envies how her brother managed to escape “this small town”.
B&W flashbacks – equally well lit by d.p. Wang Weihua 王维华 (Ala Changso; Manchurian Tiger 东北虎, 2021; Return to Dust 隐入尘烟, 2022) as the colour portions of the film – depict a younger Chen Jiahui who was already estranged from his father. And only near the end does the audience, in a very low-key twist, learn what really triggered him to get out of town. Some fancy editing that breaks with linear time is used occasionally throughout the picture, though not in an annoying way.
In summer 2025 Sonthar Gyal started shooting his sixth feature, 偷来的时光 (literally, “Stolen Time”), set in Inner Mongolia province and centred on a journey by an elderly man and a troubled teen.
CREDITS
Presented by Xiaoxiang Pictures (CN), Pure Media (Beijing) (CN), Huazhang Universe Media Investment Holding Group (CN), Ganzhou Travel Investment Group (CN), Hunan Manhao Pictures (CN), K. Pictures (Shanghai) (CN). Produced by Pure Film (Hainan) (CN).
Script: Sonthar Gyal, Du Qingchun, Wang Shang. Photography: Wang Weihua. Editing: Sang Doujie, Gai Heming. Music: Yang Yong. Art direction: Phakpakyab. Costumes: Fan Xiaobao. Styling: Ma Hongwei. Sound: Li Zhe. Executive direction: Zhang Wei.
Cast: Chen Kun (Chen Jiahui), Wang Yanhui (Chen Jiaxing, elder brother), Liu Mintao (Chen Jiayuan, elder sister), Wang Jinsong (Chen Weimin, father), Chen Yisha (Zhong Yucai), An Zehao (Zhang Lei, Chen Jiayuan’s husband), Yungdrung Gyal (Liao), Jie Bing (Lan), Jiang Yinghan (Chen Xiaoxian, Chen Jiaxing’s teenage daughter), Mi Na (Shi Minjing), Shan Yuhao (Zhang He, Chen Jiayuan’s young son), Liu Xuetao (taxi driver), Kang Xuan (reporter), Pema Jyap (younger Chen Jiahui), Chen Ping (Shui), Xie Zhuoyan (child Chen Jiahui), Zhao Tianyu (younger Chen Jiaxing).
Release: China, 1 Nov 2025.