Gone with the Light
被光抓走的人
China, 2019, colour, 1.85:1, 130 mins.
Director: Dong Runnian 董润年.
Rating: 9/10.
Complex, beautifully played relationships drama marks an impressive feature debut by Mainland writer-director Dong Runnian.
STORY
Yijiang city, somewhere in central China, Dec 2019. At about 10:00 one morning a flash of light appears over most of the city, during which time seems to briefly bend. From the class of Wu Wenxue (Huang Bo), a Chinese Literature teacher at a high school, two pupils, Zhang Haoxuan and Cheng Lin, suddenly vanish; other pupils and another teacher also disappear at the same time. Elsewhere in the city, Kuaizi (Bai Ke), a heavy for a loanshark, is trashing a shopkeeper’s premises over unpaid money and witnesses a collision between a taxi and a car when the car’s driver suddenly vanishes. He also finds the shopowner has disappeared. Bank employee Li Nan (Wang Luodan), the passenger in the taxi, was meeting her lover, Zhao Feng (Huang Jue), who hadn’t kept their rendezvous outside her place of work. While she was waiting for Zhao Feng, a father was arguing on the street with his daughter (Li Jiaqi) over her planned marriage to her boyfriend (Ding Xihe). She had run to the top of the building next to the bank and threatened to jump off; her father and mother had pursued her but during the flash of light had both vanished. By the evening the city’s authorities are trying to restore calm by promising to sort out the mystery; around the rest of the countr, and also internationally, the same incident is reported. Among the missing in Yijiang city is Kang, the headmaster of Wu Wenxue’s school – which the middle-aged Wu Wenxue, hoping for promotion, thinks puts paid to his dream. Next day Li Nan still has no news of where her husband Hu Jianping is; and she is embarrassed at work when He Xiaofen (Huang Lu), the wife of Zhao Feng, turns up demanding to know where he is. At Wu Wenxue’s high school, the deputy headmaster takes over as headmaster and announces the City Council and the Education Bureau have suspended all classes because of the emergency. All teachers are told to escort their pupils safely home, and during the journey Wu Wenxue learns that those who have vanished were mostly couples. Meanwhile, Kuaizi is arrested for looting a packet of cigarettes from a corner shop and is taken to the police station. The authorities are now investigating the theory that most of the missing were in relationships and in love, and those who haven’t disappeared are not in love with their partners. Some scientists think Earth came into contact with Dark Matter – such as fragments from the Fourth or Fifth Dimension – and the missing have disappeared into one of those dimensions. One TV commentator (Li Dan) opines that the event has made everyone reflect on whether they’re honest when they say they’re in love. Wu Wenxue, who’s been married to his wife Zhang Yan (Tan Zhuo) and has a teenage daughter, Xiaolei (Wen Qi), thinks the theory that those “left behind” are not really in love is ridiculous; but his mother (Song Chunli), who lives with them, claims Zhang Yan no longer loves him. Meanwhile, Li Nan visits He Xiaofen and finds that each of them was having an affaire with the other’s husband; like Li Nan, He Xiaofen was also planning to divorce hers. At work, Wu Wenxue learns he’s been passed over for promotion in favour of a teacher whose wife has disappeared; he receives sympathy from his younger colleague Xiaohan (Jiao Junyan), who likes him. As the human complications mount, an international group of scientists then rejects the “in love” idea as the reason for the disappearances.
REVIEW
Various couples start questioning their relationships after a celestial event makes people disappear one morning in Gone with the Light 被光抓走的人, an engrossing, beautifully played first feature by 40-something writer-director Dong Runnian 董润年. Strongly cast down the line – and with the subtlest and most nuanced performance of his career by lead actor Huang Bo 黄渤, more often seen in goofy roles – it ran for less than three weeks during the busy end-of-year period, taking a mere RMB71 million. But it terms of originality, ideas and writing it had the edge even over 2019’s strongest non-action Mainland movies So Long, My Son 地久天长 and Almost a Comedy 半个喜剧, making it an 8.5 upgraded to 9/10.
A graduate of Beijing’s Communication University of China, Dong cut his teeth on TV dramas prior to making a mark co-writing two films by Guan Hu 管虎 (The Chef The Actor The Scoundrel 厨子戏子痞子, 2013; Mr. Six 老炮儿, 2015) as well as road comedy Breakup Buddies 心花路放 (2014, dir. Ning Hao 宁浩, starring Huang). More recently he’s been one of several writers on police comedy-drama The Big Shot “大”人物 (2019), Ning’s Crazy Alien 疯狂的外星人 (2019, also with Huang), and romance Miss Forever 一生有你2019 (2019), as well as directing the Shanghai episode (one of the strongest in performance terms) in portmanteau feature Cities in Love 恋爱中的城市 (2015). With Light, Dong finally gets his chance as a solo writer-director on a feature-length production, and passes the test with almost flying colours.
The opening 15 minutes – prior to the appearance of the main title – is a complex set-up for the tangled relationships that reveal themselves during the following two hours. Starting with vox-pop interviews asking people to define “love” and whether they believe in it, the film then zeroes in on middle-aged high-school teacher Wu Wenxue (Huang), a married man with a teenage daughter (Wen Qi 文淇) and seemingly compliant wife (Tan Zhuo 谭卓), who’s aching to get a promotion to give some meaning to his stagnant existence. One morning, during a Chinese Literature class, time seems to bend as a flash of light briefly appears over the city and two of his class (a boy and a girl) vanish. Elsewhere in the average, central China city, the same thing happens: a car’s driver vanishes, causing a crash with a taxi that’s carrying Li Nan (Wang Luodan 王珞丹), a married bank employee who’s seemingly been stood up by her lover; a loanshark’s thug, Kuaizi (Bai Ke 白客), finds the shopkeeper he was bullying has just disappeared; and two parents vanish when having a rooftop confrontation with their daughter (Li Jiaqi 李嘉琪) over her boyfriend (Ding Xihe 丁溪鹤). As reports gradually come in countrywide and across the globe, specialists come up with the theory that the disappeared were people in love and the left-behinds are people not really in love, causing various degrees of soul-searching by the protagonists.
The off-centre way in which the characters are introduced is a foretaste of how Dong will develop and interweave their stories across the span of the film. Light joins the growing ranks of non-action Mainland movies (such as last year’s So Long, My Son and Looking Up 银河补习班) being theatrically released at over two hours long – unheard of, only a few years ago, except for highly specialised, arty fare – and absolutely justifies its length. The least developed thread is of the young couple whose planned marriage was opposed by the girl’s missing parents; though it could easily have been omitted, it’s still well played and the only one involving younger people. And though the film’s final half-hour sometimes lapses into pretension, and seems a tad strung-out in the case of Wu Wenxue’s story, the quiet, immensely satisfying pay-off at the end finally justifies the time spent.
The ways in which Dong develops his central theme of “does love exist?” are also very subtle. In the case of petty gangster Kuaizi, it’s more about friendship, as he starts investigating the disappearance (or murder?) of a pal; in another thread, three women find themselves bound together by the disappearance of a single man; and in the case of Wu Wenxue, who suddenly starts questioning his whole marriage and sees the light about his wife’s lack of love for hum, there’s the extra twist of a school colleague who’s always held a torch for him. The resolution of that thread, as Wu Wenxue and the younger Xiaohan (Jiao Junyan 焦俊艳) meet in a love-hotel room, is one of the best written and played scenes in the whole film, leading to the final scene back in Wu Wenxue’s home with his family, shot in a single, beautifully resonant long take.
Though Huang, 45, is the quiet anchor of the whole movie as Wu Wenxue, the rest of the cast is dominated by a strong lineup of actresses, many in their mid-30s: Tan, who rarely gets the film roles she deserves, as Wu Wenxue’s wife; Wang, finally breaking out of kooky/cute roles as a kind of cut-price Bai Baihe 白百何, as the cooly elegant bank employee with a lover; even indie icon Huang Lu 黄璐, here in a refreshingly outgoing role as the lover’s wife; and Jiao (so good as the daughter in Hunt Down 长安道, 2019) as Wu Wenxue’s fellow teacher – a supporting performance that’s almost lost in the crush. Among the other female cast, veteran Song Chunli 宋春丽, 68, is strong as Wu Wenxue’s straight-talking mother, while 16-year-old Taiwan actress Wen Qi (revealed in Angels Wear White 嘉年华, 2017) continues to show she can play more than just sulky teens.
Technical credits are smooth without being showy, typified by the effective but sparingly used music of Huang Chao 黄超 (guitar, strings, piano). Photography by Xie Zhengyu 谢征宇 (billed under the nickname Xie Xie 谢谢) has a natural, unshowy look, very different from his work with actor/director Jiang Wen 姜文 (Gone with the Bullets 一步之遥, 2014; Hidden Man 邪不压正, 2018), with the city of Yichang, in western Hubei province, central China, doubling for the fictional Yijiang. For the record, Ning, who’s played a prominent role in both Dong and Huang Bo’s careers, gets a special thankyou in the end credits. The film’s Chinese title literally means “Those Snatched Away by the Flash of Light”.
CREDITS
Presented by Beijing Jingxi Culture & Tourism (CN), Beijing Unitalent Pictures (CN).
Script: Dong Runnian. Photography: Xie Xie [Xie Zhengyu]. Editing: Zhang Qi. Music: Huang Chao. Art direction: Zhang Xiaobing. Styling: Fu Lei. Sound: Du Duzhi, Jiang Yizhen.
Cast: Huang Bo (Wu Wenxue), Wang Luodan (Li Nan), Tan Zhuo (Zhang Yan), Bai Ke [Luo Hongming] (Kuaizi), Huang Lu (He Xiaofen), Song Chunli (Wu Wenxue’s mother), Wen Qi (Xiaolei), Ding Xihe (Wang Yang), Li Jiaqi (Liu Jiayi), Lv Xingchen (Xue Yan), Jin Jingcheng (researcher), Jiao Junyan (Xiaohan), Li Qian (Xu Yanru), Cao Bingkun (Yu Liang), Li Dan (himself, TV commentator), Wang Ju (Kuaizi’s girlfriend), Zhang Tengyue (himself), Huang Jue (Zhao Feng), Ma Dong (voice of interviewer), Wei Xidi (physicist on TV), Liu Qingbin (Huzi), Huang Yongxing (stationery-shop owner), Ding Guanzhong (Zhou Hao), Jiang Ming (Kuaizi’s boss), Liu Di (fake i.d. man), Lv Xiaolin (Zou Li), Liu Shiliu (Dong).
Release: China, 13 Dec 2019.