The Woman in the Storm
我经过风暴
China, 2023, color, 2.35:1, 100 mins.
Director: Qin Haiyan 秦海燕.
Rating: 6/10.
Drama on domestic violence promises more than it delivers, but is well played by its three leads, especially actress Tong Liya.
STORY
Jingzhou city, 2014, spring. After three years of what she claims has been domestic violence by her husband Chen Jun (Wu Yuhan), Xu Min (Tong Liya) hires a small, specialised law firm in order to divorce him. However, the firm’s senior partner Wang Zhen (Fu Jia) fails to turn up and his inexperienced assistant Li Xiaomeng (Wang Yinglu) handles Xu Min’s case, which fails due to the lack of any hard evidence. Annoyed, Xu Min accuses Li Xiaomeng of not taking the case seriously, especially when Li Xiaomeng suggests Xu Min should think things over and see if she still wants a divorce in six months’ time. The apparently mild-mannered Chen Jun, who doesn’t want a divorce, thanks Li Xiaomeng. When Xu Min returns late after some heavy drinking at a business dinner, Chen Jun accuses her of philandering and a violent argument ensues. Xu Min calls the police, claiming Chen Jun hit her; but the police leave when they see she’s tipsy and has no signs of any injuries. Xu Min has a hospital scan which shows she suffered a form of concussion without any surface marks. Both she and Chen Jun studied medicine – she sells medical instruments, he is an assistant university professor – and Xu Min claims Chen Jun knew how to hit her in a special way. Both Wang Zhen and Li Xiaoming say the evidence is inconclusive, as the injuries could have been perpetrated by anyone. But finally Li Xiaomeng believes her, and gives her a miniature camera to conceal in her flat. For two weeks Chen Jun is caring and pleasant towards her and their two young children, son Niannian (Jiang Ruilin) and daughter Feifei (Luo Yiqiao), but Xu Min becomes depressed. Then Li Xiaoming turns up at Xu Min’s office and says Chen Jun has sent her a picture of Xu Min’s work colleague, Xiaoxu (Xie Xinhua), whom he claims she’s having an affaire with. Xu Min denies it, saying Xiaoxu isn’t interested in women. She admits that Chen Jun has been nice to her recently and that their children need a father. Li Xiaoming becomes exasperated with Xu Min always changing her mind. However, when Xu Min comes back late after meeting some friends, Chen Jun starts an argument again and reveals he has hidden cameras all over their flat as he doesn’t trust her. Both sides try for an official reconciliation but it’s useless. Later, Chen Jun buys Li Xiaoming lunch and tries to explain he’s just an ordinary guy who wants to preserve his family. As Xu Min is away on a business trip, Li Xiaomeng goes back to Chen Jun’s flat and looks after his two children for a while. When Xu Min returns, Li Xiaoming meets her at the airport and takes her to a hotel. However, Chen Jun, suspecting Xu Min is having an affaire, turns up at the hotel and then beats her up in the underground car park. Li Xiaomeng sees everything and finally believes Xu Min; she helps her to escape and lets Xu Min stay at her chaotic, dirty flat. The two women bond as Xu Min tells Li Xiaomeng about the early days of her marriage. Li Xiaoming puts in another application for divorce but is told her evidence is still insufficient. However, outside the court, Chen Jun physically attacks Xu Min in front of Li Xiaomeng and Wang Zhen, who see he has a bottle of sulphuric acid inside his car. Chen Jun finally agrees to a divorce but keeps the flat and his son; Xu Min wants custody of her daughter as well, but the two lawyers urge her to accept the deal. Summer, 2014. Xu Min and Chen Jun are now leading separate lives and are civil to each other; but their children want the family reunited. Then Chun Jun starts pressing her again, trying to find out where she lives. Autumn, 2014. Xu Min has moved back in with Chen Jun for the sake of the children, and Li Xiaomeng, now at a big law firm, tells Xu Min she feels betrayed by the fact that Xu Min doesn’t seem capable of leaving Chen Jun. At home, the kids are happy, Chen Jun is caring, but Xu Min is depressed. Chen Jun says he would like a third child to re-seal the marriage. But then tragedy strikes.
REVIEW
A drama centred on domestic violence that promises more than it delivers, The Woman in the Storm 我经过风暴 has a meaty central role for Uyghur actress Tong Liya 佟丽娅, who more than rises to the challenge, and reps an interesting directorial debut by longtime scriptwriter Qin Haiyan 秦海燕, best known recently for the child-kidnap drama Lost, Found 找到你 (2018), which also contained peachy roles for its two leading actresses, Yao Chen 姚晨 and Ma Yili 马伊琍. Largely sustained by its central performances and restless, verismo direction, Woman unfortunately becomes more routine as it heads towards a melodramatic finale, with various side issues left unexplored and characters less and less nuanced. Inspired – as a closing intertitle underlines – by the introduction of China’s Anti-Domestic Violence Law in 2016 (which the story pre-dates), and shot in the summer of 2021, it took a polite RMB173 million this August.
Born in Ningbo, eastern China, the now fortysomething Qin started as a writer for onetime festival favourite Zhang Ming 章明 (the pretentious Before Born 结果, 2006; the much better China Affair 她们的名字叫红, 2013) and has had an up-and-down career contributing to a wide variety of features (on the good side, rom-com A Wedding Invitation 分手合约, 2013, and evacuation drama Home Coming 万里归途, 2022; on the poor side, the messy A Writer’s Odyssey 刺杀小说家, 2021). Woman is one of her few solo scripts, and there are times when a co-writer might have benefited the whole enterprise.
Most notable is the film’s change of approach about half-an-hour in. Early scenes raise the question of whether the main character, a professional woman in her 30s called Xu Min (Tong), is inventing – or at least provoking – the repeated domestic violence she claims she receives from her spouse, university professor Chen Jun, who seems devoted and mild mannered. Even the rookie lawyer representing her is not convinced. There’s plenty of material here for a mystery-drama on who is lying in the relationship, and to what extent blame can be apportioned; but this is partly ditched when the rookie lawyer has an unconvincing conversion to Xu Min’s cause early on and completely ditched when the lawyer later sees evidence with her own eyes. Thereafter, the film more and more becomes a routine marital drama, with one partner the abuser and the other the victim, with their two young children caught in the crossfire.
Bearing a slight facial similarity to Qin herself, Tong, 37 at the time of shooting, gets too few roles that really stretch her; but here she’s on her top game (How Long Will I Love U 超时空同居, 2018; Coward Hero 鼠胆英雄, 2019), creating a character who’s not immediately sympathetic and is fraught with indecision beneath her tough, professional exterior. As her bipolar husband, actor-director Wu Yuhan 吴昱翰, then 34, from Beijing comedy troupe Mahua FunAge 开心麻花 (Hello, Mrs. Money 李茶的“姑妈”, 2018; Almost a Comedy 半个喜剧, 2019), is entirely convincing in a slyly clever performance, while relative newcomer Wang Yinglu 王影璐, then 20 and with the same insouciant look as a young Ma Sichun 马思纯, is ditto as the rookie lawyer with high ambitions but a rather chaotic private life.
All three work well together playing individually flawed characters, even if the film itself never really engages at an emotional level as it should. Various details also seem to get lost along the way, such as more background on the interesting rookie lawyer and the husband’s subservience to a domineering, nagging mother (played all stops out by veteran Inner Mongolian actress Ailiya 艾丽娅). There are hints here and there that other material disappeared during the final edit: for a start, both actor Zhang Youhao 张宥浩 and actress Huang Lu 黄璐 are only fleetingly visible.
The largely handheld photography by experienced Hong Kong d.p. Chen Zhiying 陈志英 (Buddies in India 大闹天竺, 2017; Sunny Sisters 阳光姐妹淘, 2021; All about My Mother 关于我妈的一切, 2021) has no particular style but keeps things moving, while the shifting musical score by Zhang Ye 张野 is utilitarian. Nanjing, in Jiangsu province, doubled for the fictional city of Jingzhou. The Chinese title means “I Went through a/the Storm”.
CREDITS
Presented by Shanghai Maoyan Pictures (CN), Enlight Pictures (CN), Tianjin Maoyan Weiying Cultural Media (CN), Colorful Enlight Pictures (CN), Birdfish Entertainment (CN), Aranya Pictures (CN), Beijing Free Whale Pictures (CN), G!Film Studio (Beijing) (CN), Human Intelligence Wuyi (CN), Asia Pacific National Film (Shenzhen) (CN).
Script: Qin Haiyan. Photography: Chen Zhiying. Editing: Yang Hongyu, Zhang Xiaojin. Music: Zhang Ye. Art direction: Shu Xingjia. Styling: Shu Xingjia, Zhang Dingmu. Sound: Wang Gang, Liu Xiaosha. Action: Wang Cheng.
Cast: Tong Liya (Xu Min), Wu Yuhan (Chen Jun), Wang Yinglu (Li Xiaomeng), Jiang Ruilin (Chen Niannian), Luo Yiqiao (Chen Feifei), Fu Jia (Wang Zhen, Li Xiaomeng’s boss), Ailiya (Chen Jun’s mother), Zhang Youhao (Wu Rong), Xie Xinhua (Xiaoxu, Xu Min’s gay work colleague), Huang Lu (Liu Nan), Rong Zishan (older Chen Niannian), Chunyu Shanshan (Li), Jin Shunzi (Xu Min’s mother), Li Yifeng (Xu Min’s father), Xiang Hong (Cao), Zhang Guoqing (Chen Jun’s maternal uncle), Bi Yuanjin (Zhao), Chang Yuhu (Da Chun), Yu Lan (Zhang Qian), Xie Chunyi.
Release: China, 17 Aug 2023.