BeLoved

亲•爱

China, 2013, colour, 2.35:1, 98 mins.

Director: Li Xinman 李欣蔓.

Rating: 7/10.

Ambitious, sleekly shot study of a Shanghai businesswoman’s emotional identity.

STORY

Shanghai, Sep 2011. Lu Xueni (Yu Nan), 41, is a divorcee with a troublesome young son, Bubu (Shao He Zhijie). Adopted at birth during the middle of the Cultural Revolution by Li Qianhua (Matsumine Lilie), a WW2 Japanese refugee who had herself been raised by a Chinese family in Harbin, Lu Xueni is the founder of the China branch of Japanese company AXME and totally devoted to her job. After the funeral of Li Qianhua, Lu Xueni feels totally alone. During the reading of Li Qianhua’s will, attended by Li Qianhua’s brother (Iijima Motoyoshi), Lu Xueni is suddenly confronted by an old peasant woman, Wang Yufen (Wu Jimu), claiming to be her birth-mother. Before she died, Li Qianhua had actually hired an investigation agency to find her, so that Lu Xueni would not feel motherless. In the event, however, Lu Xueni finds it difficult to build a bond with Wang Yufen when the latter moves into the house. Following an argument, the two women slowly find common ground, especially when Wang Yufen recounts the gruelling details of Lu Xueni’s birth back in Dec 1970. Handing her current project over to an ambitious colleague, Sato (Kohata Ryuichi), Lu Xueni takes time off work to repair her relationship with both Wang Yufen and Bubu. But then her life changes again.

REVIEW

An ambitious exploration of a young businesswoman’s emotional identity that largely avoids the obvious, BeLoved 亲•爱 marks a confident feature debut by writer-director Li Xinman 李欣蔓, with a sturdy central performance by the versatile Yu Nan 余男. The story of a wealthy young Chinese businesswoman, Lu Xueni, who’s suddenly required to recalibrate her feelings after the death of her Japanese adoptive mother, could easily have become (a) a routine tale of cultural confusion, (b) a predictable search for roots or (c) another film about angst among China’s new yuppie class. Instead, the tightly written screenplay sidesteps all three, and focuses instead on the main character’s emotional dislocation when her birth-mother appears out of the blue.

BeLoved throws together two themes – “does blood equal love?” and “you can’t choose where you come from” – as the icily controlled Lu Xueni, working for a Japanese company in Shanghai, sees her life thrown for a loop as an old Chinese peasant woman, Wang Yufen, turns up on her doorstep claiming to be her birth-mother. There’s a lot of background to digest in the film’s first half-hour – which is only revealed in bits and pieces, and may prove confusing to general viewers – but the essence is that Lu Xueni’s adoptive mother was actually a Japanese woman who in turn had been adopted after WW2 by a Chinese family. Just when Lu Xueni had finally learned to love her adoptive mother as her own, she’s now faced with a stranger who demands her love as her real mother. In her own words, she feels more alone than ever.

As the film doesn’t devolve into some kind of “am I Chinese or Japanese?” drama – in fact, the scenes between Lu Xueni and her Japanese colleagues and family are handled with a refreshing naturalness – the over-schematic background of Lu Xueni and her adoptive mother is not overplayed. As soon as Wang Yufen installs herself in Lu Xueni’s house, the movie finds its true centre in a lightly played drama, spiced with welcome humour, of an urban yuppie and a simple peasant who have to find common ground because of an apparent blood tie.

Power-dressed and playing older than she is, Yu, 34, who’s handled everything from drama (In Love We Trust 左右, 2007; Weaving Girl 纺织姑娘, 2009) to tough action roles (Wind Blast 西风烈, 2010; The Expendables 2, 2012; Angel Warriors 铁血娇娃, 2013) since making her name in dour peasant roles (The Story of Ermei 惊蛰, 2004; Tuya’s Marriage 图雅的婚事, 2006), is equally believable as a control-freak exec and as a woman who tries to learn there’s more to life than business meetings. The slow-burning chemistry between her and Wu Jimu 乌吉穆 as her elderly birth-mother is excellent, and all the better for director Li’s restraint in not letting the movie become straight-on melodrama.

For her first feature Li sensibly hired some top tech staff, and the movie is aided considerably by the coolly gliding camerawork of Hong Kong d.p. Yu Liwei 余力为 (a regular for Jia Zhangke 贾樟柯, but now diversifying more) and smooth editing by the experienced Zhang Yifan 张一帆 (who’s worked with names like Jiang Wen 姜文, Lu Chuan 陆川, Zhang Yibai 张一白 and Xu Jinglei 徐静蕾). The resulting, highly controlled look gives BeLoved an emotional frame for the characters to move in. Apart from a couple of sequences that are more overtly dramatic (such as Wang Yufen breaking down in a busy Shanghai thoroughfare), the music score, by Li Xiaoxiao 李潇潇, is quietly supportive.

The Achilles Heel of the script – which won top prize in the Tokyo festival’s 2008 project market (under the title The Red Dragonfly 红蜻蜓) – is that the main emotional driver for much of the going is a voiceover by the dead adoptive mother, which turns Lu Xueni into a reactive rather than proactive character in what should be her own movie. When she eventually takes charge of her life, the resolution is not especially satisfying in dramatic terms and doesn’t pack much emotional clout. But as a first feature, BeLoved is still a notable achievement on several levels.

According to an end title, the film was inspired by the real-life story of a woman called Wang Lichun 王丽春.

CREDITS

Presented by Zhujiang Film Group (CN), Seven Film Media (CN), Cineway Films (CN). Produced by Cineway Films (CN).

Script: Li Xinman. Photography: Yu Liwei. Editing: Zhang Yifan, Liu Chang. Music: Li Xiaoxiao. Art direction: Li Zhuoyi. Costume design: Tatsuo, Rina Lin. Sound: Huang Mingguang, Shao Xiling, Zhang Jinyan. Visual effects: Xie Ming (LJKS Culture Development).

Cast: Yu Nan (Lu Xueni), Yu Qian (Zhou Dawei, Lu Xueni’s lawyer), Wu Jimu (Wang Yufen), Shao He Zhijie (Bubu/Bobo), Xu Yulan (Mrs. Zhang, Lu Xueni’s maid), Jin Meiling (Jin Meiling, Lu Xueni’s secretary), Iijima Motoyoshi (Lu Xueni’s uncle), Sudo Masahiro (Terada, Lu Xueni’s boss), Kohata Ryu (Sato), Matsumine Lilie (Li Qianhua/Takashima Michiko), Li Jinger (young Li Qianhua/Michiko), Gu Xiaodong (priest), Luo Diyou (private investigator), Chen Jin (security guard), Dong Ji (Lu Xueni’s driver), Gao Xin (Lu Xueni’s ex-husband), Yao Xijuan (voiceover).

Premiere: Osaka Asian Film Festival (Competition), 12 Mar 2013.

Release: China, 10 May 2013.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 10 Apr 2013.)