The Unseen Sister
乔妍的心事
China, 2024, colour, 2:1, 111 mins.
Director: Zhao Deyin 赵德胤 [Midi Z].
Rating: 4/10.
Uninvolving, pointless drama of a film star whose life starts to unravel when her long-lost elder sister suddenly turns up in Beijing.
STORY
Beijing, the present day. While famous actress Qiao Yan (Zhao Liying) is at a private screening of her latest film, she receives an anonymous text message: “I know what’s up.” Soon afterwards her elder sister (Xin Zhilei) unexpectedly arrives from Myanmar, where her indebted husband, Yu Liang (Dong Baoshi), owns several jade mines. She is seven months’ pregnant. And although the two women haven’t seen each other for 17 years, Qiao Yan isn’t exactly over the moon at her sisyter’s arrival, even when the latter assures her she hasn’t come for money. Qiao Yan wants to get out of the film business and have her “freedom”, though she tells her business manager Shen Haoming (Huang Jue) that she’ll fulfil her contractual obligations with one more movie. Her sister goes off to try to find someone at a small hotel but finds he’s already left. Qiao Yan finally meets her mystery texter and it turns out to be Yu Liang, who’s on the run from gangsters in Myanmar to whom he owes RMB10 million. In her new film, 沫 (literally, “Foam”), Qiao Yan plays a pregnant woman; when the director, Zhou Qi (Xiao’ai), says she doesn’t walk like a pregnant woman, Qiao Yan gets tips from her sister. She becomes annoyed when she discovers the film is really intended to make a star out of the supporting actress, Fang Lei (Wang Ziwei). Qiao Yan, who was raised in Yunnan province, across the border from Myanmar, contacts a Yunnan underworld contact, Grandma Yao (Zhang Huiling), to hire two thugs (Fu Xiaohu, Li Yan) to scare off Yu Liang so he leaves Beijing. The thugs beat him up but then decide to go into business on their own, getting Yu Liang to call his wife and demand RMB10 million. She, in turn, asks Qiao Yan to loan her the money, but Qiao Yan refuses, despite being reminded by her sister of how much she owes her for what she’s become. At another uncomfortable dinner with her latest film’s principal investor, the lascivious Yu (Zhang Fan), Qiao Yan finally loses her composure and walks out. She tells Shen Haoming to buy her out of their company. Her sister now goes to Shen Haoming to borrow the RMB10 million; he agrees and she pays off the thugs, who release Yu Liang. But then Yu Liang goes to Qiao Yan’s flat and, in front of his wife, starts looting it of cash and jewellery, during which time he discovers a long-hidden truth about Qiao Yan. When Qiao Yan arrives home, Yu Liang runs off, leaving the two distressed women in the flat. And then suddenly the sister’s waters break.
REVIEW
A film star finds her life starts to unravel when her long-lost elder sibling turns up in Beijing in The Unseen Sister 乔妍的心事, the sixth and most commercial feature (relatively) by Myanmar-born, Taiwan-adopted film-maker Zhao Deyin 赵德胤, aka Midi Z. Now 42, Zhao became known on the festival circuit for four grindingly slow, documentary-like dramas set in Southeast Asia (e.g. Ice Poison 冰毒, 2014; The Road to Mandalay 再见瓦城, 2016) before attempting a leap into the artier part of the mainstream with Nina Wu 灼人秘密 (2019), a psychodrama centred on a neurotic, struggling actress. Apart from the fact that the main character in Sister is successful rather than struggling, and has a rather complicated backstory, it’s not so different from Nina Wu – basically another study of how rotten the film industry is and most of the people in it. Zhao’s first Mainland-financed production, and with known Mainland talent, The Unseen Sister took RMB151 million last autumn, respectable for this kind of niche movie and Zhao’s biggest box-office earner so far.
The source is a 100-page novel, 大乔小乔 (literally, “Big Qiao Little Qiao”), published in 2017 (see cover, left). Born in Shandong, author Zhang Yueran 张悦然, 42, is a graduate of the National University of Singapore and since 2012 has taught at the School of Liberal Arts, Renmin University of China, in Beijing. She’s best known overseas for her 2016 novel Cocoon 茧, dealing with the emotional legacy of the Cultural Revolution via two women’s stories. The Unseen Sister similarly centres on two women – sisters who haven’t seen each other for 17 years, following a complicated childhood, but who are suddenly reunited out of the blue in Beijing.
The younger sister, Qiao Yan, who grew up in Yunnan province, is a big film star but an emotionally cold fish who wants out of the industry; she’s also not at all pleased to find her big sister, who lives in Myanmar, across the border from Yunnan, suddenly turning up in Beijing seven months’ pregnant. After assuring Qiao Yan that she hasn’t come to collect for all the (unspecified) help she gave her when young, the elder sister does have a problem – a sleazebag of a husband who’s on the run from moneylenders and has also turned up in the capital.
Adapted by Xu Yue 胥悦 (in her first film after some drama series), Zhang herself and Zhao, the script bounces around between (a) a sisterly drama (elegant, icy younger one vs. earthier, poorer older one), (b) a look at the underbelly of the film industry (temperamental star, sleazy backer etc.), (c) a crime story involving a big debt by a violent, scumbag husband, and (d) a buried secret from the sisters’ youth. Thanks to Zhao’s stiff direction, the unfocused screenplay and cold characters, not much drama or audience involvement is generated by all these elements, and at the end of the day it’s difficult to see the point of the whole movie. The sisters’ secret is only fully revealed at the 80-minute mark, when the film’s main title suddenly reappears and a seven-minute flashback answers all the nagging questions. After that, the film returns to the present for more developments (including a violent fight in a flat, shot in a single take) that add little new to the narrative or the characters. The final scene, set some time later, reinforces the so-what feel.
Overall the film is a slight improvement on Nina Wu thanks to its less neurotic and self-absorbed lead character, nicely played by Zhao Liying 赵丽颖, 37, who started in TV but has gradually carved a name for herself in determined roles (The Rise of a Tomboy 女汉子真爱公式, 2016; Duckweed 乘风破浪, 2017; the deaf-mute in Article 20 第二十条, 2024; desert drama Tiger Wolf Rabbit 浴火之路, 2024). She’s well partnered by a glammed-down Xin Zhilei 辛芷蕾 (the pragmatic, drum-playing wife in Upstream 逆行人生, 2024), who’s actually only a year older than Zhao but has a convincingly weathered look as the elder sister. Experienced character actor Huang Jue 黄觉, 50, is equally strong as the actress’ business manager/partner who silkily defers to most of her moods; but even Huang can’t make believable his later scenes in which he’s revealed as yet another film-industry scumbag.
China-based German d.p. Florian Zinke 陆一帆, who shot Nina Wu, gives the whole thing a cool look, from the actress’ elegant flat to the night streets of Beijing. The film was shot in Beijing and Yunnan province. Its Chinese title translates as “Qiao Yan’s Worries” or “A Load on Qiao Yan’s Mind”.
CREDITS
Presented by Shanghai Linmon Pictures (CN), Beijing Enlight Pictures (CN), Shanghai Taopiaopiao Movie & TV Culture (CN), Shanghai SGR Pictures (CN), Shanghai Turan Movie (CN). Produced by Shanghai Turan Movie (CN).
Script: Xu Yue, Zhang Yueran, Zhao Deyin [Midi Z]. Script advice: Shuang Xuetao. Novel: Zhao Yueran. Photography: Florian Zinke. Editing: Hu Shuzhen, Zhao Deyin [Midi Z]. Music: Lin Qiang [Lim Giong]. Art direction: Zhong Cheng. Styling: Li Hua. Fashion styling advice: Cui Dan. Sound: Li Danfeng. Action: An Bo. Visual effects: Zhang Chao, Zhang Chunmiao (Soar Dragon of Legend). Executive direction: Zhao Yili (Beijing), Yu Zhehao (Yunnan).
Cast: Zhao Liying (Qiao Yan), Xin Zhilei (Qiao Yan’s elder sister), Huang Jue (Shen Haoming), Dong Baoshi (Yu Liang), An Tian [Vivienne Tien] (Xiaoyang), Xiao’ai (Zhou Qi, film director), Wang Ziwei (Fang Lei, supporting actress), Zhang Fan (Yu, investor), Feng Xueya (young Qiao Yan), Han Xitong (young elder sister), Hang Chengyu (young Yu Liang), CuiJun (sisters’ father), Fu Xiaohu (fat thug), Li Yan (thin thug), Zhang Huiling (Grandma Yao, restaurateuse), Wang Fu’an (debt collector).
Release: China, 26 Oct 2024.