Mao Zedong and E. Snow

毛泽东与斯诺

China, 2001, colour, 1.66:1, 103 mins.

Directors: Song Jiangbo 宋江波, Wang Xuexin 王学新.

Rating: 5/10.

Straightforward biopic of Mao and the US journalist benefits from a verismo feel in the 1930s scenes.

STORY

Southwest Switzerland, 1971. US-born journalist Edgar Snow (William James Bonthron), 66, is taken to a hospital and diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. In Beijing CPC chairman Mao Zedong (Gu Yue) is told the news by PRC Premier Zhou Enlai (Su Lin) and tells him to have Edgar Snow brought to China for treatment, with the latter’s old friend, American Lebanese doctor George Hatem (Mohamed Abou Jarad), a longtime resident of China, also going along. Edgar Snow receives the news while recovering at his home in Eysins, near Nyon, Lake Geneva, as well as the news that US president Richard Nixon is to visit China in Feb 1972 – a historic development in which Edgar Snow was the middleman when he last met Mao Zedong in Beijing in Dec 1970. (In Jun 1936 Edgar Snow, based in China since 1928, had left Beiping [modern-day Beijing] to meet Mao Zedong in Communist-held northern Shaanxi province. Because of the danger, his wife Helen Foster [Anna Zhou Lean] had stayed behind. At Zhengzhou he had been joined by American Lebanese doctor George Hatem [Mussa Banara], a Communist sympathiser, and later on their journey they had met CPC vice-chairman Zhou Enlai. Arriving in Bao’an, the temporary capital of Red territory, the two westerners had been welcomed by CPC propaganda minister Wu Liangping [Zhao Ju] and immediately met CPC chairman Mao Zedong and his third wife He Zizhen [Fu Chong], with whom they had dinner while Mao Zedong was sorting out a complaint from a local peasant, Wu Laosi [Zhang Zhongjie]. Later, Edgar Snow had started interviewing Mao Zedong, who explained the CPC’s policy in detail. Later Edgar Snow, in PLA uniform, had gone to Ningxia province to meet military commanders Peng Dehuai [Zhong Liqun] and Xu Haidong [Tian Zhen].) In Switzerland, Edgar Snow is called by US magazine Life and asked to be its correspondent during Richard Nixon’s impending visit to China. (Back in Bao’an, Edgar Snow had tried to get involved in the case of a Red Army regimental commander killing an 18-year-old peasant girl because she wouldn’t marry him. The man had subsequently been executed. Continuing his interviews with Mao Zedong, Edgar Snow had got him to talk about his family background for the first time. As Nationalist forces approached Bao’an, Edgar Snow had left for Beiping but George Hatem had decided to stay on. At the US consulate in Beiping in Oct 1936, Edgar Snow had given a press conference, repudiating Nationalist stories that the Communists were marauding bandits. In 1937 his book Red Star over China had been published, the first detailed account in English of Mao Zedong and the Red Army’s activities.) Edgar Snow turns down Mao Zedong’s offer, as he doesn’t want to go to China as a sick man. (In Sep 1939 Edgar Snow had returned to China and met Mao Zedong in Xi’an, as well as George Hatem. In 1941 he was expelled by the Nationalist government, and only returned to China in 1960, touring the country and finally meeting Mao Zedong again in Beijing.) The Chinese team of doctors, including George Hatem, realises Edgar Snow won’t survive a flight to China, so turn his Swiss home into a hospital. Edgar Snow asks them to keep him alive until Richard Nixon arrives in China.

REVIEW

As its title pragmatically describes, Mao Zedong and E. Snow 毛泽东与斯诺 is a biopic charting the famous friendship between Mao and US journalist Edgar Snow over a span of 35 years, from when the latter scooped an interview with Mao in Communist-held territory in 1936 (leading to his seminal book Red Star over China the following year) till his death in early 1972, just days before US president Richard Nixon’s historic visit to Beijing. Straightforwardly directed by Changchun Film Studio staffer Song Jiangbo 宋江波, then in his mid-40s, and his older colleague Wang Xuexin 王学新, in his mid-50s, it’s an unvarnished retelling of events, largely concentrating on Mao and Snow’s first meeting in Bao’an and Snow’s final illness at his home in Switzerland. Brief documentary footage of the two in 1970 is also included near the end.

A typical studio production of the era, with some especially stilted English dialogue, the film recreates key moments from Snow’s book and benefits from believable performances by the two leads as the younger Mao and Snow: Wang Ying 王霙, who’s played the chairman over 40 times in films and TVD, and Chinese-speaking American John A. Gardener, who’s creditably drawn as sympathetic to Mao’s aims but a journalist who needs to be persuaded by facts. Their scenes together in dusty northern Shaanxi province have a verismo look of the period. Less happy is the stiffer portrayal of the older Snow by former diplomat William James Bonthron, whose real-life Canadian diplomat wife Gilliane Lapointe plays Snow’s second wife, former actress Lois Wheeler Snow (1920-2018), in the Swiss scenes. Snow’s friend, American Lebanese doctor George Hatem – who stayed on in China and deserves a biopic of his own – is portrayed okay by Mussa Banara.

Chinese supports are all solid, from Su Lin 苏林 as Zhou Enlai to Fu Chong 傅冲 as Mao’s third wife He Zizhen. Camerawork by d.p. Jin Zi 金子 and the conventionally stirring score by Yang Yilun 杨一伦 both get the job done, with the former’s semi-documentary look more notable.

Prior to its release, the film was attacked by Wheeler Snow, then 80, for using her late husband’s life story and writings “for propaganda purposes” and for filming exteriors of their Swiss home without her consent. Once a frequent visitor to China, she had later publicly supported the Jun 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

CREDITS

Presented by Changchun Film Studio (CN), Jiujiang Yangzi Film Production (CN), Jiangxi Film Studio (CN). Produced by Changchun Film Studio (CN), Jiujiang Yangzi Film Production (CN), Jiangxi Film Studio (CN).

Script: Li Chao. Script supervision: Liang Guowei. Photography: Jin Zi. Editing: Li Tingzhan. Music: Yang Yilun. Art direction: Wei Hongyu, Guo Jianling. Costumes: Bai Lu, An Lixin, Ma Jun, Shao Xiaoping. Sound: Sheng Hongtao.

Cast: Wang Ying (young Mao Zedong), Gu Yue (old Mao Zedong), John A. Gardener (young Edgar Snow), William James Bonthron (old Edgar Snow), Mussa Banara (young George Hatem), Mohamed Abou Jarad (old George Hatem), Su Lin (Zhou Enlai), Fu Chong (He Zizhen, Mao Zedong’s third wife), Huang Peng (young Huang Hua), Gao Huibin (old Huang Hua), Zhao Ju (Wu Liangping), Anna Zhou Lean (Helen Foster, Edgar Snow’s first wife), Gilliane Lapointe (Lois Wheeler Snow, Edgar Snow’s second wife), Lu Ling Matte (Christopher, Edgar Snow’s son), Alix Lue (Sian, Edgar Snow’s daughter), Zhang Zhongjie (Wu Laosi), Li Jinshui (Lin Boqu), Zhong Liqun (Peng Dehuai), Tian Zhen (Xu Haidong).

Release: China, 3 Jun 2001.