Blind Way
盲•道
China, 2017, colour, 1.85:1, 111 mins.
Director: Li Yang 李杨.
Rating: 7/10.
Largely satisfying drama about a friendship between a loner and a blind girl on Beijing’s wintry streets.
STORY
Beijing, the present day. In a scruffy wig and dark glasses, Zhao Liang (Li Yang) poses as a blind beggar hawking religious trinkets on the streets. In fact he isn’t blind at all; he lives alone in a simple but okay flat, and can afford food and an occasional prostitute (Wu Yihan). One day he finds a young blind girl, Jingjing (Du Hanmeng), on his regular patch in an underpass who gets plenty of donations. She recognises his voice and says she knows he’s a fake. But by the end of the day they agree to partner up and split the proceeds. Zhao Liang takes her to the police, where, against her will, she’s taken in care by a kindly female officer, Wang Lili (Yu Yue); but next day Zhao Liang finds himself taken to the police station as Jingjing has claimed she’s his daughter. Wang Lili, who recognises Zhao Liang, believes his story and asks him to take Jingjing to a hostel. When Jingjing refuses, she ends up with Zhao Liang, who lets her sleep in his spare room. He tries to get rid of her next morning but she ends up staying. When Jingjing is grabbed in the street by Guo Wei (Hu Ming), head of the gang who bought her from her parents and runs her as a street beggar, the police are unable to help due to lack of evidence. However, Zhao Liang follows Guo Wei’s van and steals back Jingjing during the night. He then tries to unite her with her parents in the mountains, even though she’d rather stay with him.
REVIEW
After an exceptionally long tea break of 10 years, Mainland indie film-maker Li Yang 李杨 returns to complete his Blind Trilogy with Blind Way 盲•道. The longest and most densely plotted of the three films, it’s also the only one whose plot actually centres on a blind protagonist, though with its focus on underground criminal activity it’s wholly in line with the earlier two movies. Where Blind Shaft 盲井 (2003) centred on a lethal scam involving illegal mines, and Blind Mountain 盲山 (2007) on sold-off brides in the countryside, Blind Way zeroes in on the world of children bought from their parents and used in urban steet-begging rings. The film lacks the sheer power of Shaft but is way more satisfactory than the hackneyed Mountain, despite a novelettish resolution.
Shot in 2014, and first screened during the 2017 Beijing Film Festival, it finally opened commercially in the Mainland in early 2018 but sank with less than RMB1 million, a miniscule amount even in arthouse terms. That’s a pity, as it’s the least artiest of the three films, with a warm central relationship between a formerly successful singer and a young blind girl that’s beautifully portrayed by the two leads and gently underscored by composer Dou Peng (Design of Death 杀生, 2012; Gone with the Bullets 一步之遥, 2014).
Besides directing, writing, editing and art directing, Li also plays the lead role of a divorced loner who pretends to be a blind street-hawker by day and lives reasonably well, if modestly, in a flat of his own by night. (The reason he’s chosen this particular way of life is never explained, one of several script conveniences in an otherwise okay screenplay.) One day he meets a feisty blind girl who’s far better at begging than he is, and the two gradually form a wary but caring relationship. The growth in their friendship is nicely calibrated, with plenty of reversals and small ruptures in trust, and as the background of both slowly emerges through dialogue and (more awkwardly) in flashbacks the viewer comes to want them to remain together. However, the retribution of the gang she’s escaped from hangs over everything, with the feeling that it’s all going to end very badly indeed.
Now in his late 50s, Li is very good as the loner who’s wary of emotional involvement but still, after a slow start, decides to help the young girl, imbuing his role with humorous touches that don’t detract from the drama. Equally good, however, is Beijing-born Du Hanmeng 杜函梦 – 11 at the time of shooting, and with a couple of years of TV work already behind her – as the blind beggar who’s always on her emotional guard but slowly comes to trust her surprise guardian angel. (She later went on to play the teenage girl at the start of futuristic psychothriller Battle of Memories 记忆大师, 2017.) Both manage to avoid the usual cliches of such a relationship, and the film as a whole is very careful not to turn into a soupy melodrama. More’s the pity, then, that Li opts for an obvious finale that goes against all the grain of the movie so far.
With the first half largely devoted to the two building a sense of trust, the second half is more crammed with plot development as one thing leads to another following the reappearance of the gang who “owns” the girl. As the story shifts to the mountains outside Beijing, an initial farewell scene between the two is very moving in a simple way, and the film never reaches that emotional plateau thereafter, with the plot becoming more and more stretched and little extra added to the characters.
Supporting performances are all fine, especially TV actress Yu Yue 于越 (the headmistress in 11 Flowers 我11, 2011) as a sympathetic policewoman who recognises Li’s character from her childhood. The photography by Wang Boxue 王博学 (Singing When We’re Young 初恋未满, 2013; Hanson and the Beast 二代妖精之今生有幸, 2017) of wintry Beijing and the surrounding hills is also noteworthy, giving a real feel for the city’s hard-edged street life while also introducing moments of poetry when required.
CREDITS
Presented by Beijing Stars Sky Media (CN), Authrule (Shanghai) Digital Media (CN), Beijing Galloping Horse Media (CN).
Script: Li Yang. Photography: Wang Boxue. Editing: Li Yang. Editing advice: Kong Jinlei. Music: Dou Peng. Art direction: Li Yang. Costumes: Li Nan. Styling: Li Nan. Sound: Xiao Baohua, Dong Xu.
Cast: Li Yang (Zhao Liang), Du Hanmeng (Tong Jingjing), Yu Yue (Wang Lili, policewoman), Hu Ming (Guo Wei), Yang Hua (Jingjing’s mother), Cao Yu (Guo Ping), Lei Yuqiong (Guo Wei’s wife), Wu Yihan (prostitute), Liu Yigang (police chief), Li Shenqi (Jingjing’s stepfather), Zhang Dong (Huang Dapeng), Gu Tingxuan (middle-aged woman), Yang Xiaoyong (antique-shop owner), Qian Duoduo (Zhao Liang’s ex-wife), Chen Yuan’er (Zhao Liang’s daughter), Li Xianchun (old peasant), Li Youyi (old peasant’s wife).
Premiere: Beijing Film Festival (Special Screening), 22 Apr 2017.
Release: China, 2 Feb 2018.