Summary
A disarmingly funny and charming millennial examination of consumerism in China. There’s also a dog.
The long tracking shot that opens Jiang Jia-Chen’s indie debut LOOKING FOR LUCKY (尋狗啟事) immediately distinguishes it from its contemporaries. One of only 61 shots composed for the feature, it’s a satirical contemplation on commercialisation and opportunism.
Struggling grad student Zhang Guangsheng (Ding Xinhe) loses his professor’s dog father, so he gets his deadbeat dad (Yu Hai) to help him find it. Guangsheng’s urgency comes from his belief that looking after the dog is his ticket to a teaching position at university. His friend believes nobody will return it without a reward, and Guangsheng heads into an emotional downward spiral.
During the early stages of the search, Guangsheng’s father insists on taking advice from a practitioner of eastern philosophy. “Let nature take its course,” is the repeated refrain, which is kind of what we watch unfold for the 100 minutes or so of the running time. Quite literally in the case of a comically large sign Guangsheng and his father are toting around at one point. The search for the eponymous dog only takes up the first half of the film, with Guangsheng’s own search for meaning filling up the rest of the picture.
The long camera takes allow us the time to keep us fully invested in the core father/son relationship. Ding Xinhe’s highly stressed portrayal of Guangsheng plays brilliantly off Yu Hai’s laconic layabout. The latter prefers to take it as it comes, where all of Guangsheng’s desires – be they romantic or career oriented – are taken away by colleagues with a better nose for opportunity. It all comes to a head during Guangsheng’s meltdown to his dad.
Contrast this with the thematically similar An Elephant Sitting Still, which also explores individualism and opportunism in modern China, Jiang’s thoroughly Millennial take finds the right balance between wry humour and optimism. It’s a massive coming-of-age story about finally get out of town, a decision that Guangsheng slowly comes to. A strong debut from a new voice in Chinese cinema which, keeping with the spirit of film, leaves us with degree of hope for the future.
2018 | China | DIRECTOR: Jiang Jia-Chen | WRITERS: Jiang Jia-Chen | CAST: Ding Xinhe, Yu Hai | DISTRIBUTOR: HKIFF, New York Asian Film Festival (US) | RUNNING TIME: 100 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 8 July 2018 (NYAFF)
