Summary
China’s National Day film uses patriotic goodwill to lure audiences back to cinemas after a troubled year – and it seems to be working. This anthology film features a massive creative pool to celebrate small town China.
It would be very easy to drop the word ‘propaganda’ in here and be done with it. Yet to do so would ignore the role of the National Day films in Chinese popular culture. Like Chinese New Year, they are aimed at being a feel-good piece and to get bums on seats in cinemas. In late 2020, this is even more important than ever.
As a companion piece to the 2019 anthology film My People, My Country, this follow-up unapologetically bathes rural Chinese life in a golden glow. Filled with glorious drone shots of fields and vividly saturated landscapes, it borders on being a tourism video were it not for some fun vignettes at its core.
Like the previous film, this is made up of multiple unrelated stories, but thematically linked by their appreciation of hometown life. In the first piece, directed by Ning Hao, a man tries to help out a fellow by getting him health treatment on his state card.
The strongest of these are the middle and last, directed by Xu Zheng and the Yan Fei/Peng Damo duo respectively. Both involve deception in some way (a school teacher suffering a stroke, a husband hiding out from his wife) and an entire village coming together to support them. There’s a UFO piece that’s more silly than anything, but only the low-key opener doesn’t work for me. For the most part, these are comic short films that leave you with a feel-good glow.
As mentioned, this is a slick affair, something you’d expect from the presence of Zhang Yimou as supervising director/executive producer. Despite the presence of no less than nine directors, 26 credited writers, over 50 well-known cast members, and five cinematographers, there’s a mostly consistent look and feel to the five pieces. Stringing them together are a series of Insta-style reels, montaging (presumably) average Chinese citizens talking about their hometowns. These all come together in the final moments to form a map of China. Subtle it is not.
If we remember back to January this year, the Chinese cinema market was the first to be hit by coronavirus, pulling films that would normally get a play around the world like Detective Chinatown Vol. 3, The Rescue and Vanguard. This is one of the many films leading the charge back to cinemas, topping the local box office over the National Day weekend. It might be as subtle as a sledgehammer, but it’s inoffensively good-natured and a timely reminder about rebuilding.
2020 | China | DIRECTORS: Ning Hao, Chen Sicheng, Chao Deng, Ning Hao, Da-Mo Peng, Ao Shen, Xu Zheng, Fei Yan, Baimei Yu | WRITERS: Ziye Wang, Wang Ang, Chen Sicheng, Huan Shu, Peng Li, Wusi Liu, Quan Lixuan, Yi Yu, Peng Xu, Sun Shaokang, Rongshuo Xu, Bululufu, Keke He, Hua Weilin, Zheng Xu, Baimei Yu, Qi Yin, Yan Zhang, Xia Jiang, Yan Zhang, Mengxi Qin, Mengyuan Li, Da-Mo Peng, Fei Yan, Xing Wenxiong, Sun Xiaoxian | CAST: Bo Huang, You Ge, Wei Fan | DISTRIBUTOR: China Lion Film (AUS), Beijing Culture (CHN) | RUNNING TIME: 153 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 9 October 2020 (AUS)
