Summary
Who is the dreamer and who dreams the dream? Queena Li’s film is all about the journey, beautiful photography, an eclectic cast of characters and one possibly spiritual lobster.
Film and travel have a lot in common. By their nature, they are both transportive experiences, but they are also largely dependent on the personality arriving at the portal. From the opening text about faith and reality, Queena Li’s feature debut firmly establishes itself as an exploration of the self within these two contexts.
If you take the basic plot on face value, BIPOLAR has all the hallmarks of an absurd comedy. An unnamed young woman (Leah Dou) arrives in Tibet ostensibly as a pilgrim, but she’s no longer sure why she’s there. After finding a rainbow lobster in her hotel’s restaurant, she becomes convinced that it’s a holy creature and she must take it across country to the Ming Island lighthouse. Along the way, she meets an eclectic group of people.
While tongue is planted firmly in cheek at times, Li’s dreamlike narrative will undoubtedly speak to anyone suffering from an identity crisis. (The fact that I’d experienced a minor ennui-inspired meltdown just prior to watching probably helped). Her quest may seem odd, but it is no less surreal than the starting point of the hyper-modern palace of a hotel.
The simply stunning high-contrast black and white photography will make you want to visit Tibet, but Queena Li’s Orpheus by way of Alice tale is all about the journey. Characters she encounters include a bald man selling wigs for happiness, a jukebox cowboy junkyard repairman, some monks playing soccer in the desert, and an American pseudo-military group.
Ke Yuming’s crisp cinematography casts the surrounding mountain ranges in such vivid detail that it almost seems unreal. This only heightens the dream journey sensation, especially when they are interspersed with more claustrophobic flashbacks to a trigger point in the protagonist’s past. When key moments switch to colour – the first glimpse of the lobster, a trippy black light sequence, or a rainbow-coloured sky – it’s like a cold splash of water that wakes us all up.
BIPOLAR stays true to its name in the divisive feelings it will evoke in viewers. On this particular road, we find a dreamer aware they are in a dream and wanting to wake up. If that isn’t an apt metaphor for the last few years, then I don’t know what else is. Plus, it has the best use of a lobster in a narrative since Annie Hall.
2021 | China | DIRECTOR: Queena Li | WRITER: Queena Li | CAST: Leah Dou, Giver He | DISTRIBUTOR: Beijing Nameless Pictures Co., Ltd, International Film Festival Rotterdam | RUNNING TIME: 111 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 1-7 February 2021 (NL)
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