It
was a time of macro and micro bullying. In the waning years of the Cultural
Revolution, He Xiaoping assumes the abuse she has endured all her life will
stop once is accepted into a PLA dance troupe. Alas, social hierarchies are
just as rigid within the ranks of the military company. As the daughter of an
accused Rightist in a re-education camp, she still finds herself at the bottom
of the pecking order. The friendships and rivalries within her troupe will span
decades in Feng Xiaogang’s maybe not so mysteriously delayed Youth (trailer here), which is now
playing in New York.
Feng
has helmed some of Mainland China’s most patriotic blockbusters, so observers
were surprised when Youth was
suddenly pulled from its scheduled October 1st release date. Some
speculated the scenes of the never-spoken-of Sino-Vietnamese War were to blame,
but it could just as easily be the frank depiction of Cultural Revolution’s
injustices. Frankly, it is a miracle this film was allowed any kind of release
whatsoever.
Indeed,
for reasons that we eventually learn over time, the Cultural Revolution
indirectly led to a rather rash act that immediately starts He off on the wrong
foot with her more connected troupe-mates. Only the beloved Liu Feng (whose
name is a play on that of propaganda martyr Lei Feng) ever shows her any
compassion. Even the narrator, Xiao Suizi, is too timid to stand up for her,
thereby risking social ostracism herself. Yet, that is precisely why Xiao
rather than He is ultimately the film’s tragic figure.
Even
after the Cultural Revolution ends with a whimper, the troupe is still caught
up in dangerously tumultuous times. He will transfer to the nursing corps just
in time to serve during the war with Vietnam. China would prefer to forget that
one, but if reminded, they insist they were victorious, but the gore He
witnesses suggests otherwise. Liu will also witness the horrors of war
first-hand, thanks to a scandal that gets him cashiered out of the performance
troupe.
In
many ways, Youth is the film the respectable but over-hyped Testament of Youth was
cracked up to be, but it is also much more. Despite the nostalgic tone, it
clearly indicts modern China for deliberately turning its back on the service
and sacrifice of Liu’s generation. However, at its most fundamental level, Youth is just an achingly sensitive
coming of age drama. Even though very few viewers (even in China) will have
served in PLA dance troupes, it will still evoke memories of boarding school,
college, basic training, or whatever, when you were young and living amongst
with a group of people your age. Some you liked, some you couldn’t stand, but
you were all stuck going through the same things together.
Huang
Xuan is still probably the best-known cast-member. He has been a solid and
sometimes brave performer, especially in the films of Lou Ye, but his work as
Liu is probably his most mature and fully dimensional performance yet. Miao
Miao’s He is often so nakedly vulnerable, it is downright discomfiting to watch
her. However, the greatest discovery might be the strikingly expressive Elane Zhong
Chuxi as Xiao. Imagine having your heart-broken repeatedly by Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby. That’s what her performance
is like.
It
is time for a major Feng Xiaogang retrospective. It is fair to say the
political-ideological implications of Youth
are complicated, which makes it interesting to unpack. It is also his
follow-up to the absolutely exceptional I am not Madame Bovary, which was overtly critical of government corruption in
China. Plus, his ostensibly larky Personal Tailor had some unexpected social commentary late in the third act. Could
it be the man who helmed rah-rah films like Assembly,
Back to 1942, and Aftershock is
developing subversive tendencies? Whatever the cause, he is producing some of
his best films.
Regardless
of what it says about Feng continuing artistic evolution, Youth is a major film, from a major filmmaker. It is set against a
sprawling canvas, but it has an exquisitely intimate feel, beautifully (Oscar-worthily)
lensed by Luo Pan. Very highly recommended, Youth
is now playing in New York, at the AMC Empire.
