Capitalism
is an inherently fair and moral system. Good and services are exchanged at
prices set in a free and open market. That is not how it works in China, where
crony socialism has given rise to a favor economy. With no transparency, favor
exchanges are constantly renegotiated mid-transaction by the more connected
party—typically government officials or CP members. Poor grad student Zhang
Guangsheng (poor is indeed the word) is at the mercy of his faculty advisor,
particularly with respects to his future employment hopes. That is why his life
is thrown into crisis when his father loses his professor’s dog in Jiang
Jiachen’s Looking for Lucky (trailer here), which screens
during the 2018 New York Asian Film Festival.
All
of the errands Zhang has performed for Prof. Niu are on the brink of paying
off, when the senior faculty member starts making vague promises regarding a full-time
teaching position. Of course, the brown-nosing Zhang agrees to look after Niu’s
white bulldog Lucky while he is out of town. However, he also has a thesis
defense to prepare so he asks his father to walk Lucky. In retrospect, this was
a catastrophic error.
For
whatever reason, the elder Zhang is a magnet for quarrels, so true to form, he
loses Lucky in the part after a run-in with an opportunistic granny. After
bailing his father out of jail, Zhang starts pounding the pavement, but the
chances of finding Lucky start out slim and become grimmer with each passing
day.
Dog
lovers can sort of relax, because the missing Lucky is found safe and sound about
halfway through picture, but in a way that is no help to Zhang. Alas, not every
dog in the film will be so lucky. Needless to say, Zhang’s supposedly secure future
is now very much in doubt. Reluctantly, he falls back on plan B—offering Niu
cash for the position, which Zhang’s father and his cronies believed was
necessary all along. Thusly begins a mad scramble to raise money, complete his
degree, and keep the old man out of jail.
Lucky is billed as a
comedy, but it is hard to laugh at Zhang’s plight. Basically, it is like the
dog-sitting analog of De Sica’s Bicycle Thief. Everything is stacked against Zhang, from petty scammers to snobby
passive-aggressive fellow grad students. Actually, old Lucky is one of the few
characters who we can’t really blame, given the circumstances of his disappearance.
It
is also somewhat notable to see a father-and-son relationship in
socially-conscious independent cinema (usually it is a sainted mother
sacrificing for her family). Their home life is often contentious, but it is still
mostly workable. As Zhang and his father, Ding Xinhe and Yu Hai are absolutely
terrific. They bicker like they have years of difficult shared history together
and practically already know what the other will say.
