Road
trip movies are typically comedies, but the Gobi Desert in northwestern China
is not conducive to light-hearted romps. That suits the hard luck of Yong, a
bumbling ostrich farmer. The climate should be hospitable for his flock, but he
still managed to default on a local gangster’s loan. To stave off the
foreclosure of his ex-wife’s flat, Yong agrees to do him a favor by babysitting
a rather sullen young boy in Tang Gaopeng’s The
Road Not Taken (trailer
here),
which screens during the 2018 Asian World Film Festival.
It
is blatantly obvious to the audience “the kid,” as he is simply referred to
throughout the film, has been kidnapped from his father, a powerful local
official, but Yong is painfully slow on the uptake. Brother Five needs to stash
their hostage someplace, while he does the bidding of his bigger boss, Mr. Lee,
so he leaves him in the not-so-safe safekeeping of “Uncle” Yong.
Yong
would have been happy to let the kid mope, until he called his ex and heard a
man in the background. Naturally, he precipitously storms off to Taibailiang to
have it out with her, with the kid hiding in the back of his truck. One
accident and an awkward confrontation later, Yong and the kid are hitching
their way to Taibailiang with Mei, a tough trucker, who still pines for her
absconded husband. Even though she can tell Yong is a schemer, the three start
to grudgingly enjoy their time together—while it lasts.
Road is a rather unlikely
fusion of a sentimental comedy with a rigorously naturalistic, regionally-based
Chinese indie drama. Somehow, it mostly works, thanks to Wang Xuebing’s
fearlessly flexible performance as Yong. At first, his shtick makes us groan,
but then we start to see his desperation and sadness, at which point it becomes
quite poignant. As Mei, the boldly glammed down but still striking Ma Yili also
shows why she is such a fast-rising star. She gives a wonderfully sly and
subtle performance that will win over more hearts than a rom-com like When Larry Meets Marry ever could. Although
Zhu Gengyou certainly looks like a cute kid, his constant sulking grows
tiresome (but that is not necessarily his fault).
Tang
deserves credit for constantly upending expectations, especially for western
viewers raised on Hollywood beat-sheet formulas. Every time the film reaches a
crossroads, it turns away from the safe and predictable. Cinematographer Guo
Daming also vividly captures the unforgiving ruggedness of the Gobi landscape. Tang’s
execution is inconsistent in some respects, but the resulting film is far better
than a capsule synopsis might suggest. Recommended with a good deal of
enthusiasm, The Road Not Taken screens
this afternoon (10/28) and Tuesday night (10/30), as part of this year’s Asian
World Film Festival.
