This movie, which was actually completed in February 1996, is a portrait of a father/son relationship with a twist.
The father who has been widowed is forced to take care of his rebellious son. He tries desperately to form his son after the ideals that the older people are accustomed to. The son is not prepared to be subjected to his father's rule, he wants to get out from under his father's oppressing wings. Now, this sounds all very heavy handed and it could have been, but the director presents this story in such a manner that the heaviness in part is replaced by a heavy doses of cynicism and humor, for this is a satire on Chinese society not so much a satire of family life.
And this is what got the filmmaker into trouble, the censorship office of China decided that this movie was "idealless" and was not suitable for release in China and abroad. So it stayed on the shelf for several years, and it is still there. The print I saw of this movie was a print that was illegally smuggled out of China, and subsequently illegally subtitled to make it ready for release at the Locarno Film Festival where it went on to win the Golden Leopard. Today I had the honour to view this print at the Rotterdam Film Festival as a surprise screening. After the movie there was a Q&A session with Marco Mueller and this cleared a lot up. The theme that is present in the movie is represented by the relationship between the father and the boy, the patriarchal struggle of the father to subdue his son is actually a metaphor for the Chinese government trying to subdue the Chinese people. The father becomes more and more distressed by the fact that he is unable to get his son to do what he wants him to do. After realizing this I looked at this film in a very different light, the message is now very clear and it is clear why the government of China was afraid of this film.
I realize that in a lot of countries there is still a heavy case of censorship going on, I think this is an outrage in these modern times. I was glad to hear as well that certain artists from these countries are now operational on the Internet and publish articles, films and material through this boundless medium. Let's hope the censorship offices won't find something against this. This was a good movie and for the message that it conveyed I award it a...
9/10
