SHE, A CHINESE DATE: SUNDAY, MAY 2 TIME: 4:00 PM VENUE: SUNSET 5 BUY TICKETS

SHE, A CHINESE
(United Kingdom/France/Germany, 2009) Dir./Scr.: Guo Xiaolu
35mm, 98 min., color, narrative, in Mandarin and English w/ E.S.

She rocks. It seems. And then everything turns out different. Mei is a young village woman who has never left home before. She works at a local billiard hall serving noodles to the local male crowd and passing truck drivers. SHE, A CHINESE, the latest feature by Guo Xiaolu, opens with loud rock music. But Mei is never smiling, never shouting. We never see her agitated. Hers is a never-world without any passion or qualities which would give her shape, a personality, an identity. And yet Mei does move us in her indifferent, seemingly passive and faceless attitude. She begins to move indeed herself and leaves the home behind to replace her current life with several different constellations only to end up lonely again. Or maybe not.

All we know is that men like her easily, that every affair brings her to another place, but that her moving is not directed towards fulfillment and success. That she has no desire of her own. Or maybe she does.

Leaving the housework and rural life to her commanding and nagging mother, Mei arrives in the city, falls in love, and loses the person she fell for. Her lover’s dream to leave China for the West continues to exist though: as a calendar picture above the bed the two shared, and in Mei taking off to Europe. And suddenly, she finds herself in London, realizing another’s dream. She marries a retired math teacher (in this speed!) who is able to provide her with a house and a dog but not much more. And we suddenly understand that our protagonist is very capable of surviving, that she knows to find the men she needs to live. And to move on. Almost like a parasite.

But prosperity and happiness never await her. Mei is abused in most of her relationships and finds herself again and again in situations of mutual exploitation — or maybe just dependence, or even support. Though indicated, love remains a question mark in the film. And we cannot but think of a dramatically changing society where values, norms, and lifestyles as means of identification become emptied and obsolete. What is left is a generation of alienated people — lacking not only affective bonds between them but also a feeling of and for the self.

— Feng-Mei Heberer

Preceded by

	LET FLY (United States, 2009) Dir./Scr.: Laurie Tsou Video, 14 min., color, narrative Beneath the outward image of happiness, a Korean American mother inflicts withering abuse upon her two daughters. In the face of torment, eldest daughter Elaine courageously rises to the challenges of physical abuse, racial ridicule, and love of family.