Film: Quitting - a film by Zhang Yang
I suppose there are a lot of different levels on which this film may be understood or interpreted: conflict between father and son; conflict between brother and sister; conflict between east and west; conflict between success and failure. Put them all together, and you have one long film, and with subtitles it made it one long boring film. I think I might have liked it more if I spoke fluent Chinese, or any Chinese for that matter. But the film did have it's moments for me, and interestingly that was when no words were spoken at all. What particluarly comes to mind, is when the mother leaves the house heart broken over the conflict in the family and the father's drinking. He goes after her on his bicycle. When he finds her, she is sitting on the side of the road sobbing. No words are spoken between them. He gets off his bike, goes over and puts his jacket around her shoulders and then sits down beside her. After a while she starts to put the jacket on. He gets up, goes over to his bike, turns it around facing home. She stands and puts her arms in the sleeves of the jacket, and begins to walk towards him. He gets on the bike and begins to ride slowly. She gets on the bike's back seat. No words and yet it said everything!
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