This film appealed for three quite different reasons. First, Apple appears to have changed the way in which it presents the iTunes Movie Store in the UK and I thought I’d see what their offer was like these days. I was surprised to discover this title was available to buy for a small sum, actually less than the cost of rental. Presumably it’s a mistake, but I purchased it anyway. Second, the writer-director Feng Xiaogang is one of the best known figures in ‘popular’ Chinese cinema and I think this ‘romance melodrama’ was one of the films that the distributor China Lion released briefly into a handful of UK cinemas in December 2019. I’ve enjoyed some of Feng’s films in the past and I haven’t seen any popular Chinese films for a long time. Finally, I was intrigued because the film features a Chinese couple living in New Zealand and I became interested in the changing nature of New Zealand’s demographics and especially the growing diversity of Asian communities in the country when I visited in 2017.
The English title of the film is rather clumsy. The central character is Dongfeng (Huang Xuan) a name which seems to translate as ‘Wind’ but in his time in New Zealand he calls himself ‘Simon’. His wife is Yun (Yang Caiyu), who takes the name ‘Jennifer’ in New Zealand but her Chinese name could be read as ‘Cloud’. The film is a romance, mainly told in flashback. The narrative begins in Auckland with an older Dongfeng, now a widower walking his dog. He introduces himself in a voiceover and when he returns home his wife Yun briefly appears as a ghost. After the short visitation Dongfeng drives down to the house near the small town of Clyde in Otago, South Island, which he shared with Yun and then the first long flashback explores how they opened a small restaurant in the town.
The second long flashback, again introduced by Dongfeng, takes us back to the time when as a Chinese student in Auckland he seeks a place to stay and discovers the suburban house (just as beautiful in its own way as the house in South Island) of Mrs Lin, a Chinese widow (Xu Fan). Yun, who works nights in a fish market, already has a room in the house and Dongfeng is offered the other available room. He works delivering food during the day, so it is some time before they meet face-to-face. when they do, he falls for her immediately and they marry. The film’s title implies that ‘Cloud’ knows something that ‘Wind’ doesn’t and the final section of the film deals with Yun/Cloud’s death and what Dongfeng learns on his trip back to Beijing. In the long final credits sequence we see photos of the real couple whose story inspired the film. Dongfeng is based on someone who has worked with Feng but his partner died in Toronto, so I guess their story was about migration to Canada.
I’ve called this film a romance melodrama. It is certainly a romance but it is presented with definite ‘excess’ both in the music and the visual quality. Put simply, the film offers the stunning landscapes of Otago in CinemaScope framings and the most glorious light. The music score is almost swooning and lush at times and quite delicate at other times. Dongfeng himself plays the flute and at one point considered enrolling at a conservatoire in Auckland but it was too expensive. The film has not been widely reviewed as far as I can see but predictably quite a few leading critics don’t like it. It’s too ‘conventional’ and some see it as The New Zealand Tourist Board meets Hallmark. On the other hand there are opposing voices that point out that the romance has its sad moments but it isn’t mawkish. In fact it is more restrained and calm than might be expected from the narrative outline, though there are two moments of real or potential violence as well. I enjoyed the film. It is long (132 mins) but that long credit sequence takes up around ten minutes, I think.
My disappointment was mainly because I thought it didn’t realise the potential of a discussion about Chinese migration to New Zealand. It does give some indication of the childhood lives of its principals but Dongfeng and Yun meet only a handful of New Zealanders. Only one of these, Melinda (Lydia Peckham), the young woman who comes to work for them as a waitress, plays a significant role in the narrative. Melinda does however, present us with a different kind of young woman to Yun – or perhaps someone who simply has a different background. Like the dog or the tree she is a symbolic figure who signals important questions in the narrative.
After Yun’s death, Dongfeng gets a job as a ‘Community Police Officer’ because he can translate for the authorities if Chinese migrants have problems. New Zealand seems simply beautiful and peaceful – which it is – and aspects of the representation of the country certainly feel authentic, but it’s also a society with several difficult issues like the anti-Muslim violence in 2019 and 2021 and it has suffered from earthquakes around Christchurch and suggestions that it has ecological problems despite the presentation of unspoilt pastoral scenes. Auckland is one of the fastest growing cities in the Southern hemisphere and it now dominates the rest of the country. Most migrants come to Auckland which is the most cosmopolitan city as well as the largest and it has problems because it is growing too fast. None of this is apparent in the film. The possibility of Chinese migration to Australia is there in the last section of Jia Zhang-ke’s film Mountains May Depart (China 2015) and I was hoping that Feng might offer some kind of complementary discourse. But Feng’s film is for a popular audience and it is recognisable as an East Asian version of what in the West would be described as a ‘tearjerker’, perhaps. If you take it as that and remember that this is a Chinese love story then you will enjoy two excellent performances, beautiful landscapes, luscious musical score and a dog that will certainly prompt tears. It’s worth noting too that unlike a Hollywood romance, there are quite subtle commentaries on marriage and what it means to love someone over a long period. Here is the Singapore trailer:
itp Global Film 