Shower
Directed by Zhang Yang.
A stony faced career man and not a talker, Da Ming (Pu Cun Xin) heads north to Beijing, the home of his father, Master Liu (Zhu Xu). The former has been led mistakenly to believe that his father has died, by virtue of an unusual postcard from his mentally disabled brother, Er Ming (Jiang Wu). Da Ming is a product of the new China, fast and modern. But his father is of an older, slower China: with Er Ming, he runs a bathhouse, to which customers return year after year, to this haven wherein they are treated like kings.
The patrons’ various amusing peculiarities, as well as the warm relationship between Master Liu and Er Ming, are a big part of the film, and a big part of what makes the bath-house so important for the dedicated Master Liu. But when Da Ming rocks up, finding his father alive, he looks on the establishment with an icily contemptuous attitude. Tensions build between father and son, until finally tragic events see Da Ming’s ice just beginning to melt. This is a personal film, about particular people, but through the particular, we see the general. In the relationship between a father and a son, a larger relation is captured, between the old China and the new, and then a larger still, between the slow and the fast, the warm and the cool.
Shower is one of those warm sad ones, but despite the genre cliché — viz. lovable eccentrics v. big bad businessmen/bureaucrats who want to crush the lovable eccentrics — it is still pretty convincing, since the clichés aren’t all that carries the film. It holds one’s interest because of both the unique setting and the absorbing nature of the characters. Furthermore, the film’s broader themes provoke thought. Out of five, hmm, 3 stars? Or maybe 2.7593. Actually it’s a real but irrational number, so you’ll never know what I thought sucked in.
John "I’m Giving False Names Due To Fear Of Retaliation From Joe" It Is Improper To Use The Society Organ As A Vehicle For Implicit Personal Attacks On Fellow Society Members "Bloggs" Smith
