So Close to Paradise
Encyclopedia
So Close to Paradise is a 1998
Chinese films of the 1990s
This is a list of films produced in mainland China ordered by year of release in the 1990s. For an alphabetical listing of Chinese films see :Category:Chinese films- 1990 :- 1991 :- 1992 :- 1993 :- 1994 :- 1995 :- 1996 :- 1997 :...
Chinese film
Cinema of China
The Chinese-language cinema has three distinct historical threads: Cinema of Hong Kong, Cinema of China, and Cinema of Taiwan. Since 1949 the cinema of mainland China has operated under restrictions imposed by the Communist Party of China's State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television and...
directed by Wang Xiaoshuai
Wang Xiaoshuai
Wang Xiaoshuai is a Chinese film director, screenwriter and occasional actor. He is commonly grouped under the loose association of filmmakers known as the Sixth Generation of the Cinema of China....
, a member of Chinese cinema's so-called Sixth Generation. It is alternatively known by the English title Ruan's Song or by its original Chinese title, The Girl From Vietnam . The film was a coproduction of the Beijing Film Studio, and Beijing Jin Die Yingshi Yishu, as such, it is Wang's first major film production within the Chinese studio system. The film's literal title, The Pole-Carrier and the Girl refers to two of the main characters played by Shi Yu and Wang Tong
Wang Tong
Wang Tong is a Chinese football player who currently plays for Shandong Luneng as a defender in the Chinese Super League.-Shandong Luneng:Wang Tong began his football career playing for the Shandong Luneng youth team where he impressed the clubs Head coach Branko Ivanković during a training session...
.
The film follows two migrants, Dong Zi, and Gao Ping as they travel through Wuhan
Wuhan
Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province, People's Republic of China, and is the most populous city in Central China. It lies at the east of the Jianghan Plain, and the intersection of the middle reaches of the Yangtze and Han rivers...
's underground and in the process kidnap a nightclub singer.
Plot
So Close to Paradise takes place in the 1980s in the central Chinese city of WuhanWuhan
Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province, People's Republic of China, and is the most populous city in Central China. It lies at the east of the Jianghan Plain, and the intersection of the middle reaches of the Yangtze and Han rivers...
. The film follows two young migrant workers. Young innocent Dong Zi (Shi Yu) is a pole carrier or coolie
Coolie
Historically, a coolie was a manual labourer or slave from Asia, particularly China, India, and the Phillipines during the 19th century and early 20th century...
eking out a meager existence carrying heavy loads from place to place. His friend and roommate Gao Ping (Guo Tao
Guo Tao (actor)
Guo Tao is a Chinese actor.Guo was born in Beijing. He graduated from Central Academy of Drama in 1992.-Filmography:*1994, To Live*1997, Spicy Love Soup*1998, So Close to Paradise*2004, Green Hat*2006, Crazy Stone...
) is from the same home village, but unlike Dong Zi, is older, more cynical, and has fallen into a life of petty crime. As the film begins, Gao has been cheated out of a small amount of money from a local gangster Su Wu (Wu Tao). Enraged, Gao drags his friend into Wuhan's underworld. Their first stop is a local bar, the Li Li Club where they go looking for Ruan Hong (Wang Tong
Wang Tong
Wang Tong is a Chinese football player who currently plays for Shandong Luneng as a defender in the Chinese Super League.-Shandong Luneng:Wang Tong began his football career playing for the Shandong Luneng youth team where he impressed the clubs Head coach Branko Ivanković during a training session...
), a Vietnamese singer who is said to know Su Wu. After speaking with her, Gao and Dong kidnap the young woman and drag her to their apartment. Gao asks Dong to leave the room after which he proceeds to rape her, while Dong peers through a crack in the door. Soon afterwards, however, Gao and Ruan suddenly become lovers, much to Dong Zi's surprise and consternation.
As Gao and Ruan continue their relationship, Dong Zi becomes sullen and seemingly jealous, though it is unclear of whom. Later Ruan and Gao appear to get in a fight as Gao Ping continues to obsess over the small amount of money he has lost. Enraged, Ruan leaves the apartment with a curious Dong Zi in tow. The two talk throughout the night and Ruan reveals that she only wants to become a professional singer, though such dreams seem out of reach. She eventually returns to the apartment, but only to leave the phone number of Su Wu.
Upon finding Su Wu, Gao beats and imprisons Su in a cellar before releasing him, after Su agrees to take him to his boss. What happens next is not shown on screen, though Dong Zi narrating explains that Gao Ping somehow became caught up in a scheme with Su Wu and his boss, leading to Gao murdering an unknown person. Tensions rise, however, when it is discovered that Ruan Hong is the kept woman of Su Wu's boss. Realizing the danger, Gao Ping disappears just as the boss and the police begin to close in on him. Secretly communicating with Ruan, Gao promises to take her away but fails to show up on the appointed day. Ruan is subsequently arrested when the Li Li Club is seized as a den of prostitution
Prostitution in the People's Republic of China
Shortly after taking power in 1949, the Communist Party of China embarked upon a series of campaigns that purportedly eradicated prostitution from mainland China by the early 1960s. Since the loosening of government controls over society in the early 1980s, prostitution in mainland China not only...
. When Gao finally comes back to his apartment, he is caught by the Boss whose men beat him to death.
The film then ends as Ruan, now released from prison, returns to the apartment of Dong Zi and Gao Ping. For Dong Zi, she is the only person he knows in the city. They reminisce of the dead Gao, and Ruan thanks Dong Zi for "kidnapping" her that night. Before she leaves, Dong Zi gives her a walkman
Walkman
Walkman is a Sony brand tradename originally used for portable audio cassette, and now used to market Sony's portable audio and video players as well as a line of Sony Ericsson mobile phones...
with a tape of one of her songs.
Cast
- Shi Yu as Dong Zi, a naïve migrant dockworker.
- Guo TaoGuo Tao (actor)Guo Tao is a Chinese actor.Guo was born in Beijing. He graduated from Central Academy of Drama in 1992.-Filmography:*1994, To Live*1997, Spicy Love Soup*1998, So Close to Paradise*2004, Green Hat*2006, Crazy Stone...
as Gao Ping, Dong Zi's friend, a small-time criminal. - Wang TongWang TongWang Tong is a Chinese football player who currently plays for Shandong Luneng as a defender in the Chinese Super League.-Shandong Luneng:Wang Tong began his football career playing for the Shandong Luneng youth team where he impressed the clubs Head coach Branko Ivanković during a training session...
as Ruan Hong, a Vietnamese cabaret singer. - Wu Tao as Su Wu, a local gangster.
Production
Production for So Close to Paradise began while Wang Xiaoshuai was officially blacklisted. While Wang participated in self-criticisms and networking opportunities in an effort to be allowed to make films again, he was invited to join Tian ZhuangzhuangTian Zhuangzhuang
Tian Zhuangzhuang is a Chinese film director and producer.Tian was born to an influential actor and actress in China. Following a short stint in the military, Tian began his artistic career first as an amateur photographer and then as an assistant cinematographer at the Beijing Agricultural Film...
's production company to begin work on the screenplay of So Close to Paradise, then called The Girl from Vietnam. During this period, the screenplay was vetted by both Beijing Film Studio executives and individual investors, who, while supportive of the film's portrayal of modern social reality, had some misgivings. This led to a shift in focus from the characters' sexual impulses to the general states of being. Wang had originally planned to begin shooting So Close to Paradise in June or July 1994 in Wuhan but was delayed until October due to continued bureaucracy problems between Wang and the state apparatus. As a result of the shift in season, filming of Paradise proved to be far more complicated in terms of logistics than Wang had initially anticipated. Combined with extensive edits to meet government censor approval and the production of the film stretched on for years.
While the film was financed with official backing (in contrast to Wang's earlier films), its release was nevertheless delayed and its content subject to substantial censorship by the state apparatus. Indeed it took nearly four years before the film was finally screened. Reasons for the problems have been speculated to revolve around both the film's gritty depiction of urban life, as well as the fact that a central character is Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
ese. At one point, the Chinese Film Bureau (SARFT
State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television
The State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television is an executive branch under the State Council of the People's Republic of China...
) argued that the film literally had a "funny smell," which Wang attributed to the censors' general distaste with the film's depressing tone and subject matter. When extensive edits to the film's "mood" failed to appease the censors, they eventually acquiesced and approved the film, in part because the process had dragged on so long.
Release and reception
Paradise was originally shown in mainland theaters in the fall of 1998 (nearly four years after production began), and was eventually shown in Hong Kong in December of that year (under the title Take Me Off) at the 1998 Mainland-Hong Kong-Taiwan Film Festival. Following Hong Kong, it reached foreign shores under the title of So Close to Paradise. The film received a Western premiere at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival1999 Cannes Film Festival
The 52nd Cannes Film Festival was held on May 12-23, 1999. The Palme d'Or went to the French-Belgian film Rosetta by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne.-Jury:* David Cronenberg * André Téchiné * Barbara Hendricks...
as part of the Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's Official Selection. It is run at the Salle Debussy, parallel to the competition for the Palme d'Or.This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob...
competition. It would go on to win a Tiger Award for Best Film at the 2000 International Film Festival Rotterdam
International Film Festival Rotterdam
The International Film Festival Rotterdam is an annual film festival held in various cinemas in Rotterdam, Netherlands held at the end of January. It is approximately comparable in size to other major European festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Locarno...
. Domestically, So Close to Paradise had a much more tortuous journey to cinemas. In an interview, Wang noted that as a result of the film's unusually long gestation period, promotion of the film proved near impossible. While a few cinemas may have received the film in 1998, no commercial release of So Close to Paradise took place. Rather, So Close to Paradise had to wait another six years to be commercially released in mainland China.
Abroad, the film received generally positive reviews. A.O. Scott, of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, compared the film's noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
qualities to fellow Sixth Generation director Lou Ye
Lou Ye
Lou Ye , born 1965, is a Chinese writer-director who is commonly grouped with the "Sixth Generation" directors of Chinese cinema.-Films:Born in Shanghai, Lou was educated at the Beijing Film Academy. In 1993, he made his first film Weekend Lover, but it was not released until two years later in 1995...
's Suzhou River
Suzhou River (film)
Suzhou River is a 2000 film by Lou Ye about a tragic love story set in contemporary Shanghai. The film, though stylistically distinct, is typical of "Sixth Generation" Chinese filmmakers in its subject matter of contemporary China's gritty urban experience...
, though he ultimately states that Paradise generally fails to engage the audience. At the same time, he showers praise on the film's technical aspects, stating that "Mr. Wang's extraordinary sense of color and composition reanimates some of its secondhand attitudes." Derek Elley of Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
, generally praising both the cast performances (as "flavorful") and the more technical aspects of the film. The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
, meanwhile, is generally negative in its review, arguing that the film's simplistic noir story lacks proper "execution" leaving it "heavy-handed and lethargic."
External links
- So Close to Paradise at the Chinese Movie Database