THE NIGHTINGALE/ YE YING - LE PROMENEUR D'OISEAU

China/France, 2014, 100 minutes, Colour.
Baotian Li, Xioran Li, Hao Qin, Xin Yi Yang.
Directed by Philippe Muyl.

While there are a number of Chinese domestic stories and comedies in film, many western audiences are more used to historical dramas and martial arts action films.

The Nightingale is a film with universal appeal, written and directed by a Frenchman, Philippe Muyl, interpreting a Chinese story with a Chinese cast. It could have been the screenplay for filming in any country but, here it is, leading its audience into contemporary relationship stories.

At the centre of the film is a little girl, Ren Xing, whose parents are highflyers in Beijing, he a rising star architect, his wife involved in business. The jobs require both of them to travel internationally, he to Tokyo and Hong Kong, she to Paris. Ren Xing is the product of a one-child family policy, terribly spoilt, whose main companion seems to be her iPad. When the couple have to be away at the same time, and their madi has to go on long journey to her son’s wedding, the mother decides that it would be best if her husband’s father minded her. The son has not spoken to his father for years because the grandfather had taken the little girl to a huge bird market and let go of her hand and, for some time, lost her. Her father seems to be completely unforgiving.

This means that also at the centre of the film is the grandfather who wants to return to his home town in the countryside, moving to Beijing after his wife’s death 18 years earlier. He had promised to return.

But, also at the centre of the film, is his Nightingale. He has tended the bird for the 18 years, enjoying it singing, it being his constant companion. The Nightingale accompanies grandfather and granddaughter on their journey to the town.

The film is a variation on a road movie, although the old man and the little girl travel by train, where she prefers to look at the iPad instead of out the window, refuses to eat when they go to the dining car, wakes up in the middle of the night declaring she is hungry, then pretends to be sick. At this stage, many audiences will feel that she would have benefited by some confiscation like that during the Cultural Revolution where there were no such things as iPads. Some discipline and manners would not have hurt either, an indictment of children who are both self-centred and iPad-centred.

We know that the two will bond, but it takes travel by train, bus and breakdown, car and boat before they arrive in the town and the little girl’s eyes have been opened to a world outside herself. When she arrives at the town, she finds friends, plays with children, works in the rice field, experiences hospitality and learns to respect and love her grandfather.

It is the little girl who, towards the end of the film, sits with her grandfather and explains the allegory of the Nightingale, its being confined, its love of singing, yet its need to be free.

When her parents arrive, she is oblivious of their anxiety because she has been happy with other people, with her grandfather, being active and outgoing. For those who are anti-iPad-preoccupation amongst children, there is a scene that they will relish towards the end where she is challenged about the iPod – but from a little boy younger than she, out in the countryside, who is absolutely up to date on the latest models.

While the focus is on the little girl, there is also a wonderful scene of reconciliation between father and son, genuine talking and listening, happy reminiscences, the healing of hurts – and this happens also between husband and wife.

The film has a great deal of charm, despite the brattiness of the little girl at the beginning, and ends with a great deal of hope.


1. A Chinese story, Chinese-French? interpretation? the Chinese submission for the Oscars?

2. French interpretation, director and writer, Philippe Muyl? Chinese contribution? The local cast?

3. The picture of the modern city in China, universal cities, skyscrapers, workplaces, offices, architectural plans, homes, birthday parties, ballet and music? Modern technology?

4. The contrast with countryside, trains, buses, carts, cars, boats? The countryside, walking through the forests, the river, the village, the fields?

5. The details of the town, the homes, meals and hospitality, the shops? Working in the rice paddocks? The shops with the birds? The musical score?

6. The title, the allegory and its applications, the birds, caged, singing, getting their freedom? The little girl and her explanation of the allegory?

7. The focus on the girl, her age, only child, relationship with her parents, their spoiling her, and the technology and iPad, the phone? Ballet classes, playing the piano, the celebration of the party? A wilful child? The parents and their difficulties?

8. The parents, professionals, modern, busy, international trips, absences?

9. The grandfather and his life, his marriage, the farm, in the village? Going to Beijing, for his son, for his studies? Taking the Nightingale? 18 years? The promise to return? The gift for the girls birthday, not entering, the past, losing her in the market, his son blaming him? The girl not looking at her grandfather?

10. The servant, having to go to the wedding of her son?

11. The mother, the tension with the father, the decision about the grandfather?

12. The girl going on the train, preoccupied with the iPad, the buying the tickets, on the train, not looking out the window, not hungry in the dining car, waking in the middle of the night and demanding food, her pretending to be sick?

13. On the bus, selfish as she went shopping, her grandfather searching, the wrong bus, being set down, the man on the cart, his help?

14. Going into the forest, a new world of the little girl, no signal? The fork in the road, the choice of the path, lost, sleeping in a cave, the morning, at the river, the boat and their being taken to the village?

15. The village, the welcome, food and meals, playing with the children, working in the rice field? A new life, her eyes opened, the bond with her grandfather?

16. The Nightingale, the singing, the 18 years, the death? The girl buying the new bird, her grandfather not knowing? Her being prepared to sell the iPad, the little boy out in the country and his knowledge of prices and models?

17. The grandfather visiting his wife’s grave, setting the bird free?

18. The girl, her explanation of the Nightingale allegory to her grandfather, companion, singing, confined, freedom?

19. Her parents arriving, the surprise? Seeing her happy? The father talking with his father, sitting down, reminiscing, special occasions in memory, the whistle to train the birds, forgiving his father, the reconciliation?

20. Beijing – the motif throughout the film of the busy skyscrapers, cars, freeways?

21. Husband and wife, separation, the little girl organising them to meet, the sitting on the floor, puzzling as to the distance between them? The girl’s arrival, the grandfather?

22. Reconciliation, possibilities for hope?