SHOWER/ ZIZAO

China, 1999, 92 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Zhang Yang.

A nice Chinese film. It shows us that small local stories that are treated with a basic humanity and humour can travel and entertain audiences everywhere. A successful Chinese businessman returns home thinking that his father has died. He hasn't and is still antagonistic towards his son who has left home. He runs an old-fashioned baths with his mentally handicapped son (a wonderfully genial and cheerful man). The baths are threated by developers. The older son delays his return and gets back into the rhythm of life at the baths, especially with the old regulars.

Shower is gentle and pleasantly funny, an appeal for old values - although those who prefer quick and efficient showers will be lost in wonder and envy at the opening sequence where we see the most modern of showers, a masterpiece of technological film-making.

1. The title, the opening of the shower, the baths?

2. Beijing, the rundown neighbourhood, the streets, the house, the baths? The musical score?

3. The older son, as a character, leaving home, his successful business, moving south, his wife, her not having met his father? The message to return, his father’s death? Finding his father alive? His younger brother, the device to bring him back? Staying the days, observing, the effect on him? His father, failing health? Facing a future? Decisions?

4. The character of the Father, his age, his sons, enjoying his work, managing the baths, interacting with the customers? Caring for his disabled son? The older son’s return, his health, the future?

5. Er Ming, younger brother, his age, his disability, lively personality, working in the baths, with his father, the device to get his brother to return?

6. The picture of the customers, the way of life in the baths, coming and going, interacting with the father, with the son? The feel of life in this microcosm of China?

7. China emerging at the end of the 20th century? A slice of life, pleasant, humane?