SO LONG, MY SON

China, 2019, 180 minutes, Colour.
Wang Jinchung,
Directed by Xiaoshuai Wang.

This is something of an epic Chinese film, focusing on a family, but focusing on a group of friends and their contacts over the decades, from the young days, the Cultural Revolution, the one-child policy, the modernisation of China into the 21st century.

The structure of the film is shifting, moving (often without notice) from one time period to another, the audience having to gauge which period is being shown, from the look and locations, the age of the central characters.

The film opens with a key episode where the son of the central couple does not want to go and play in the water but is urged to do so by his friend who also pushes him into the water, leading to the death of the boy, the parents hurrying to take their son to hospital, his death. As part of this theme, the surviving boy grows up with a sense of guilt, becomes a doctor and very successful professional man but has the need to confess to the parents what he has done – and, at the end, he is so and receives their forgiveness.

The couple adopted another boy who is rather rebellious, resents his father who treats him severely, wants an identity card and leaves. Later in the film he too will return and there will be some kind of reconciliation.

In the meantime, there is also a focus on the friends of the parents, somewhat carefree and singing and dancing at the time of the Cultural Revolution, being imprisoned and indoctrinated, the group meeting again over the years, the effects of age, some deaths, adapting to a China that sometimes they do not recognise.

The actors portraying the parents won the acting awards at the Berlinale 2019.

1. Chintexttexta in the 20th century, the changes in the 21st-century? Film of retrospect?

2. The impact of the Chinese audiences, beyond China?

3. The city, the countryside, workplaces and factories, homes, water? The changes in development and modernising over the decades?

4. The structure, the ship time, the different ages of the characters?

5. The influence of Mao, the statue and the salute? Looking back to the Cultural Revolution and its consequences? To the one child policy? Strict interpretation or not?

6. The initial setting, the two boys, the boys playing in the water, the oddball protective, the smaller boy not wanting to play in the water? Being persuaded to go, his being bullied, pushed, his death? The guilt of the older boy, all through his life, the need to confess? The effect of confessing and being forgiven?

7. The smaller boy, his parents love, the news of his death, rushing to the site, hurrying into the hospital?

8. The adoption of the other boy, home life, his defiance, the strict father, his walking out, his being given an identity card?

9. The central group, friends, the younger days, the bonds between them, families, children, the strict mother and her upholding the law? The man wanting to dance, his arrest? Molli coming in and out of the story, the relationship with the father?

10. Their later reappearance, age, change, the effect of the years, illness, meeting, the woman dying, the death?

11. The young doctor, his help, his wife? His need to confess, the confession scene, the parents forgiving him?

12. The young boy, his return as a man, his girlfriend, the effect?

13. The portrait of the parents, the relationship over the years, love, work, death, change?

14. Meeting again – and the resolution of the issues of the past?