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Damage of ‘cultural revolution’ depicted
THE Chinese film “Red Amnesia,” shown in Venice, is partly a ghost story that may or may not have a ghost, but its portrayal of how the “cultural revolution” (1966-76) left a trail of twisted lives that haunts China today is unambiguous and devastating.
The film is directed by Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai, who rose to international fame in 2001 when his film “Beijing Bicycle” won a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.
“It’s now been over 30 years since the economic reforms began being implemented in China,” Wang said at a post-screening news conference early this month. “Yet we have not been freed from the influences of the past and in our minds, we have not completely been able to move on.”
The film, which has the Chinese title “Chuangru Zhe,” is the third in a trilogy by Wang that looks at the aftermath of the culture revolution.
It also examines how Chinese attitudes toward the elderly have changed, from a tradition of reverence to the difficulties the widow, Mrs Deng, played to perfection by veteran stage actress Lu Zhong, has in dealing with her two sons, her daughter-in-law and even her own mother, who is in a nursing home.
One of the sons is gay and resents her showing up at the flat he shares with his lover. The other son’s wife chafes at her mother-in-law’s bossiness, which extends to insisting on making meatballs in other people’s kitchens. Whenever Deng goes to visit her own mother in the nursing home, the older woman refuses to eat anything she feeds her.
Wang said the bossy widow is an example of the warped personalities left over from the “cultural revolution.”
“Where does that coercive force come from? It comes from the past, the experiences of our parents and therefore they also influence us, too,” he said.
“So I really hope that ordinary people in China, seeing this film, may find it helpful to begin to think about how we can change and return to being normal human beings.”
Trade publication “The Hollywood Reporter” in an online review said, “’Red Amnesia’ demands patience and close attention, but the well-acted drama’s enigmatic spell creeps up on you as it transitions from portraying an obsolete generation, forgotten by its children, to excavating the complicated history that same generation has chosen to forget.”
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