[after narrowly escaping the 5-0 when his plan of sticking up a taco truck by jutting a finger into the pocket of his hoodie goes horribly awry, contributing writer and wannabe gangster marrrrrrr likes to relax by enjoying a simple home-cooked meal and a movie — a small gesture toward culture and civilization amidst the harsh and primitive underground world of pretend crime. this is Midnight Movies.]
film: Ash is Purest White (2018)
food: a latte and some biscuits
pre-game: chinese drama about a woman that serves a few years in prison for her boyfriend and then tries to resume the relationship when she gets out. one of the best reviewed movies from 2018. casually contributing to an already extensively “discussed” movie a few years down the line? that’s what it’s all about!
post-game: the reasons for western critics’ love affair with Jia Zhangke’s Ash is Purest White become obvious after watching it.
the script, for starters, features a “classic” structure, divided cleanly, as it is, into three acts covering a 16-year time period, moving from 2001 to 2006 to 2017 over the course of one woman’s (Zhao Tao) life as she revels in/recovers from/reconciles her love affair with a gang leader (Liao Fan) from her hometown. it’d make a pretty great stage play if anyone ever wanted to transfer it to live theater (though you’d lose out on some beautifully subtle camera work in translation).
speaking of, the visuals and cinematography form another reason. Jia strikes a balance between the efficient and the artistic, retaining interest without being fussy. there are lots of slow pans, sometimes a little behind the action, simulating the attentions of the characters. in one early scene, qiao (Zhao) and bin (Liao) are dancing at a nightclub when the clatter of something falling to the ground is heard but not shown. the camera pans down to reveal a gun shook loose from bin’s waistband, follows his hands hastily retrieving it, and finally pans back up to the characters’ torsos and faces, now nervously scanning the room for reactions or potential witnesses. it’s the kind of visual storytelling that critics love because it rewards active watching, which is, essentially, their job.
beyond which, the movie’s also ripe for the kinds of metaphorical, literary analysis where the juiciest meat of criticism dwells. does qiao represent Woman to bin’s Man? she, devoted to him in spite of her best interests; he, too obsessed with an idealized version of himself to fully embrace her. or is qiao the workers of china to bin’s state/corporations, constantly providing cover and care and nourishment despite receiving little in return? their hometown of datong, known for its coal mining, has become impoverished after the industry’s decline. there are rumors that the miners, including qiao’s father, must either transfer to a different city to train for a different job or be out of work entirely. plenty of blurbs hailed Ash as a realistic portrait of china’s evolving cultural landscape. even someone with no expertise in recent chinese history (*ahem*) could see there’s enough scenes exploring daily life (particularly in the second act) to support all manner of interpretations regarding the film as it relates to chinese culture.
and then there’s probably this reason: it’s an excellently told relationship drama that evokes a strong reserve of emotions without lapsing into melodrama.
i hesitate to say much more about the plot, not because there are any “twists,” but because the movie is paced such that the pre-game and the above caption pretty much cover the entire first third: after bin is jumped by a rival gang, qiao uses his illegal gun to save his life and serves an extended sentence afterwards when she refuses to rat him out and claims the gun as her own. unfortunately, he may not be as dedicated. his obsession with being a “jianghu” (a word with different historical meanings, but used contemporaneously as a romanticized term for a gangster) remains the largest obstacle in their relationship, both before and after the fateful night.
if you don’t like slow burns, this probably isn’t the film for you. that being said, the viewer’s patience is well-rewarded, and i almost never found myself bored. (a minor subplot involving a stolen wallet and identification card, in addition to stretching the point of likelihood, seemed unnecessary, but it’s also possible it was included to illustrate some point about chinese culture of which i am utterly unaware).
this is the second Midnight Movie, after Tangerine (2015), about a woman doing time for her partner, only to return to the outside world to find the nature of their relationship irrevocably changed. in Tangerine, sin-dee had a close friend to help her through. since qiao’s father dies while she’s serving her sentence, bin is the only meaningful relationship she has left upon her release.
the second and third acts of Ash is Purest White ask: what, then, is qiao without him?
a real gangster.
rating: the haunting melancholy of a Leonard Cohen song.
