Review of Jiang hu er nü

"Jiang hu er nü" or "Ash Is Purest White" is a co-production between China, France and Japan from 2018, so still a relatively new release and this one has been a b ig player this awards season. Probably would have been an even bigger player without Shoplifters around. Anyway, it is a really long movie, runs for over 2 hours and 15 minutes and was written and directed by Zhangke Jia, one of China's most successful filmmakers these days. By the way looking at the title, I am truly surprised about the inclusion of an ü in the Chinese language from the linguistic perspective. But lets focus more on the film itself now. I think it is the first work I have seen by Jia and overall I liked it, but didn't love it I would say. There were occasional moments I strongly disliked that stayed in the mind such as when the central male character is attacked by the two young bikers with the metal rod and the female protagonist points at them as they are about to leave. Or another would be the card game. I struggled initially with the idea why either one would even play it, but I guess it had to do with dignity, but also the way they played it I mean what was that one card against another and that is the entire game that determines winner or loser? Oh well, maybe they just skipped the action before, but I doubt it. The two lead actors here are Tao Zhao and Fan Liao, but well, the former is definitely more in the center of the story here, even if there would not have been a movie without either. Early on they are lawless (and there is major mention of that on several occasions) before the man turns into a respected businessman, but only for a little while before his health causes major concerns due to years of alcohol abuse and he hits rock-bottom. The female always stays lawless. This also made her really unlikable to me because of some of her actions. Okay that shop owner in the train lied to her (and everybody else) and that does not really justify her actions, but at least slightly explains them. But what she does with the horny taxi rider is downight despicable, even if some feminists may like it. She makes him hopes, then steals his bike and eventually accuses him of trying to rape her. It is not a likable protagonist that much is safe. And that she wants to get back to her original man only explains it some some extent I would say. She did all this to meet him again and have him pick her up at the station, but then again she is really the epitome of a tough woman in general, but really hopelessly vulnerable when it comes to everything related to Bin. She goes to jail for him, loses 5 years of her life this way, and hearing that he has somebody else should really have resulted in her not caring for him anymore, but the opposite is the case. When he is in the wheelchair, eventually loses this one too, she is all there for him again, does all she can in a desperate attempt to get him back and even takes him to a smart doctor where he would not have gone otherwise, but instead probably ended in the gutter. The moment he gets healthier again, is able to walk and feels better finally he leaves her right away, which makes him probably the true antagonist from this film. I think the film got slightly weaker in the second half. All the scenes involving the gun in the first half were fairly interesting to watch in my opinion. But it is nonetheless a decent movie from beginnning to end. Moments of real greatness are rare, but I give this film a thumbs-up, even if the female lead did not impress me with her performance as much as I hoped she could. I certainly am grateful to see a Chinese movie being released here in Germany as I know the country is pretty prolific in filmmaking, but rarely make it their movies through to us past the big distance. Music and costumes are fine as well, but even if the film almost flew by given its running time, it could have been kept 15 minutes shorter maybe and increased the quality this way if they had cut out the right scenes. This is definitely not a film for everybody and yes despite spanning over 1.5 decades, not too much happens. But inbstead it does deliver as a character study, not just invoving the one character at its very center. It is inferior to Shoplifters in terms of the best Asian film from 2018 (not counting anime), but if you manage to open yourself up to its approach, you are in for a treat. I hope you manage. Go watch it.