I finally got around to doing this one too. This approximately 10 minute
short film was released as
part of a series of short films by #VogueFilm China near the end of 2021. Titled
We Will Grow Old Together, it's scripted and directed by Wen Ye.
It's a nice short film. It won't be winning any awards but then it wasn't made for that. If you're a fan of either star or if you like films and/or short films, you won't be wasting ten minutes of your time to watch this. Happily Vogue China has made this available on their YouTube channel and they have provided English subtitles too. So now you have no excuse not to watch it. :)
There was a little confusion then among fans at that point in time because
they were also "secretly" shooting
Pale Fire (微暗之火) at the same time and some people weren't sure if we were all hoodwinked
and that this was the project that they were working on and not
Pale Fire.
It turned out to be two separate projects in the end. I must say though,
this bodes well for Pale Fire. Tong Yao and Zhang Xinchen were
smoldering hot on screen in this short film. This is not one of those
bizarre experimental short films which you can sometimes get with short
films. I know; I've watched my fair share of them. This is a
relatively simple story with a singular message that is nicely lensed and told.
The non-linear narrative structure works very well here and gives this story some complexity, making it more interesting then if it was
simply related to us linearly. It's helped very much by some very good
direction, cinematography, music, editing, post work and performance from cast and crew.
The is a story about a relationship that has past the exhilarating
rush of the early months / years after the couple meet and commit to each
other. It begins with a pretty mundane scene of the two lovers, Cheng
Cheng (Steven Zhang) and Tong Tong (Tong Yao) talking cheerily to his parents
on the phone before they wind down for the night. They then reveal that
perhaps this relationship has dulled and the humdrum of daily living is taking
its toil. He needs to work the next day and he doesn't want a
conversation and sleeps with his back towards her. She can't sleep and
eventually cuts a lonely figure by the window as she falls deep into thought.
The film than takes us through her recollection of their relationship by
counting down from one year ago to the day they met. This is significant
because they had a massive quarrel a year ago when he impetuously quit yet another job. This sheds some light on her sense of disquiet when he exhaled a
deep sigh and positioned his back to her on the bed earlier on. He had
taken on a job but we don't know if it's really one that he likes.
The count starts with the first year ago, then three years ago when they
decided to move in together and four years ago when they first meet. I
really like many of the scenes here. That choice of the red light in the
darkroom with water dripping and both of them moving around in tandem in the
dim light speak volumes. No words, just suggestive glances, soft laughter, the colour red and then the
climax.
The scene after that where she's hesitant about them moving in together and
he's reassuring, contrasts so much with the massive fight before that. When they fought, he
was a little petulant and she was furious. That contrast is nice and gives us enough clues that when they reveal that she's older than him, it comes as no surprise. He has the brashness of youth
and she has the practical side of a more matured woman.
This short film packs in a lot of information in the short amount of time that
the director was given. That scene when they first meet was full of
meaningful glances from Tong Tong. You can tell she found him attractive
although he felt out of place until his eyes fell upon a stack of video games
and suddenly, just like that, no more walls.
I have to say that on a personal level, it made me happy that the two bond
over video games and that the one that broke the awkwardness was
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. That was one of
the first games that I bought when I got my beloved Nintendo Switch. It was because of
Zelda that I bought the Switch soon after launch. It's a bit of a
silly detail but it made me happy.
The book that they talked about and both read is of particular importance. The novel
is Stoner by John Williams. Love and passion is one of the more
important themes in this novel. The extract that both Steven Zhang and
Tong Yao read in the VO is of great significance because this expresses the main message of
the film. This is what the director wants to say. Its fitting too
that Steven Zhang, the younger actor, reads the section about Stoner when he
was young and Tong Yao, the older actor, reads the section when a more matured
Stoner realizes some things about love.
Steven Zhang VO:
“In his extreme youth Stoner had thought of love as an absolute state of
being to which, if one were lucky, one might find access; in his maturity he
had decided it was the heaven of a false religion, toward which one ought to
gaze with an amused disbelief, a gently familiar contempt, and an
embarrassed nostalgia. "
Tong Yao VO:
"Now in his middle age he began to know that it was neither a state of grace
nor an illusion; he saw it as a human act of becoming, a condition that was
invented and modified moment by moment and day by day, by the will and the
intelligence and the heart.”
― John Williams, Stoner
As the VO is being read, we see a montage of their lives, of the little
details, of the days and moments that have gone into building up their
relationship. Then Cheng Cheng wakes up, walks over and embraces her
from the back. He whispers in relieve that she's still here and
significantly, she says, "I'm right here." In that one simple line, Tong Tong has expressed her will; this human act of becoming one with each
other.
That's a nice ending with a very nicely scripted and performed last line. Don't underestimate that last line, films have been ruined by a terrible last line (looking at you Four Weddings and a Funeral). In We Will Grow Old Together, although it's just one simple line, there is poetry in that simplicity.
No comments:
Post a Comment