Chinese Reviews

Short Review: The Drum Tower (2018) by Popo Fan

This is the story of how two entirely different people who find each other and decide to spend their journey together. One is a young adult who is dependent on his mother and has interests in photography. He is a loner who in vain longs for the affection of his workaholic mother. The other character is a transgender who runs a boutique. She too is not very impressed with the status quo. We see cops inspecting her store and pasting some kind of eviction notice on her door. The young guy chances on the transgender while roaming the city of Beijing. He conjures up images of her and this can be attributed either to his creativity or the fact that he is high. He gets caught peeping at her and their stories merge from there on.

” is part of Shorts 2: Desiring Change at Queer East HomeSexual Edition on Demand 18 April – 17 May

The Drum tower is a famous tourist attraction in many Chinese provinces including Beijing. This name may have been chosen to make reference to the period before modernisation took hold of China and changed everything.

The short starts with the transgender being forcibly asked to leave a ladies room. It is depicted as a normal affair in her daily life. Beijing is talked about as a very crowded and expensive place to live in. There is a campaign running to fill the holes in the walls and make Beijing great again. This and other similar references refer to the social setting. The lack of character names points at them being just people around us.

The camera is fixed in most of the scenes and this gives a unique perspective, as if it were a slice of life. Viewfinder does not go looking for scenes but it is the other way around. Because of this, many characters remain only voices and even the main characters sometimes stay out of focus. Direction and cinematography by are the highlights here.

People with similar perspectives finding each other is a story which never fails to mesmerise. The closing shot of the two walking into a wall seems to point at them fulfilling their destinies and getting to a place where they belong. The drum towers world is one unto itself.

About the author

Arun Krishnan

My affection for the television screen started in childhood. I was blamed for being oblivious to my surroundings once the screen came to life. A badge i carry with me even today and has only naturally extended to the big screen. Moving picture is an amalgamation of all art forms that came before it. And to read, think, talk and write about it a pleasure all in itself. In short, this is my kind of fun.

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