In Wang Jing's debut feature film “The Best is Yet to Come”, Jia Zhangke isn't only listed as the producer, he also slips in one of the episode roles, playing a ruthless, coal-mine owner who puts the families of the people deceased in an accident into their “right place”.
But the film actually addresses the laws dating back from the turn of the millennium, which had a heavy impact on 100 million people in the country. Not new or nearly outdated in many countries that still levitate between dictatorship and democracy, “The Best is Yet to Come” takes on the phenomena of the “healthy nation” that outcasts its vulnerable citizens impacted by infectious diseases, in this concrete case by Hepatitis B.
The film is based on true events that shook the Chinese society when a young amateur journalist Han Dong (Bai Ke) uncovered the discriminatory campaign against the carriers to the public in 2003. It's an important story to tell, but how was it told?
Weighed down by over-played emotions and the teary music that never ceases to manipulate the audience, the film would have profited from less intentional interventions. The way the story was built, it plays too much on immediate sentiments. Pity it is, for it unfolds in time when many changes took shape in China. First of all, that was the year when the internet found its anchor across the country, and when people could finally jump above the fence of censorship and restrictions. At the same time, it was a year marked by irreversible consequences of the SARS epidemics, that left many workers unemployed.
This is how we meet Han, freshly arrived in Shanghai, at a huge, people-packed job market. University diploma and previous job experiences are crucial to get anything assigned by the official employment agency, and the young man has none of them. His desperate cries that “an observant eye is more important than education” land on deaf ears. How he gets into one of the most respectable dailies is the matter of stubbornness and a great dedication.
“It's better to burn out than to fade away”, he hears his best friend saying at their outing in a smoke-filled night club. Not thinking much about it, he takes it as a condescending talk by his much more educated friend. This proves to be the turning point of the film.
As important as it is, “The Best is Yet to Come” is underwhelming in the department of investigative journalism. As much as I would like to give it my tumbs up, there is still a doubt arising as to how the film was executed.
