Distracted by a cow he tries to drive past one late evening while on the way to meet his girlfriend, Wang Xueming (Eddie Peng) briefly takes his eyes off the road and runs over a man whose corpse he then – deeply distressed – disposes off in a spontaneous attempt to ‘unsee' the crime. Or does he? The recap of tragic event gets re-told so many times by Xueming himself that it becomes unclear what had happened to the man whose body police fished out of the river α few days after the incident. The forensic report also contradicts the first in a row of Xueming's memories – the victim was allegedly not run over by a car, but murdered with two bullets to the head.
“Are You Lonesome Tonight?” screened at Cannes Film Festival
The feature debut by Weng Shipei “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” had its special screening in the official selection of Cannes Film Festival, and it's certainly a type of film to challenge anyone used to clearly tailored scenarios with narrative flowing in classical order of beginning, culmination, and end. We are only given a form of structured beginning which also stands on shaky legs; not very long in the film, confusion sets in as to how the crime took place, and for what exactly Xueming went to prison: hit-and-run, murder, something else? One thing leaves no doubt. Yes, he is in prison (it's where we are introduced to him), and it is there where he starts re-visiting events of the evening with fatal consequences for his life.
A rather unrecognisable Eddie Peng – ragged, unshaven and haggard – plays a man who, haunted by guilt feelings for a crime he thinks he committed, looks up for the widow of his victim. At the beginning, he stalks her out of curiosity to find out more about the family he destroyed, but later on this is more motivated by his drive to help the widow should she need it (which actually does happen on more than one occasion). He, the repair-man, finds an easy way to get into Mrs Huifang Liang's (acclaimed scriptwriter /director/ actress Sylvia Chang) house soon after she found out about her husband's death. There is a dysfunctional air-condition that needs to be repaired, and Xumeing can eavesdrop on the widow's conversations with friends and family. They even have a cigarette together which initiates a conversation. “She told me things you would only tell to a stranger”, he recalls in one of his voice-over confessions.
In their entangled script for “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” Zhao Binghao, Wang Yinuo, Wen Shipei and Noé Dodson have put too much focus on the confusing memories of one man's mind that go their own directionless way. This Chinese whisper-like approach to the chain of events is at times draining, and yet absorbing, and boredom never sets in. If we neglect the logic of the story and concentrate on the relationship between two main protagonists and the side plot surrounding the bag full of cash that the deceased left behind (which causes another kind of havoc) the film can be seen as a study of action and consequence, of guilt and repentance. Even Hiaufang is plagued by guilt, because her last words to the late husband were “You might as well drop dead for all I care”.
There is a very interesting background to the genesis of the story itself. Weng Shipei quotes his own father, a small criminal and car smuggler back in the 1990's as the inspiration for the film. He recalls his childhood marked with unusual and sometimes not so pleasant experiences, such as a group of gangsters knocking on the apartment door, asking his mother to pay off her husband's debts. A similar situation is presented in the film when two thugs appear at Huifang Liang's doorstep, claiming a huge debt of 50,000 bucks from the widow. The victim, as it turns out, was a scammer himself.
There is a sense of nostalgia given in the selection of jazz and pop standards in the film, with one of them being responsible for its title – the cover of Elvis' “Are You Lonesome Tonight”, performed by a blind witness to events that preceded the accident (or was it?).
The night photography looks like the flag of Ethiopia with its contrasting green, yellow and red hues, in a collaborative DoP technical mastery by Andreas Thalhammer, Cedric Cheung-Lau, Xiaosu Han, and Zhang Heng. Guangzhou becomes a genresque stage of unsettling visions, nightmarish memories and an actual murderous hunt through the night.
The film participated in Shanghai International Film Festival's Project Market and won the Talent Highlight Award at Berlinale Talent Project Market.
