Writer, journalist and director Wang Yichun‘s sincere, ironic, and mature debut “What’s in the darkness” in 2015 had been a real labour of love. About twenty years in the making, her work was in memory of her late father, drawing inspiration from her own personal experience as a teenager in the early 1990s in semi-rural Henan, and had marked her as a talent to watch. After almost 10 years, her bigger budget sophomore project “The Escaping Man”, A.K.A. “The Kidnapping”, has landed and has premiered at the First International Film Festival.
The Escaping Man is screening at New York Asian Film Festival
When Ren Shengli (Jiang Wu) is released from prison after serving 20 years for a rape he didn’t commit, his first thought goes to the woman he was accused to have raped (accused by her mother, by the way!), his girlfriend at the time, Sia (Chloe Maayan). Shengli goes looking for her in the maternal house where he learns she, in the meantime, has left the family and works now in “Big City”. She is a nanny and house helper for a supposedly wealthy family composed by a busy dominant wife (Yan Ni) who is a reluctant motivational guru, a messy absent-minded husband and a lovely boy Fluffy, whose candid and empathic character is interpreted as mental slowness by the parents and the school system.
Fluffy is growing very attached to Sia, finding her beautiful and talented, and when Shengli shows up, Sia suggests taking advantage of the trust she earned in the family, to kidnap the boy and ask for a hefty ransom that would provide them with a chance for a new start. Shengli would do anything for Sia but after a good beginning for their criminal plan, his clumsiness triggers a chain reaction of snowballing calamities.
Wang Yichun is an acute observer of Chinese society’s hypocrisies and anxieties, and a meticulous crafter who manages to intertwine humour and drama with measure and method. In her accomplished debut, she had placed her coming-of-age, rural summer tale at the beginning of the 90s, highlighting the duplicity of a country that was shedding its skin and rapidly giving way to capitalism. And yet, thirty years later, after one of the most significant socio-economic transformations in recent history, the characters of her new work are still facing challenges such as income inequality, housing affordability, and access to quality education. The protagonists of “The Escaping Man” find their feet in Big City (as it is called in the film), an archetypal Chinese megalopolis, offering an urban lifestyle made of luxury, convenience, and cultural engagement to a wealthy middle-class, but concealing a wide gap, with stark contrasts between affluent circles and lower-income neighbourhoods.
The film’s sharp commentary is in fact addressing a several of those issues. One in particular is the extremely competitive education system from a young age, and the obsessive pressure on and from the families to get their offspring into prestigious schools. Fluffy’s precious traits of empathy and natural goodness are totally misinterpreted by his peers and his mother who doesn’t refrain from calling him an idiot even in his presence, as she strives to secure a spot in the reputable (and aptly named) Darwin Primary School. Interpersonal and family dynamics are also in the crosshair of Wang Yichun’s satire, corrupted as they are by greed and social ambition, and the grotesque makeshift family that slowly takes shape will inevitably race to a shocking finale.
Check also this interview
In what seems to be her trademark MO, the director utilises comedy and sarcasm in the double role of helper in brightening an otherwise gloomy tale, and as an artful way to highlight the cruel realm the characters are immersed in. We laugh at their misfortunes, and the contrast delivers its punch. This effect is truly palpable for example, in a scene involving some rat poisoning, whose outcome is rather funny despite not being laughable at all, but – on the contrary – rather dreadful and disturbing. All this is delivered in a flawless, elegant and original visual package.
“The Escaping Man” is strongly supported by the performances of a top-notch cast. Jiang Wu has extensively proved his versatility in films that range from action to art house and comedy, and working with directors such as Jia Zhangke and Zhang Yimou. Here his Shengli embodies – with minimal dialogue – an incredible mask of melancholy and simplicity; he is, as the finale suggests, a sad clown. His rapport with the little boy Fluffy (an incredibly talented child actor, Zhang Boxin) is in line with the best tradition of cinematic “odd couples” and their scenes together are amongst the best of the film. On her side, Chloe Maayan radiates an almost hypnotic predatory allure, a very believable aura that fascinates and seduces, turning Shengli and Fluffy into puppets in her hands.
To conclude, Wang Yichun has meticulously crafted with skills and careful attention to details, a sharp satiric tale informed by the paradoxes and ironies of modern Chinese society that is bound to become a contemporary classic.
