Following the competent “Wisdom Tooth”, actor-turned-director Liang Ming returns with “Carefree Days” an arthouse film that premiered at the 71st San Sebastian, before having a decent festival run including a number of awards, mostly from Chinese competitions.
Carefree Days screened at Mulan International Film Festival
Xu Linging is a 25-year-old whose life is in shambles. Her parents are in the midst of a bad divorce, always fighting in her house, and her efforts to make a living at the decaying city of Shenyang are not exactly successful, with her just having a number of menial jobs, mostly revolving around various aspects of entertainment. One day at a club where she works, she collapses and has to be moved to the hospital, where she finds out she suffers from uremia.
As her life begins to crumble even more, her mother dies, and her distant father comes back to take care of her, despite that he cannot shake off his tendency to spend time with various women. During the funeral of her mother, Xu meets a former classmate, Zhao Dongyang, who is in the midst of a divorce, and a subtle romance begins forming among the two. In the meantime, she has the support of her best friend, somewhat obese Tan Na, who does have her own set of problems, mostly revolving around her obsession to hook up with men that do her harm. In the midst of all these and bidaily dialysis, Xu decides to take a trip with Zhao and Tana.
Check the interview with the director
Liang Ming directs a film that mostly moves towards an arthouse approach, although the many things that happen in the story and the characters do point towards a more mainstream family drama, despite that the first approach remains the dominant one. The truth is that the first part of the movie has some pacing issues, with the way time flows being somewhat confusing, particularly since it slows down after a point, going more towards a day-to-day basis. The same applies to the introduction of the characters, in another aspect that smooths down as the movie progresses.
Finding a message in the story and the way the movie progresses is not the easiest thing, but there are a number of focal contextual points nevertheless. The importance of having people who love you when in need emerges as a central one here, as much as the overall way to cope with serious illness. That people cannot be judged just by one aspect of their life is also presented, through both Tana and the Father. That these two share a somewhat common issue regarding their relationships with the opposite sex, could also be perceived as a comment on how people form their relationships (in the case of Xu) while the twist that eventually comes adds to this aspect even more.
Apart from that, the movie follows common tropes of Chinese arthouse cinema, with the road trip aspect, the poor and miserable protagonists, and the impressive scenes that appear throughout (club, ice rink, fireworks, neon lights, historical monuments and tourist attractions etc). In that regard, Wang Meng’s cinematography captures both the suffocating interiors and the occasionally quite beautiful exteriors with artistry, but in a way that we have seen numerous times lately. The same applies to the slow pace Liu Xinzhu’s editing results in, which manages to retain the tempo with the exception of the first part, but again, results in a style that feels too familiar.
The smart humor that appears throughout saves part of the narrative, with the interactions between father and romantic interest, and the cheeky smiles that appear on Xu’s face being among the best aspects of the movie. Overall, the acting is on a very high level. Lyu Xingchen steals the show as Xu, with her being quite convincing in the plethora of sentiments and psychological statuses she has to portray, with her charisma feeling the screen every time she appears on it. Li Congxi as her ‘poor devil’ father is also quite good in his ‘transformation’. Li Xueqin as Tana is good both in the dramatic and the funny moments, with the same applying to Bingrui Zhao as Zhao.
With its occasionally no-punches-pulled realism, particularly during the last part, the frequent beauty and the competent acting, “Carefree Days” is definitely a worthy effort. At the same time though, there are too many movies like this found throughout festivals nowadays, which makes the particular one a somewhat forgettable experience.
