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| Huang Yao and Xin Baiqing in The Shadowless Tower |
Cast: Xin Baiqing, Huang Yao, Tian Zhuangzhuang, Li Qinqin, Siqin Gaowa, Wang Honwei, Wang Yiwen. Screenplay: Zhang Lu. Cinematography: Piao Songri. Production design: Zhang Yican. Film editing: Liu Xinzhu. Music: He Xiao.
The Shadowless Tower is a fable about dislocation and the attempt to reconnect. It opens with a family visit to the grave of the mother of Gu Wentong (Xin Baiqing) and his sister Wenhui (Li Qinqin). Wentong and Wenhui are surprised to see that there are flowers already on the grave, but Wenhui's husband explains that they were brought there by Gu Yuntai (Tian Zhuangzhuang), the estranged father of the siblings. It's a dislocated family in many ways: Wentong is divorced, and his daughter, Xiao Xiao (Wang Yiwen), whose name the subtitles translate as "Smiley," lives with Wenhui and her husband. Yuntai, the father, separated from the family many years earlier, when he was convicted and jailed (perhaps wrongly) for sexual misconduct on a bus; he now lives in Beidaihe, a seaside town many miles from Beijing, where his children live. Even the titular tower, the 13th century White Pagoda, a Buddhist temple, is a symbol of dislocation: Because of its unusual shape, it's said not to cast a shadow locally but instead 3,000 miles away in Tibet. The film concentrates mostly on Wentong, a restaurant reviewer who is accompanied on his visits to dining spots by a photographer, Ouyang Wenhui (Huang Yao), a much younger woman with a sardonic manner. What plot the film has concerns Wentong's attempts to reconnect with his father, who coincidentally lives in the same town where Ouyang was born. There's also some sexual tension between Wentong and Ouyang. It's a leisurely film, beautifully shot by Piao Songri, that could use some trimming to heighten its witty, wistful atmosphere.
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