Dying to Survive [我不是药神]

Released: 2018   Viewed: Far East Film Festival, April 2019

 

This film (I am not a Medicine God in Chinese) was a massive surprise hit in China, coming fourth in the 2018 Box Office (excluding non-PRC films). And it scored a phenomenal 9.6 (out of 10) on Maoyan.

The film is, albeit very loosely, based on real facts. Yong [Xu Zheng], who is a small Shanghai shop owner selling rather dubious Indian health products, is short of cash. This becomes critical when his father needs expensive medical treatment and he agrees to a request to smuggle  an Indian generic cancer drug into China. The version available in China (produced by a Swiss corporation) is much more expensive that the Indian product.

The first part of the film is handled by director Wen Muye as a comedy heist with Yong assembling the usual motley crew of characters to assist in the import and distribution of the drug. But success brings its own challenges and soon he is fending off both would-be competitors and police raids. He decides to get out while the going is good and sells the business to one of the competitors.

But a year later, the supply of drugs has tried up and many people are seriously ill as they cannot afford the legal drug. Shocked by the death of one of the crew, Yong decides to take up the smuggling again. But this time he imports the medicine at cost price.

From here on the film takes a rather more serious turn. The film emphasises the cost in lives of the non-affordability of essential medicine while the police come increasingly close to catching Yang.

Ultimately the film suggests that people power convinced the government that a better solution was needed. The Film Bureau helpfully inserted details at the end of the film to explain all that the government had done to include the drug in the health insurance system.

The film , as it is obliged to be, is never explicitly critical of government policy. However, despite the efforts to show what the government had done more recently, it is hard not to see the film as implicitly critical of the authorities’ failure to act at an earlier date. Even if the evil drug corporation is based in Switzerland, we only see it through its uncaring and sharp-suited Chinese representatives. And, although they are only implementing the law, the Chinese courts and police are shown as pawns of the drug company.

The film is an entertaining watch and manages to walk the line between action and sentimentality. However, it is probably as interesting for what it says about the state of Chinese films. The fact that a film like this can be made, and do well at the box office, is surely a promising sign for films to come.