Nothing happens a lot in this dull and pretentious movie from debut director Qiu Sheng. [Update, it has finally been released in China in February 2021 to a predictably ‘mixed’ response]
The film opens in the suburbs of a city where a work team, including Xia Hao [the inexpressive Li Chun] are investigating subsidence following an earth tremor. It later switches to focus on a group of children who go to school, go home, play and do all the things that schoolchildren do. This may (or may not) be a flash back and includes a Xia Hao who may (or may not) be a younger version of the same Xia Hao. When one of the kids is sick, the rest set out to visit him at home but drop out one by one.
The film later returns to the work team’s investigation of something or other. There is even a final segment which again may (or may not) be a flash back to a different period.
Either of the main segments might have made an interesting short film. The children, in particular, are lively and interesting. But director Qiu seems to be obsessed with obscurity for the sake of it and the film as it stands is meaningless and far too long.
It is presumably intended as a metaphor for something. Perhaps Xia Hao’s search for subsidence is related to his search for lost memories of his youth? But, if it is metaphorical, director Qiu does his best to ensure that nobody knows or cares what it is about. Its’ practical manifestation is to waste two hours of your life. It got a surprisingly generous 6.4 on Douban (bearing in mind that 6.4 is a rather low vote in this context).
The omnipresent Huang Lu appears but is entirely wasted. Shot in 4:3 for (like everything else in the movie) no apparent reason.
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