Lan Xin Da Ju Yuan - Saturday Fiction Directed by Ye Lou
Lan Xin Da Ju Yuan - Saturday Fiction
Directed by Ye Lou
Starrings: Li Gong, Mark Chao, Pascal Greggory, Xiangli Huang, Ayumu Nakajima, Joe Odagiri, Chuan-jun Wang, Tom Wlaschiha, Saul Speyer, Songwen Zhang
Country: China
Year 2019
Author of review: Roberto Matteucci
Click here for the Italian version
"So mysterious, so full of secrets."
By 1931, Japan had conquered Manchuria, the northern part of China, bordering on Korea. The following year the Japanese occupied Shanghai. For China:
"… the issue of resistance to Japan was destined to take priority." (1)
In the 1930s, Shanghai still had parts of the city under foreign domination through the settlements. England, the United States, France and also other countries like Italy, Russia, Portugal, Holland, Sweden and Denmark had their enclaves.
The city was a hotbed of languages and nationalities. With the attack on Pearl Harbor, this promiscuity turned into a dangerous mix. Shanghai became the battlefield for the secret services of the world.
It is the mysterious, fascinating environment, ideal for conceiving an espionage story with a theatrical structure. The film is Lan Xin Da Ju Yuan - Saturday Fiction by the director Ye Lou, presented at the 76th Venice Film Festival.
On December 1, 1941, after many years of absence, the famous actress Jean Yu arrives in Shanghai. Her former lover called her to play the opera Saturday Fiction at the Lyceum theatre.
Jean Yu is celebrated, iconic, has an international charisma. The beautiful actress, behind an intense and mischievous look, she has something incomprehensible, something enigmatic.
Jean Yu's goals are to free her ex-husband in prison and steal the shocking secret of the Japanese. However, these purposes are secondary; for an actor, the purpose of existence is to recite with all devotion and in any circumstance also during a war.
Li Gong is Jean Yu. She has played in important films, she is perfect for her magical role of Saturday Fiction.
The film has two stages: Lyceum theatre and the luxurious charming Cathay Hotel. They are both enchanting places regulated with the magnetism of Li Gong.
She is seductive, impenetrable, even vain, convinced of her superiority, of her lust. In fact, it is with concupiscence tries to get hidden secrets. She also has wisdom, intellect, concealed by a fake weakness.
Around her, there are a lot of men, all seduced by her. Besides, there is a young girl, Bai Mei, who has a passion for the actress.
It is a spy story, in an old-fashioned Shanghai, with a bewitching woman.
Its main elements are historical, social and oniric one. The macrocosm is included in the microcosm: the large, beautiful theatre.
It is hard to identify the ethical background. The good and the bad are not distinguished because fiction, betrayals, mysteries, enemies are many and devious. In this crowding of characters, the primary values are not individualized.
The film has a complicated structure but necessary for a secret agent environment.
The levels are different, on various temporal and spatial steps.
With layout B A B, the story goes back and forth without limitations, as happens in Lyceum theatre and in Cathay Hotel. Fiction life in the stage and reality are mixed, subverting the understanding.
As in Pirandello: theatre and human existence are intertwined for a single aim, the introspective and human. The director:
"The external environment is very problematic, between happens outside and what happens in reality, and what is recited. But in the end, I was much more interested in concentrating in the inner world of the character ... his inner rhythm, that complexity, I follow it, I could follow the whole rhythm of the film.". (2)
The author describes Jean Yu's inner with sublimation, and with parody: theatre is the parody of life.
The film contains formal surrealism: the vision from the tree is a vintage postcard, with a medium-shot from behind. The difference is in the fundamental choice of black and white. An elegant photograph manages to outline the protagonists: black is hiding, white alternates, used in high or low view.
The light appears and disappears. The source is first easily identifiable, then concealed.
Light exalts enigma and unreality, never natural. Light is artificial, studied.
It is a dramatic crescendo until the sensational ending. On December 7 the Japanese will bomb Pearl Harbor, this is the impressive secret. Mortal intrigue will prevent communicate it to the world.
The film has a refined poetics, reaches the acme talking about the copy of The Sorrows of the Young Werther signed by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche.
Mario Sabattini e Paolo Santangelo, Storia della Cina, Laterza, Bari, V Edizione, 2008, translated by author
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