No.7 Cherry LaneDirected by Yonfan
No.7 Cherry Lane
Directed by Yonfan
Country: Hong Kong, China
Year 2019
Author of review: Roberto Matteucci
Click Here for Italian Version
"We really are in troubled times."
2019 was the year of the Hong Kong rebellions. Every day, mainly on weekends and lunch breaks, the police clashed with young and students in revolt for freedom, for civil rights. China must keep Hong Kong's legislation separate, from its own, until 2045. After this date, the old Hong Kong will disappear. Twenty-year-olds will be adult in 2045. Therefore, they are scared, they are afraid: their economic benefits and advantages could vanish.
Youth protests in Hong Kong are not news. In 1967 the political disorders were even more violent like recalls an article in the New York Times entitled In 1967, Hong Kong's Protesters Were Communist Sympathizers. (1)
The riots have similarities:
But the differences between then and now may be more striking. One is that the demonstrators of 1967 were railing not against China, but against the British. And the Chinese Communist Party, which denounces the current unrest, was then quietly supporting it." (1)
In 2019 protested with the English and American flags, but in the sixties:
"Demonstrators waved Mao Zedong's" little red book "outside the residence of Hong Kong's colonial governor". (1)
In 1967 external influences were simple:
"Those sympathizers were deeply influenced by Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, the decade of upheaval on the Chinese mainland that began in 1966 and had dramatic, often violent effects across the country." (1)
Even today, the interferences from abroad are widely clear.
In common the demonstrators have age, and hands occupied with symbols, but very different. The illusions, hopes and utopias are the same:
"Of course I supported the rebellion against the British colonial government and colonialism itself," said Ms. So, who at the time worked for a mainland Chinese company. "I was very idealistic and passionate, and I believed wholeheartedly in Communist propaganda." (1)
Time passes quickly and the revolutionaries get married, have family, children, job; therefore, the idealism and youthful passions become nostalgia.
The director Yonfan was among the young protestants in 1967. The melancholy of sixties is narrated in his film No.7 Cherry Lane presented at the 76th Venice Film Festival, winning the Golden Osella Best Screenplay.
The author depicts a disturbing and erotic love story during the pro-communist Hong Kong protests. A charming Taiwanese university student, Ziming, is hired as a teacher at Mrs Yu's home. She is a beautiful, enchanting, mature, educated woman. Ziming is the private professor of the daughter, the equally pretty Meiling. It is a triangle of love, of infatuation, in that turbulent moment. Ziming must choose.
There are many themes, some very cerebral.
The beginning theme is passion for Hong Kong. A prestigious city, the cornerstone of the West in China, which has grown economically and independently. Place of political intrigue and commercial intertwining.
Yonfan reminds it with regret. His thought is politically incorrect:
“I came back to Hong Kong in 1964 and I could smell the air of freedom. Even the sea has freedom. I love Hong Kong.
So in 1967 I was twenty years old, not a naive teenager and this riot happened. Because there was a force coming from the North, and they came to Hong Kong and you could see Chairman Mao photos at the rallies. It became a really radical thing — a continuation of the Cultural Revolution. And then six month later, it just disappeared. It was said and never proven that the British and China came to a deal that Hong Kong would stay free. So all of a sudden this power disappeared. I was 20 years old and educated under the British system. At the time I didn’t know about human rights and was never taught about democracy. All those things were totally new to us — we never heard of them.
Ironically, 52 years later, in the name of human rights and democracy, there was another strong power from somewhere unknown which has come to Hong Kong, and started these riots. It has become so violent in all that was happening. We have lost the freedom to walk on the street and take public transport. When I was flying here on the flight, I looked at the NY Times and there was a full page article on the Hong Kong riot. And half a page taken up by a demonstration photo. The headline was “When united forces struggle for freedom!” Struggle for freedom? I was shocked because I thought, I never knew that in Hong Kong I had to struggle for freedom!
But after two months of demonstrations, now we’ve lost the freedom to walk on the street. I was saddened and very shocked that Western people see us struggling for freedom. Freedom has been there all the time. That’s what I mean about unknown force, and this unknown force has opened a Pandora’s box. And all the evil came out and there was no law.
Before Hong Kong was famous for its freedom and law abidance. Now, you see what it is.” (2)
In the sixties, Hong Kong was free and enterprising city. Nowadays, freedom is in risk, but not through China's fault. People on the street claim rights with fury. Are civil rights not cancelled by violence? Can civil rights coexist with assaults on metro stations or schools?
Yonfan's preferences are for young in 1967, when boys waved Mao Tse-tung's Red Book. Ziming is bewitching, fascinating, object and subject of erotic desires. His world is a dream, a human growth between a beautiful mature lady and an exciting teenager. Who is Ziming actually? Maybe the same director Yonfan?
The element of intimacy is prevalent, the love of a boy for an older female.
A reciprocated feeling. Yonfan again:
“This film is not only about sexual impulses and things like that, but it also deals about reconciliation between different generations. We speak about yesterday, today and tomorrow. The mother represents yesterday, with ideals and still in search of liberation from her desire for something. The daughter is tomorrow while the boy is today. Then towards the end, there is reconciliation." (3)
Hong Kong is the crossroad where generations clash. The lives of Ziming, Mrs Yu and Meiling are the metaphor of the fascinanting city. Young against adults. Yonfan talks about reconciliation and it happens because Ziming chooses the easiest and most conformist desire.
Ziming is superb in his captivating beauty, both for women and for men. He was aware of his superiority, of his attractiveness and knows he can seduce everyone.
Mrs Yu poses, she is haughty, she has a precious elegance. He has an irrepressible lust, he has carnality, an unbridled lust.
Meiling is similar to her mother, but she is still a adolescent. She has equal drives; despite, she is not perfectly refined, all men are behind her.
The three protagonists are the symbol of charm, wisdom, intellect.
No.7 Cherry Lane is a particular animation film. Yonfan describes it:
"I do not like the word "animation", I prefer to talk about moving images, and the films are the images which moving, they are paintings which move. In this film there are paintings from classic ones to the Chinese ones, there are the Impressionists with Henri Rousseau at the beginning with that voluminous vegetation, and then there is also Pop Art like Roy Lichtenstein. I put all together and I created No.7 Cherry Lane, I used just loved and appreciated images by me.
Furthermore, in this film there are also all musical genres: classical music, with string instruments, jazz music and even Chinese opera; then there are also drums like those used in Latin music and there is also street rap. Everything melted together. " (3)
In fact, each shot is a painting, with countless pictorial and artistic suggestions. The colours dominate the scenes. Important aesthetic choices, such as the representation of Hong Kong. Meiling walks in the deserted metropolis, and she divides the frame. Hong Kong is La città ideale (The Ideal City). Meiling distinctly looks like Valentina by Guido Crepax. But the city is not empty. An aerial-shot shows the opposite road. It is arriving a demonstration with the "Down British Imperialist" signs, or the photo of Mao, or with the Red Book.
Then there is the yellow. The director mentions Rosseau but first it is possible to recognize Van Gogh with the bright, sparkling yellow; used for filling many scenes.
Yellow is the sunset in the bay of Hong Kong. Yellow is the scarf picked up by the boy on a tree. Yellow is the effect of the bomb exploded in the rally. Yellow is the sky when couple kiss. Yellow is the apartment of Mrs Yu.
Then there are the kisses. Numerous, filmed in close-up, with several particulars. Kisses are voluptuous. Even two snakes do it.
Sensuality is also homosexuality. A nerd peeks at Ziming in the gym shower. He is obsessed, picks up the tennis ball and asks him: "we can be friends."
Therefore, the film is intellectual, the details are fundamental. Yonfan:
“During the production of the film, you have to concentrate and meditate on the details to make it as perfect as possible. It is how Wong Kar-wai makes his films: he needs years to finish one, he throws away a lot of things and shoots the scenes many and many times again; it is very expensive and not very respectful of the environment, I think that animation waste less. Surely animation gives a lot of freedom." (3)
The cultural references are intelligents: Marcel Proust with In Search of Lost Time, Charlotte Brontë with Jane Eyre and the quotation from films such as The Ship of Fools by Stanley Kramer, Les Amours célèbresby Michel Boisrond and obviously The Graduate of Mike Nichols:
“The countless cinematographic quotations are important, as The Graduate. The plot of the film is a love triangle among a man with a woman and his daughter. But everything is pervaded by a Proustian flavour." (3)
On the other hand, the film is about nostalgia. For Yonfan, nostalgia is sophisticated and carnal slowness: "slowness was elegance". Everything is phlegmatic, everything has a calm, almost lazy dimension. Only colours move fast. They are exuberant, sharp, have their vitality. There is also black and white but he uses for famous films, as for The Graduate.
Then there are the cigarettes, the smoke, the gracefulness, the fashion refinement of Mrs Yu, who smokes like a real aristocrat.
In addition to the social and historical side, there is the oneiric view in the perception of the protagonists. They appear like a vision; they live in a film or a novel. This is the poem of No.7 Cherry Lane. There is no logic, there is only sublimation. A seductive and provocative sublimation.
As the zoophilia. In the film, the animals are anthropomorphic. They have a sexual activity like human: snakes kisses each other and cats lick nipples libidinously. Hong Kong, in 1967, was more modern than in 2019 for Yonfan's eyes.
In 1967, Hong Kong’s Protesters Were Communist Sympathizers By Mike Ives and Elsie Chen The New York Times, Sept. 16, 2019, 9/09/16/world/asia/hong-kong-1967-riots.html
https://quinlan.it/2019/09/10/intervista-a-yonfan/ translated by author
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