Pu bu – The Falls - 瀑布
Pu bu – The Falls - 瀑布
Director: Mong-Hong Chung
Starrings: Alyssa Chia, Gingle Wang, Lee-zen Lee, Yi-wen Chen, Hsin-yao Huang, Waa Wei, Li-Yin Yang
Country: Taiwan
Year 2021
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“I suggest you keep your distance.”
In China, at the end of the Second World War, in 1949, the tension between the Communists led by Mao Zedong and the nationalists of Chiang Kai-shek erupted into a civil war. The Communist armies quickly conquered a large part of the country. The nationalists understood that they had been defeated. Chiang Kai-shek gave the order to transfer the remaining army to the island of Taiwan. In Taiwan, he formed a nationalist government. In its anti-Communist role, the United States protected Taiwan for many years. In 1972, Nixon flew to Beijing for the first official meeting. The sacrificial victim was Taiwan. The agreement established Taiwan's membership in the People's Republic of China. The UN General Assembly approved the expulsion of Taiwan from the United Nations, replacing it with the People's Republic of China.
Now, Taiwan has diplomatic relations with only fourteen nations; the most important of these is the Holy See. The others are minuscule islands and some Central American states. Even the most glorious friends, such as the United States and Japan, are hesitant. Economic interests and an anti-China stance dictate a defence of Taiwan. Nevertheless, the Taiwanese are aware that, one day, having to choose, their ally countries will sacrifice them.
Taiwanese people live with this mammoth and menacing enemy just a few kilometres away. Will their future last a long time? Or will they end up like Hong Kong? The inhabitants of Taiwan have been living together in this emotional turmoil for a long time. They do not talk about it and continue to live as if nothing had happened. However, doubt creeps slowly and inexorably into the unconscious.
Around the world, the same fear has appeared with the Covid-19 virus pandemic. Personal bonds have deteriorated, the distance was obliged, the meetings were just virtual, cohabitation was in tiny lodgings, wearing masks, gloves, and visual protection. The old models of being together, of sharing, have vanished. Relationships have come to be unsatisfactory, including family ones. Coexisting in small spaces, without the possibility of having other affections, friendships or motivations compromises socialization. In particular, families are at risk, including the sacred relationship between a mother and an adolescent daughter.
These concerns are narrated in the film Pu bu - The Falls - 瀑布 by Taiwanese director Mong-Hong Chung presented at the 78th Venice Film Festival.
In Taipei, the virus spread rapidly, as in the rest of the world. Security measures are the same everywhere. Xiao Jing is a student, forced to be quarantined. A classmate tested positive. Therefore, she must go home, where she only lives with her mother, Pin-wen.
In the sophisticated bourgeois flat, they have to wear masks. Relations, that are already tense, get worse, unleashing hostility.The mother complains, scolds Xiao Jing, who reacts with anger. It seems like a usual generational confrontation, but everything aggravates until a reversal of the family rules. Staying at home, Xiao Jing discovers the negative characteristics of her mother. She has not paid for the maid for three months. She has not paid for the condominium fees, and she has lost her job. Pin-wen has fallen into a serious mental crisis. She suffers from mental disorders and her daughter has not noticed anything. Now, it is Xiao Jing, who takes care of her mother. Xiao Jing is agitated. She is worried, gives him advice, follows her and controls her. An intense and intimate bond of love. However, it will take a devastating shock, a troubling waterfall, to restore peace.
Pu bu's themes are sensitive, introspective, and current. Covid-19, illness, depression, madness, disappearance, death, the generational conflict with the problems of living in Taiwan.
Mong-Hong Chung narrates how the idea of the plot was born within his family, felt as a necessity:
“My wife asked me one day if I could make a movie without any death or violence — or anyone’s hand getting chopped off. Could I make a film about everyday life, people just eating, walking around and not much happening? I took it as a sort of half joke.”
...
Yeah, I was trying to keep it simple, to use simple methods — nothing grand — to tell a very simple story.” (1)
Mong-Hong Chung's wife, tired of the splatter genre, asks him to shoot a film without corpses or tonnes of blood. So, a simple story of normal everyday life. However, is Pu bu a simple and normal film? Perhaps, but it is definitely not superficial. It excludes violence and death but introduces the most mystifying disease, madness. Is madness normal? Maybe yes.
Is the family simple and normal? It is not the opinion of the author. The family is universal and melodramatic. It is a microcosm of a universe with a myriad of variables. Therefore, the tale of Xiao Jing and Pin-wen is unique and surprising.
“When you are turning these family stories into a film or a novel, however, it’s important to expand the melodrama, and add some surprising elements. Because family life is so universal, you need to deepen these individual’s issues — even if they are similar in some way to what we all go through ...” (1)
The social argument is Covid-19. Principally, its inhuman repercussions due to malfunctions, distortions, and lack of attention to health complications, especially in the public management sector.
For Mong-Hong Chung the consequence is cruel: “people are getting disconnected from each other, and starting to feel very distant from each other.” Human relationships fail. They imposed physical distance and disconnection. The use of the mask is the most evident symbol. It is a metaphor for life. It is not a banal shelter; it is something more, it is a mental constraint:
“I started to envision what life would be like if this mom and daughter lived together in this building. The story happens in early 2020 when the pandemic had just started, so I thought that it was a great symbol for how people are getting disconnected from each other, and starting to feel very distant from each other. So it’s not just a human wearing a mask on their face, it’s like the whole house has a mask over it as well. And then it’s not just a literal mask anymore, there’s also something in the mind that’s constraining you.” (1)
The epidemic has brought a virulent feeling of consternation, with the growth of terror at the level of the collective subconscious. In Taiwan, there is a difference, the collective anxiety about Covid-19 is less than that of geopolitics. As the director declares:
“Imagine that. I don’t feel that I can complain about the pandemic’s affect on us. In Taiwan, life has mostly been business as usual. However, over the past few decades in Taiwan we have continued to feel a lot of pressure — political pressures, or tension between Taiwan and China. Our geopolitical situation. To me, these feel more threatening than the pandemic.” (1)
The anguish is palpable, the neighbour is remarkably belligerent. Furthermore, it claims ownership of the island. Taiwan has an intense link with Chinese culture and the three pillars of its civilization. Since 1949, it has grown differently from the People's Republic of China. Both a peaceful and military invasion would destroy over fifty years of development. This is the Taiwanese concern. Hong Kong and its latest events have intensified this anxiety.
Another argument is insanity. It is gently described. Pin-wen has a neurosis, probably for the end of the marriage. She is jealous of her husband's new family. Usual daily life vanishes and becomes obscure. An environment of sophisticated habits collapses piece by piece. However, loneliness and the lack of dialogue make madness invisible to others.
Pin-wen has a bourgeois, haughty, conformist demeanour. It is a mirror of her home, elegant, spacious, clean. She becomes self-destructive, weak, suffers from sloth. She has fallen into an unknown abyss. With the help of her daughter, she can gradually resume a simple and normal existence. The stylish house in Pin-wen has been sold, now they live in modest accommodation.
Xiao Jing is a teenager, a little bit rebellious, but not offensive, just standoffish. A behaviour similar to any adolescent, but without aggression. This is the simplicity of the structure of the film. Mother and daughter personalities are a palindrome. Xiao Jing has become strong-willed, courageous, energetic and active. She guides her mother. She follows every step of her. She always remains close to her, respecting the Confucian rule of filial love:
“... What is meant by filiality today is nothing but being able to take care of your parents. But even hounds and horses can re- quire care. Without respectful vigilance, what is the difference?” (2)
The film has an understandable and linear layout. Some scenes do not follow the direct line of emotion and intensity.
After the presentation of the characters of Pin-wen and Xiao Jing, a quarrel between them begins, up to the overturning of the roles. The relationship stabilizes and the mother improves. The turning point is infallible. The mother needs a shock to heal completely. It is the plot twist: the sequence of the cascade.
Other explanatory scenes are added to the main structure: the waterfall, the psychiatric clinic, the real estate agent, and the emblematic snake in the flat. These sequences mark the rhythm, without which the story would have no tension.
The serpent segment has something mystical. The building is covered by scaffolding for renovations. During the darkness, a snake climbs up, enters the window and hides behind the kitchen sink. The mother stays up all night looking at her daughter, and she sees the reptile. When Xiao Jing wakes up, she finds her in front of the sink. She is watching it, and she wants to prevent it from entering her daughter's room. Nevertheless, no one believes her, neither Xiao Jing nor her caretaker, who mocks the woman. She calls the fire brigade and finds out where the snake is. Pin-wen was right, the reptilian is not a vision. The mother lived in reality. Pin-wen's new life was threatened by an infernal snake, but it vanished upon the fireman taking it into his hands.
The artistic metaphor is the discussion in front of a shabby copy of a painting by Edgar Degas, Racehorses in a Landscape, hanging on the wall of the clinic in which the mother is hospitalized.
The painting is from 1894. It represents jockeys on horses in a meadow. They are depicted from behind, they seem confused, and they move without orienting themselves.
“I can share a story with you. When I wrote The Falls I actually paused for a while in the middle. The story I started with was about a mother taking care of her daughter, who is the one who has a mental illness. I was struggling a bit in the process, and I went to a mental health institute to try to better understand these conditions. And while I was visiting, I came upon [a print of] Degas’ painting, Racehorses in a Landscape, hanging in one of the wards. The painting had been there for decades, and it had faded and become all blue. So it’s basically the same painting that I used in the film, [in that pivotal scene where the mother discusses the painting with a fellow patient who has some knowledge of art history.]
My wife is actually an art history professor and has been studying and writing about Degas for a long time. So I took a photo of the painting in the hospital and sent it to her; and after I returned home we discussed it and she told me all about the painting and its history. The lines in the film where the characters in the hospital are talking about the painting were all written by my wife. For example: The mystery of the painting, how the riders are all dressed up but it’s unclear where they are going. Perhaps this is a situation, or a dilemma, that a middle-aged single mother in her late 40s or 50s, whose daughter is about to leave for college, would encounter? Where is her life going? Can we even extend the question to think about what is the future of humankind — particularly in this moment? This is when I decided to switch the story and make it about a mother with a mental illness, whose daughter is caring for her. And then all of the writing began to go more smoothly again.” (1)
Where are the jockeys going? This disorientation, this uncertainty, is another metaphor. Could the bewilderment, the indecision experienced by the jockeys be the same as that of a mother with a daughter leaving for college? Yet, the meaning could be wider. What is the significance of life? Or, what is the future of humanity? Pin-wen and another patient discuss the meaning of Degas's picture in front of it. Is losing the road a source of madness? Once the road has been identified, could it disappear? Is painting a cure for dementia?
The mother is employed at Carrefour. There is the terror of a rash act. In fact, although she previously had a well-paid executive salary, she appears to be comfortable shelving. She is scrupulous and does an excellent job, even being admired by her colleagues. She has only had a gesture of annoyance. One customer protests about a smaller cookie box. Pin-wen's reaction is quietly violent, but unanimously supported by the public.
Then, there is the edifying frame of the house sale. Fired, the mother has to sell her flat. The two women are unfamiliar with the market and are deceived by a mediator. Aware of their naivety, he makes an irregular agreement with the buyer for an extra and secret commission, promising them a lower price. On the day of the signing, the manager of the agency guesses the scam and throws the contract in the corrupt agent's face. Pin-wen will have a fair and reasonable price.
The language is essential, skilfully constructed with the interweaving of eloquent scenes. Silence fills the images, allowing them a detailed and precise reading. The soundtrack is ideal, classical music associated with a hiss heard only by Pin-wen. The editing is narrative, including some shots of the dream.
The predominant colour is blue. The scenes are covered with blue light, enveloping both the characters and the décor. The choice of the author is deliberate as follows:
“Then one day I saw a house completely enclosed in blue canvas. Like in the film, it was all covered up because some work was being done to the building. I take a walk every night around 11pm, and I ran into this house in my neighbourhood. That night I didn’t go home; I went back to my studio and began writing the story of The Falls.
I started to envision what life would be like if this mom and daughter lived together in this building. The story happens in early 2020 when the pandemic had just started, so I thought that it was a great symbol for how people are getting disconnected from each other, and starting to feel very distant from each other. So it’s not just a human wearing a mask on their face, it’s like the whole house has a mask over it as well. And then it’s not just a literal mask anymore, there’s also something in the mind that’s constraining you.
So this image, of the building enclosed in blue, is what got me started, and it drew all these different things together — the idea of doing a simple story about everyday life, between a mother and a daughter.” (1)
A condominium with blue plastic-covered scaffolding is featured in the film. The external tarp reflects inside the rooms, everything has a blue background. The tarp is a mask. It has the same shade as the surgical ones. Not only must humans wear it, but even the entire building has a giant mask. Perhaps, a mega mask has also clouded the minds, limiting freedom, the desire to live and have fun.
Sitography: Rodolfo Bastinanelli, “Lo status Internazionale di Taiwan”, Geopolitica.info, publication date 19 September 2020, last accessed 26 January 2022 https://geopolitica.info/lo-status-internazionale-di-taiwan-2/, translated by the author.
Bibliography: Mario Sabattini, Paolo Santangelo, Storia della Cina, Laterza, Bari, Biblioteca storica, Quinta edizione, con aggiunta dei capitoli IX e X, translated by the author.
Directors: Natasha Merkulova e Aleksey Chupov
Starrings: Yuriy Borisov, Timofey Tribuntsev, Aleksandr Yatsenko
Country: Russia, Francia, Estonia
Year 2021