Though the title of Emily Tang’s second feature shouts its sorrows, for all the regrets and acts of redemption that resound from its title, the film’s upsetting deeds cannot be undone. All Apologies (Ai de ti shen) dwells in the space where grief can’t be cured by words and lives can’t be returned to normal by honourable intentions. The shadow of the inexcusable and inescapable refuses to fade; the shine of the renewed and refreshed refuses to emerge.
In the writer/director’s third feature after Conjugation and Perfect Life, tragedy begets terrible decisions, the tale of intertwined families offering a potent example of a bitter reality: all actions have consequences. Qiaoyu (Yang Shuting, Midnight Beating) and Heman (Gao Jin, in his first film role), and their neighbours Yonggul (Chen Taisheng, Under the Hawthorn Tree) and Yun Zhen (Liang Jing, Design of Death), learn this truth by and through an accident that robs the latter of their family and the former of their future. A drastic attempt to redress the balance follows, but secrets, not peace, is the outcome.
That the Chinese-language title references love and surrogacy provides an indication of the direction Tang’s narrative takes. However, the film never follows the expected path. The twists may be in the name of extracting a reaction, but every manipulation of the characters is predicated upon understanding. How can two couples cope when an act outside of their control destroys everything they know? What would they do to reverse the damage? All Apologies can only ponder, but does so with perception that peers through the inherent ethical quandary and into the surrounding societal context.
Such an emotionally heightened scenario is thankfully rendered with a calm and patient gaze, the standard aesthetics of melodrama all but absent. Cinematographer Lai Yiu-Fai’s (Tai Chi Zero) imagery is as unembellished as editor Baek Seung-hoon’s (The Love Songs of Tiedan) pacing is unforced, allowing the dynamics of the characters to play out in naturalistic fashion. As the film drifts towards a touching conclusion, it moves with its persistently matter-of-fact view of misfortune. Restraint may be abandoned in debutant Roger Lin’s affecting score, but with such hefty emotions at play and with such visual reserve evident, befits the feature’s underlying sentiments.
When All Apologies narrows its focus from four of its players to two, the effectiveness of its casting is proven. Shuting and Taisheng are easy standouts in the meatier, more nuanced roles. Jin and Jing play their smaller parts with ever-apparent expression, while Qu Yi (Lao Wu’s Oscar) offers a glimpse of charm and cheekiness as the child that sparks the trouble. All match Tang’s intended meaning, rather than the potential theatrics of the material. Again and again, the film impresses in refraining from the devolving into the sweeping soap opera that could spring from its cause-and-effect content, even as its intensity wavers.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
All Apologies (Ai de ti shen)
Director: Emily Tang
China / Hong Kong, 2012, 88 mins
Golden Koala Chinese Film Festival
Melbourne: 31 January – 5 February
Sydney: 8 – 10 February
Brisbane: 10 – 12 February
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