The Blue Kite
Starring Tian Yi, Zhang Wenyao, Chen Xiaomen, Lu Liping, Pu Quanxin,
Li Xuejian, Guo Baochang, Zhong Ping, Chu Quanzhong
Screenplay by Xiao Mao
Produced by Luo Guiping, Cheng Yongping (listed as line producers)
Directed by Tian Zhuangzhuang
Released by Noon Kino
NR
1993
***
Doesn't fly. Straining self-consciously to be the Great Chinese Epic
of the 20th century, The Blue Kite doesn't travel well - to make
a movie critical of Chinese governmental actions of the communist
regime took courage for a filmmaker still subject to the whims of
censors. Courage doesn't translate to international markets, however, and
The Blue Kite falls notably short of delivering any sort of fresh
enlightenment - it recycles scenes which will be instantly recognizable
to anyone who's seen the far more visionary The Last Emperor
(nor has it required a foreigner to make a sweeping epic about latter-
day Chinese history: Chen Kaige's Farewell My Lovely and Zhang
Yimou's To Live plowed the same terrain with notably more
success and attendant fame). The idea here is to filter 1953-1969
through the experiences of one family, bringing everything down to a
human level which makes empathy easy. But for such a swath of time,
some epic sweep would have been more appreciated. The opening sets the
tone perfectly: a couple is moving into their new apartment and the
neighbors converge in picket-fence friendliness. Suddenly, a radio
blares out that Stalin has died. Not a single scene passes for the
next 138 minutes which doesn't follow this template: personal life
always superceded and destroyed by the new revolution. For a "human" epic, The
Blue Kite traffics in unnaturally heavy-handed politics. Of course
the movie isn't just blindly promoting its agenda: tackling one of the most
heavily politicized eras in Chinese history inevitably means a heavy
dose of Mao posters and patriotic folk songs. But what Zhuangzhuang
does goes beyond this: by confining himself to 138 minutes, he forces
himself to skip over anything non-political, and the result is 15 years
without a single purely human break. Instead, it's endless numbers of family
members being sent off to the camps. The title serves its tediously
symbolic function - the kite (revolution) keeps rising, getting caught
in the trees (horrible execution of said revolution), and a new one
keeps getting sent up, always to the same sad results. A ridiculously
large number of symbols - a broken wedding present, etc. - are used to
convey this one same message over and over again in as many different
areas of the screen as possible. In the end, it's surprisingly shallow -
like a slimmed-down TV mini-series, filtering the outrageous lowlights
of Chinese revolutionary times through a middlebrow sensibility,
competent but unimpassioned writing and acting, and a serious lack of
new ideas.