Classic Movie Review: Kaili Blues (2015)

Kaili Blues (2015) 

Directed by: Gan Bi.

Written by: Gan Bi.

 Starring: Yongzhong Chen (Chen Shen), Yue Guo (Yang Yang), Linyan Liu (Zhang Xi), Feiyang Luo (Wei Wei  - Little), Lixun Xie (Crazy Face), Zhuohua Yang (Monk), Shixue Yu (Wei Wei - Older), Daqing Zhao (Elderly Doctor). 

 

Chinese director Bi Gan’s debut film Kaili Blues is about as distinctive of a film as debut films get. You can see his influences in it clearly – some David Lynch, some Andrei Tarkovsky, some Apichatpong Weerasethakul – but all filtered through the directors own sensibility to come up with something entirely his own. As many first time directors do, I think Bi Gan is perhaps trying a little too hard here – trying to get all the tricks he can think of into one film, just in case he never gets to make another one. And yet the visual style and storytelling is so strong that it overcomes that problem to become one of the more interesting directorial debuts this decade.

 

To describe Kaili Blues is more likely than not to fail at describing what makes Kaili Blues a special film. It is the story of Chen, a doctor (of sorts) who works at a rundown clinic in the title city, alongside an elderly woman. He has spent time in jail – during which time he has lost his wife and mother. He has a house – and a half-brother – known as Crazy Face, who has a son – Wei Wei – who Chen is closer to than Crazy Face is. The first half of Kaili Blues is about establishing Chen, his time, his place, and those around him. The second half dives deeper in the mysteries around them – and about time and space altogether.

 

The second half takes Chen on a journey to a nearby town – Dangmai – which in many ways makes the rundown town of Kaili look great by comparison. He is there to find Wei Wei – who Crazy Face may have sold, as well as other tasks as well. The show stopping part of the second half is a brilliantly executed, mesmerizing 40-minute shot through the town of Dangmai. Sure, Bi Gan and cinematographer Tianxing Wang – are showing off here, but the shot works on a deeper level than most shorts of its kind. It connects the people and places together, bringing them together and intertwining their memories together. We know that we aren’t in a linear narrative here – the past, present and future are colliding in this town, in this shot – as Wei Wei is no longer the 10-year-old he was when we last saw him, but now a 20-year-old young man.

 

I am, I admit, struggling to figure out what to say about Kaili Blues in some ways, because I’m not quite sure how to describe it in a way that will evoke its meanings. The storytelling in the film is strong, in that it is confident, not so much because it is clearly defined. Bi Gan isn’t interested in that really. The film is visually mesmerizing from beginning to end.

 

I wanted to watch this film before I saw his follow-up – Long Day‘s Journey into Night (which, unfortunately, is starting to look like I will miss on the big screen – it came and went from the Lightbox is a week, and even during that time, had very limited screenings. Muck like I am sure this film loses something not being seen on the big screen, that one will as well. But the confidence of this film has made me very interested in seeing whatever Bi Gan has up his sleeve next.