The gold rush of potential Chinese/US productions that was promised seems to be fizzling out amidst the global distrust of the ongoing pandemic circa 2021; the Chinese box-office seems to be rebounding, but the top locally-made films often seem to lose something in the translation from the fantasy genre. What modern life is like in China is something of an uncharted territory as far as today’s film-makers are concerned; step forward writer, director, producer and star Aleksandra Szczepanowska with her debut feature, shot in the province of Beidaihe, an accomplished romantic thriller which lifts the curtain on what life is like, at least through the eyes of an outsider.
We start in a familiar burocratic situation; Fei Fei (Szczepanowska) is a Westerner who has married a successful businessman, but feels closed off from her partner’s success. She hopes to be recognised as a citizen via marriage, but there’s something wrong with this picture, and the brittle nature of Fei Fei’s life proves fragile to the touch of a blind masseur Bai Yu (Jiangwei Yuan). The two begin an affair, one which initially feels liberating for Fei Fei, but not everything which promises liberation delivers…
Fei Fei suffers from a lack of status; she aspires to being a “High Value Individual’, a title which is denied to her. To some extent this explains her dalliance with the similarly side-lined Bai Yu in a Douglas Sirk-ian way, but Szczepanowska creates a more complex character than that. A telling scene shows her cutting her own hair in sympathy with a child upset to have their locks shorn; Fei Fei has an empathetic streak, which proves problematic when the world around her turns toxic.
Although the resolution is reassuringly satisfying in dramatic terms for Western audiences, Touch is quite an exotic story; the minutiae of Fei Fei’s life might be mundane to her, but certainly looks fresh to Western eyes. With a strong female lead and an unsentimental, well-told story that generally shirks melodrama, Touch is an unusual, intense film that is easy to recommend for those keen to hear fresh cinematic voices. NYC-based Szczepanowska may well be the first Western woman to shoot an indie in China, and Touch is an unusual proposition that lifts a cultural veil as to how Chinese society may well have similar issues of male domination to the West.
Touch can be viewed in cinemas and online via Laemmle Virtual Theaters in the US from Friday 28th May 2021. Thanks to Bunker 15 for advance access. Link and trailer below.
See https://www.laemmle.com/film/touch-0
Romantic thriller? Nope. Chinese romantic thriller? Nope. Chinese romantic thriller from a Caucasian POV on China? Nope.
What is wrong with you? It’s all of these things.
And that’s why I’m not watching it. Keep up, gramps!
Have you seen any films apart from the handful on your blog?
None. It’s called isolationism. It’s how the USA survived two wars!
Good to see more Chinese films coming through.
And this is a good place to start, with a Caucasian POV on China.
Not on my watchlist. Anything with animated garden gnomes?
How is it MY fault that YOU choose to spend your time reviewing films about garden gnomes?
Do you have something against garden gnomes? Are you gnomeaphobic?
No-one has done more than me for garden gnomes. They love me. But there are other things going on in the world, and I feel that everything that there is to say about garden gnomes in films has already been said.
Pshaw. As much as James McAvoy? As much as Robbie Collin? Scotland and gnomes is an auld alliance but you’ve been on the sidelines while the little people have been marginalized. Same as your disrespect for leprechauns, really.
A lot you know about it. Gnomes are not a Scottish thing at all, we think of that as being an English thing. I’d happily smash their little heads in.
Gnomeo, probably the most prominent gnome of our time, is a Scot. He even won a BAFTA.
Haven’t we all, Bunty. So that makes you the odd one out. Suck it, loser! hahahahhahahha Back to the Torygraph fascist paper for you!
Given your prejudice against gnomes I think you must be the “facist” since you are judging them by their external appearance.
What did you win a pool noodle award for?
Best Writer.
You won any international awards for writing? I’ll wait…
You won a prize in second grade for best macaroni writing. Your winning entry was stuck to your mom’s fridge for years. I think that’s very sweet, but not quite what we were talking about.
BAFTA winners, me and McAvoy! Suck it, loser! You couldn’t write your name in fridge magnets if you tried! Hahaha!
So, I think we’ve established that the scribblings of Alex Good are unlikely to trouble any of the Academies.
Sad!
Pictures? I mean, it was a public event. Must have been written up in the B-field Bugle.
No, because it existed only in your mind. FACT!
Actually gnomes started out in Nysa in Poland, and spread across Europe from there.
What actual Elton John loving gnomes? I thought they were only in cartoons…
wut??? what’s Elton got to do with anything??
Elton John produces the Gnome films and features his own music in them. You could do some reading about them, but proper, substantial critics don’t write about them…
Ah right. Well anyway, they’re still Polish not English.
I stand corrected. But I suspect more of them in England than in Scotland. I have no figures to back that up. Thanks for the intel.
That would make sense, England population 56.29 million, Scotland 5.46 million (at last count 2019) so bound to be more numpties with gnomes in their gardens here. Not keen on them myself, would rather have a leprechaun and it’s pot of gold.
Don’t even mention the Lep….
Really? My first thought was Dix is going down the Alex pornographic route!
I certainly will not, what made you think I would lower myself to Alex’s level?
You are already lower than gnome level.
That may be so, but your level is obviously much lower, Bunty.
It was the steamy trailer that did it.
You don’t get that on Sherlock Gnomes. I do try to feature films that grown-ups might enjoy.