March 5, 2015
Be a Mother –
China, 2011
I hate having to repeat myself, but when a film as good as Be a Mother is treated so shabbily upon
its home video release, it is nothing short of a tragedy. Presumably, the
purpose of releasing a film on DVD or Blu-ray is to enable it to be seen in as many
households as possible. This includes foreign markets, for if this were not the
case, there would be no sense in spending any time or money preparing the film
for international film festivals and investing in subtitles. It is unfortunate
then that so little care actually went into to subtitling the film in English.
Oh, there are subtitles all right, but no one with even a basic knowledge of
English grammar would mistake then you
piece of mind to work as correct English. It’s enough to make you wonder
who actually did the translating, a person or a computer?
Knowing that the film has been so poorly subtitled will
likely dissuade a large number of people from watching the film - it has
certainly made me less willing to buy one of Cineplex Development Co.’s
products - and this is unfortunate, for Zhong Yu’s film is both engaging and
timely. It tells the story of a well-off married couple living in southern
China who wants to have a child. This seems simple enough, but much is standing
in their way. The man, Zhang Qing (Alex Fong), works in Britain and is often gone for
months at a time; his wife, Fang Yun (Wang Pei), has a successful career as a news
reporter, and she finds a sense of purpose in her job. There’s also the added
weight of her three previous miscarriages, which have made her extremely
hesitant to become pregnant again. A family friend suggests they try surrogacy,
and they eventually hire a young woman named Li Yan (Qin Lan) to carry their child.
Given such a set up, one might reasonably expect a film in
which characters argue passionately about the pros and cons of surrogacy and debate
its morality. However, to the film’s credit, it is neither for nor against the
practice. It is simply about one family who turns to it and the consequences of
that individual decision. It should not be read as a commentary on surrogacy in
general. That said, what happens in the film should give couples contemplating
it some added considerations.
After signing a contract that is probably not legally
binding, Li Yan essentially becomes a member of the household. Yet just who is
she in the family, and just what is her role? In certain scenes, she is like a
trusted roommate, in others a housekeeper. As time goes by, however, she
develops a relationship with Zhang Qing that is eerily similar to that of a
traditional, loving wife, the kind that Zhang might actually enjoy having based
on an earlier conversation we witness him have with a friend. Li even makes a
point of waving to him after he has left the house. Writer Haiping Wang could
easily have turned the story into one about a secret romance, yet he resists
this, preferring instead to let the audience draw its own conclusions. It is
the right decision.
As the film progresses, we get additional clues as to the
complexity of the situation. For example, Zhang’s parents appear confused as to
how to refer to Li, and in one surprising scene, they treat her better than
their daughter-in-law. In another scene, Fang explains to Li the benefits of a
mother’s reading to her unborn baby, and Li immediately agrees to do so, not
realizing that Fang intends to read to the baby herself. In films such as this,
writers often feel the need to make one of the characters less sympathetic than
the others, and for some time, it looks as if Fang is to be this character.
However, this is a smokescreen, for while the film initially builds this
impression, it then systematically breaks it down, revealing a character far
too complex to be fit neatly in a box either labeled hero or villain. In fact,
while I admired all three of the film’s lead characters, I couldn’t help
feeling a stronger amount of empathy for Fang, especially given all that
happens in the film’s latter half.
Director Yu Zhong gets excellent performances out of his cast,
and he demonstrates a knack for getting very telling close ups. In one, he
brings his camera close as Li coaxes the married couple into putting their ears
to her stomach. Then he focuses on the pained expression on Li’s face, one
hidden from the eyes of Fang and Zhang. It is all we need to understand the
conflicted feelings running through her. Zhong also uses nature and camera
movements to convey time lapses effectively. In one scene, the camera focuses
on a tree outside the family’s home, and the passage of time is conveyed
through the changing colors of the leaves on the tree. He is less successful in
his use of a Cupid statue resting on a fixture in the living room. The statue
seems to change positions and expressions, yet its connection to the action
taking place was vague, and I eventually gave up trying to interpret it.
Towards the end of the film, it takes an unexpected and jarring
turn. I won’t give it away, but I immediately felt it was a cop out, an example
of a writer or director having boxed himself into a corner and needing an
escape hatch. However, what followed it revealed a great deal; it exposed a tortured
soul, an until then uninitiated quest for love, and a deep chasm between
husband and wife. It truly represents a point of no return.
The film is said to be based on a true story, and if the
details depicted here and explained briefly just before the closing credits are
accurate, there indeed was no happy ending. This should come as no surprise,
for if one thinks about it, a Hollywood ending would have been entirely
unearned. This is a story that has only one realistic conclusion, and it is not
the creation of a new, non-traditional family. By the end of the film, these
characters have been completely undone by what has transpired, and to present
that as anything else would be an insult to the audience’s intelligence. It’s
nice to have a picture that recognizes that and isn’t afraid to show it. (on
DVD in Region 3)
3 and a half stars
*Be a Mother is in
Chinese with some of the worst English subtitles I have seen in some time.
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