Review: The Quietly Devastating ‘Stonewalling Weighs The Cost Of A Womans Sacrifice

The erection of the wall begins with a celebration, an outdoor gathering of young Chinese men and women who have been taking English classes in preparation for exciting trips and new opportunities abroad. It's 2019 in the yard, the mood is good, there's plenty of food and wine. Their teacher stood up and gave them some words of encouragement in fluent, somewhat uncertain English. …sometimes life is about "going with the flow". Don't overdo it. Live in the present. By the end of this hard-hitting, brutally honest film, that speech, and that whole silly party in his backyard with its magical lights, mother-of-pearl cake, and weird jokes, will seem like pure fantasy.

Sitting at the table is Lin (Yao Hongyi), a 20-year-old college student so quiet and reserved that it takes a while to recognize him as the film's main character. He is there with his friend Zhang (Liu Long), a gentle man with big dreams; They will teach English and Lynn will work as a flight attendant until she saves enough money to move to the UK. They stay at a hotel in Changsha and periodically participate in modeling projects. However, when her friend sponsors and posts a picture of her on TikTok, Lynn looks vaguely embarrassed, not because of the whole project, and not just because of her chronic chest pain.

The source of this pain is revealed in time. Lynn is pregnant. In one of the most chilling plot twists, he finds out only after being selected for a scrap egg donation program, when he witnesses first-hand, but perhaps not for the first time, how easily and systematically women are preyed upon for their bodies. demanding market; The same goes for Lynn. Pregnancy may disqualify her from the donor program and derail her plans, but it also gives her an opportunity. Instead of an abortion, as Zhang wishes, she can give birth and pay off her mother's unpaid debt through an adoption agreement whose parameters are constantly being revised.

Stonewalling is the third collaboration between husband and wife filmmakers Huang Tze and Rudi Otsuka, who live in Japan but paint a pessimistic portrait of deprivation and deprivation in contemporary China. (Chinese huan, Japanese asuka). Their latest work completes a diversely themed trilogy with their previous Eggs and Stones (2012) and Stupid Bird (2017) starring the talented Yaa as a young woman. Another. In difficult and increasingly desperate situations. Film after film, she and the filmmakers lift the curtain on a world whose rigid logic is dictated by economic necessity and where women bear the brunt at every turn.

So Lynn takes a break from college and her boyfriend and moves back in with her parents, who have a cramped apartment and an attached pharmacy-clinic. (Her parents are played by Huang's real parents, Huang Xiaoxiong and Xiao Qilong—the house we see on screen is theirs.) Despite this, however, no matter where she lives, Lin seems to fit the bill perfectly. : Almost every scene consists of a single shot, some of which view the characters and their interactions from a distance and show us how they are physically and emotionally suffocated by their environment. (Atsuka directed the film himself; the smooth, understated version is by Liao Jing-sung, known for his work with Taiwanese master Hou Hsiao-hsien).

So you have to spy on the people behind Lin and step out of frame to walk or step into the open courtyard to make a phone call. Other times, you can scan faces in a crowded room where Lin's mother is learning how to use skin care products in hopes of earning a few extra yuan. (Someone is always selling or learning to sell something at Stonewalling, whether it's Lynn waxing poetic about the virtues of baby toothpaste or a mother reviewing the terms of her adoption.)

When the film cuts to a rare close-up — a shot of the ultrasound gel being applied to Lin's stomach, or to Lin's face as she dons a surgical mask shortly after the Covid-19 outbreak — the close-up is surprising and instructive. The incredible focus on the person for the camera suddenly seems like an indulgence, a rare privilege of the individual over the collective. The same formal restraint characterizes the filmmakers' use of music (composed by Ng Chor Guan), which fades in for only brief moments and frames the characters in a gentle but fleeting embrace.

These moments of loneliness pass quickly and are all the more devastating for her. "Diligence" doesn't emote or bring tears to Lynn, who, for all her sweet, silly, and often stupid decisions, is strong enough to have long ago shed her self-pity. During her pregnancy, she works hard doing dubious and humiliating jobs, mortifying herself to an unhealthy degree, and at one point tries to stop a raging argument between her sickly married parents. He absorbs every tragic dignity with absolute poise, be it the cold feminine gaze or the masculine keen appreciation of life that grows within him.

Acceptance, however, does not mean ignorance. At the end of the "stone wall", Lin meets Zhang and gives him some money that he had previously complained about spending on his now-cancelled English lessons. She (eventually) refuses the money, ashamed of her behavior, but continues to hand it to him with contemptuous persistence. It's a quiet gesture of disdain from someone who has grown accustomed to the business-like nature of their relationship and has finally realized what it's worth.

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