“Ash Is Purest White”– Movie Review

This week at The Film Society of Lincoln Center, I attended a sneak preview of the new Chinese drama directed by Jia Zhangke, “Ash Is Purest White”. 

Synopsis

When a young woman goes to prison in order to protect her boyfriend, can they pick up where they left off upon her release? 

Story

In 2001, Datong, China is undergoing many changes – not only culturally but economically, too.  This caused people to have to find new and creative ways to get by – even if you were a member of the Chinese underworld known as the jianghu.   Bin (Fan Liao) was one such low-level gangster in that organization and Qiao (Tao Zhao) was his devoted girlfriend.  She was madly in love with him – perhaps because she was also madly in love with his bad-boy lifestyle.  They shared many things together – Bin even taught her how to shoot his gun.  A fateful choice.

As a member of a gang, Bin has many enemies.  Rival gangsters are out to get him.  One night, as he and Qiao are driving through town, his car is attacked by men from another gang.  When he gets out to defend himself and fight back, he is initially able to hold his own – but soon, the gang overwhelm him.  Seeing her boyfriend taking a serious beating, Qiao decides to end the fight; she gets out of the car and grabs Bin’s pistol, shooting it threateningly into the sky.  This succeeds in breaking up the fight – however, since there were so many witnesses on this crowded street, she is reported to the police and subsequently arrested. 

After doing five years of hard time in prison, Qiao is finally released.  She immediately sets out to seek Bin, who never visited her or contacted her during the period of her incarceration.  Although he tries to evade her for a long time, Qiao finally tricks Bin into meeting with her; he informs her that while she was imprisoned, he found a new girlfriend – since he’s moved on, he suggests she does likewise.  This knocks Qiao for a loop – she expected Bin to be anxiously waiting for her return.  Years later, when Bin suffers a downturn in his luck, will Qiao be willing to take him back or has she had enough with him?    

Review

Heartbreaking and yet at times quite funny, “Ash Is Purest White” ostensibly sets out as a crime drama, then winds up transmogrifying into a tender romance.  It is simultaneously wondrous and alarming that Jia Zhangke is able to do this, but when a director is at the top of his form, he can turn almost any story into a sort of visual poetry.  Watching Zhao Tao’s character grow and change over a 17 year period is remarkable; her Qiao’s character arc gradually transforms into a heroine for the ages. This movie reminds us of the complexity of human relationships and that love can take many forms, some of which can be quite painful quite painful.

While you might expect a movie that covers a 17 year period in the life of two lovers to be long, at nearly two and a half hours, “Ash Is Purest White” can feel a bit slow at times.  For one thing, it takes nearly an hour for the real story to start because we are given so much background about this couple. Also, it somewhat confuses the viewer by having what might be thought of as a “false ending” – i.e., just when you think you’re about to see the credits roll, the story continues for quite a bit longer.  As much as you may be enjoying the film up to that point, it can nevertheless be a little bit infuriating.

Following the screening, there was an interview with the director Jia Zhangke via an interpreter.  When asked about how he came to have this title for the movie, he said that the original Chinese title was something completely different.  However, when looking to distribute the film overseas – especially in the United States – he knew that title would not work because it was a phrase that would only resonate in the Chinese culture.   As a result, he set off to find something that might be more palatable for an American audience. During the shoot, this title occurred to him because he came to realize that the heat from volcanic ash performs something of a purification process.  Likewise, people in the “heat” (pressure) of society can sometimes tend to disintegrate into ash. The essence of the film is about the pressures of society that came about from the drastic changes in China.