Hong Kong director Yu Lik Wai brings you a slice of dystopian science fiction. Set in a mid-21st century China controlled by the totalitarian Gui Dao sect, All Tomorrow's Parties concerns two brothers, Zhuai (Yi Nan Diao) and Mian (Zhao Wei Wei), who are released from a remote re-education camp, and try to readjust to their new freedom. Shot on digital video, the film has an impressive visual sweep, but an often confusing narrative.
"BLEAK VISION"
They say films about the future best reflect the era in which they are made than those in which they are set. By this logic, All Tomorrow's Parties, where a fanatical religious group holds sway over the country, and where dissidents are subject to brainwashing programmes, presents a bleak vision of contemporary 'civilisation'. Yu Lik Wai adopts a languid storytelling style with terse dialogue, chiefly focused on the struggle young people find in expressing their feelings.
A story of sorts gradually emerges. The siblings are freed from Camp Prosperity and search for a safe haven amongst the barren post-industrial landscapes. Zhuai is accompanied by a Korean single mother Xuelan (Won Cho Yong) and her young kid, and the trio set up home in an abandoned apartment. Meanwhile Mian must compete with a doctor for the love of a mysterious woman, Lanlan (Na Ren). Throughout, Zhuai and Mian dream of reaching Port Perspective, supposedly paradise on earth.
The post-apocalyptic look of All Tomorrow's Parties is impressively rendered by Yu Lik Wai. Indeed it's the distinctively grim milieux within the film - a dank gulag, a squalid flat, and a ruined industrial city - which linger in the mind for far longer than any of the characters.
In Mandarin and Korean with English subtitles.
All Tomorrow's Parties (Mingri Tianya) (2004)
