Ping jing

Cinema has given us many images – entire movies, even – about the process of creating art: writers at their desks, directors on set, painters at their easels. But what happens during the time between one project and another, precisely when it seems nothing is happening?
This is the background of THE CALMING, a poised and moving second film from Chinese director Song Fang that was produced by Jia Zhangke. A young filmmaker, Lin Tong, played with vibrant delicateness by Xi Qi, visits Tokyo, and then travels alone to the blissfully wintry "Snow Country," in reference to the novel by Japanese modernist writer, Yasunari Kawabata. Upon returning home to Hong Kong, Lin, who’s broken up with her partner, contends with moving, tends to an ailing parent, and visits an old friend. THE CALMING is a work whose stillness inhabits the tricky emotional and psychic space between lingering memories and an undefined future. And yet, something – a glimpse of maturing, of finding oneself anew – come into view. Nature and small yet meaningful acts of care fill in the void. A glorious and assured film, THE CALMING is the nurturing experience we perhaps need most in our own isolated, but strangely hectic time. (Ela Bittencourt)

Song Fang: GOODBYE (2008, K), YULU (2011), MEMORIES LOOK AT ME (2012)