Zi you xing

Several years ago, Ying Liang, a director from the People Republic of China, fell afoul with the authorities over one of his works and left for Hong Kong, which might be a part of the nation proper but is still (until 2047) a Special Administrative Region and thus like another country. His latest: ZI YOU XING, shows a female (!) PRC filmmaker called Yang Shu whose career trajectory cum œuvre are most similar to his, including a true crime-exposé just like his own WO HAI YOU HUA YAO SHOU (2013). Yang gets invited to screen this work at a festival in Taiwan, which means monumental visa hassles. Yet she’s willing to go through all that as this offers the opportunity to meet up with her mother who lives on the mainland. Yang’s Hong Kong- born and raised husband gets her onto a Taiwan tour the couple will only trail – all that so as to not alert authorities unduly. The reunion proves to be a quietly heart-breaking affair, while the festival experience makes it clear how different liberty and a common sense of security feel in the PRC, Hong Kong and Taiwan ... All that in a style defined by long takes of a more observational character, a penchant for the allusive, and a tone at once melancholic and ironic. (Olaf Möller)