A Director’s Message in ‘Buddha Mountain’
Over the past decade, Li Yu has emerged as one of China’s most provocative art-house film directors. Her movies have often run afoul of mainland authorities because of the taboo and sensitive subjects they take on. Her latest, “Buddha Mountain,” which opened this week in Hong Kong, also explores potentially delicate social topics but it has been less fraught with troubles over censorship.
The story looks at the lives of three friends on the threshold of adulthood. The trio — a woman (Fan Bingbing) and two men (Chen Po Lin and Fei Long) — drift aimlessly, rejecting any form of responsibility. Having abandoned the idea of attending university, they spend their days wandering around Chengdu in Sichuan province. (The action takes place in 2009, and demolished buildings from the 2008 earthquake offer a quiet metaphor for China’s many challenges.) Seeking sanctuary from their unhappy home lives, the three rent a room in an apartment from an aging Chinese-opera performer (Sylvia Chang). Angry and grieving over the recent death of her son, she eventually becomes a surrogate mother to her new housemates. The poignant, tragic, funny film makes pointed observations about the many social changes facing China as it races toward modernity.
Ms. Li takes subtle aim, for instance, at the country’s one-child policy, put in place in 1980. “Now we’re seeing the bad results of the policy,” she says. China has created a generation of “very self-centered” children, many of whom “tend to be irresponsible.” If people pursue too much materialism, she says, “their soul will be lost.” “Buddha Mountain,” produced on a budget of 17 million yuan ($2.6 million), has earned more than 69 million yuan at the China box office since it opened on March 4, according to Beijing-based media-research firm EntGroup Inc. It had its premiere in October at the Tokyo International Film Festival, where it won two awards — for best artistic contribution and best actress for Ms. Fan.
Trailer: Buddha Mountain