‘Dwelling By The West Lake’: Tokyo Review

Dir: Gu Xiaogang. 2023. 115mins

Taihua (Jiang Qinqin) and her young adult son Mulian (Wu Lei) live in the famed tea-growing region of Hangzhou in the east of China, near the banks of the West Lake. It’s a simple existence, close to nature, and governed by traditions and rituals. But a dissatisfaction gnaws at both: Taihua would like to remarry – something her son opposes – and Mulian dreams of tracking down the father who abandoned them both. Gu Xiaogang’s follow-up to his multi-prize-winning debut Dwelling In The Fuchun Mountains is an ambitious, if slightly uneven drama that, once again, explores the contrasts and contradictions at the heart of modern China; the collision between tradition and a connection with nature, and the shiny artificiality and hard-edged avarice of consumerism.

An ambitious, if slightly uneven drama

It is not just the central theme of his first film that Gu revisits, it is also the location of Hangzhou, making this the second picture in what the director has described as his ’Mountains and Water’ series (or ‘Shan-Shui’). Drawing from a traditional Chinese folk story (titled ’Mulian Rescues His Mother’,  it tells of a devoted son who retrieves his mother after she is consigned to hell for her misdeeds) and steeped in culturally specific symbolism, this picture may connect most successfully with Chinese and east Asian audiences. But even those who are not well-versed in the folkloric significance of the story should pick up on the film’s central theme of spiritual reawakening. The film might not match the lyrical beauty of Gu’s debut – parts of this story are deliberately uncomfortable and abrasive – but it reaffirms the director as a distinctive voice in Chinese cinema.

Of the key characters, it is Mulian who, despite his youth, seems imbued with a wisdom that belies his tender years. He educates the good-natured but brash Master Qian (Chen Jianbin), his mother’s employer at the tea plantation and her secret suitor, with tea-related history and stories that Qian later incorporates into his live-stream. And he is a voice of caution when his mother is suckered by an intense brain-washing process of a pyramid scheme selling herbal foot patches, which leads her to believe that at last she has the chance to rewrite her own destiny.

But his warning comes too late. Taihua has already parted with the equivalent of £90,000 (the proceeds of the sale of the family home) and has reinvented herself as her idea of a successful, powerful businesswoman. The aggressive programming – glitzy events, the promise of immense profits, tearful testimonies of allegiance to the team and the product – takes its mental toll on Taihua. And once the truth becomes clear, she is broken, retreating into a catatonic state.

The film makes a case that the cure for what ails not just Taihua, but also a society blinded by the shiny, glittering, synthetic appeal of money and possessions, is simple. Connection with the natural world – shot in lush widescreen, with a particular focus on grubs and insects – offers the opportunity for a much-needed rebirth for Taihua and a deeper understanding on the part of the son of both his mother and his estranged father.