A Family Tour | Ying Liang | NYFF 2018
A Family Tour is the first film from Chinese filmmaker Ying Liang since 2012’s When Night Falls. The director landed in hot water with the Chinese government with the film’s touchy subject matter about the real-life execution of a young man who was charged with murdering several police officers.
The way that the film depicted the way the police were depicted didn’t sit well with Chinese authorities and started threatening not only the director but his family as well. As a result, the filmmaker was forced to live in exile and left for Hong Kong.
He turns this astonishing real-life story into his new film, one that is autobiographical, placing his story about an exiled Chinese filmmaker Yang Shu (Gong Zhe) who has been exiled after her film about a mass-murder in Shangai.
This is a problem for many reasons, but more pressing as her mom (Nai An) is slowly dying and hasn’t even got to meet her three-year-old grandson (Tham Xin Yue). But thankfully her husband (Peter Tao) and son don’t have the same travel restrictions so they come up with a plan that will allow them to reunite and spend time together as a complete family possibly for one last time.
While Liang’s effort is undeniably personal and astonishing, it’s sad to report that the film fails to immerse you in this story in the way that such as an amazing real-life story really should. The film understandably has a cold and detached aurora ruminating throughout but so much so that it keeps the viewer at arm’s length and never fully operates in a way that pulls you in emotional, which is a shame.
All the performances are strong and you do feel the anger, passion, and desperation throughout the screenplay co-written by Liang and Chan Wai, but it just failed to translate in a more captivating and cinematic vision that would’ve given such a story the due justice that it no doubt deserves.
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