Within the emerging genre of independent Mainland Chinese documentaries, Yu Guangyi has surfaced as a director skilled in the techniques of from-the-ground-up cinema vérité. Bachelor Mountain is the final chapter in his "Hometown Trilogy" that expands on what the director started in Timber Gang (2006) and Survival Song (2008). With a gentle and unadorned vibe, Bachelor Mountain combines sweeping social commentary and a personal affair of the heart.
"Hometown" for Yu is the harsh environs of Heilongjiang Provence in the far northeast corner of the country. Once an area that thrived on its lumber industry, it now suffers from deforestation and a paltry economy of survival. Most have fled to the cities while others, mostly men, remain in the wilds eking out a living through contract labor in the roughest of conditions.
The bachelor of concern on this mountain is San Liangzi, 46 years old, unemployed and divorced for 12 years. The film opens with Liangzi singlehandedly shouldering a log out of the forest through knee-high snow. He is introduced as kind, honest, jovial and hard working. As he enjoys a break from his work, a woman asks him about his plans for finding a wife--he shrugs his shoulders and says, "No plans."
That's not the whole truth. Liangzi harbors a ten-year, not-so-secret crush on Wang Meizi, a woman who runs a small guesthouse in his village. Through his shy and uncomplicated temperament, Liangzi seems only able to express his love silently doing odd jobs at the guesthouse during his free time. Although Meizi gives him no reason to be encouraged, Liangzi stays passively committed to Meizi despite warnings from his friends that Meizi favors women more than men. He refuses work that would take him away for an extended period of time and, unlike his co-workers, spurns prostitution for fear what Meizi would think.
Yu Guangyi's camera is able to delicately balance between invisibly unobtrusive and uncomfortably personal. His two previous films have a much wider scope in their portraits, but Bachelor Mountain is very much attached to San Liangzi, his character and his personal situation. The film builds not only a sympathy for Liangzi, but also an understanding for his unsophisticated needs and sentiments. You start to feel that he may simply be complacent about finding a companion, until we follow him home drunk one night and we overhear his bitter and angry ramblings regarding his unrequited love.
Yu Guangyi's Bachelor Mountain peels one more layer back from the façade built around the international notion of modern China. With a sharp eye for the punishing and perfunctory realities of life in the Changbai Mountins, Yu reveals humanity without exploitation or device. Men are beasts of burden up for hire, and the climate measures up to an unspoken endurance test of keeping warm--neither of these are opinions, but frank facts of the blunt images far from the financial centers of China's economic dragon.
"Hometown" for Yu is the harsh environs of Heilongjiang Provence in the far northeast corner of the country. Once an area that thrived on its lumber industry, it now suffers from deforestation and a paltry economy of survival. Most have fled to the cities while others, mostly men, remain in the wilds eking out a living through contract labor in the roughest of conditions.
The bachelor of concern on this mountain is San Liangzi, 46 years old, unemployed and divorced for 12 years. The film opens with Liangzi singlehandedly shouldering a log out of the forest through knee-high snow. He is introduced as kind, honest, jovial and hard working. As he enjoys a break from his work, a woman asks him about his plans for finding a wife--he shrugs his shoulders and says, "No plans."
That's not the whole truth. Liangzi harbors a ten-year, not-so-secret crush on Wang Meizi, a woman who runs a small guesthouse in his village. Through his shy and uncomplicated temperament, Liangzi seems only able to express his love silently doing odd jobs at the guesthouse during his free time. Although Meizi gives him no reason to be encouraged, Liangzi stays passively committed to Meizi despite warnings from his friends that Meizi favors women more than men. He refuses work that would take him away for an extended period of time and, unlike his co-workers, spurns prostitution for fear what Meizi would think.
Yu Guangyi's camera is able to delicately balance between invisibly unobtrusive and uncomfortably personal. His two previous films have a much wider scope in their portraits, but Bachelor Mountain is very much attached to San Liangzi, his character and his personal situation. The film builds not only a sympathy for Liangzi, but also an understanding for his unsophisticated needs and sentiments. You start to feel that he may simply be complacent about finding a companion, until we follow him home drunk one night and we overhear his bitter and angry ramblings regarding his unrequited love.
Yu Guangyi's Bachelor Mountain peels one more layer back from the façade built around the international notion of modern China. With a sharp eye for the punishing and perfunctory realities of life in the Changbai Mountins, Yu reveals humanity without exploitation or device. Men are beasts of burden up for hire, and the climate measures up to an unspoken endurance test of keeping warm--neither of these are opinions, but frank facts of the blunt images far from the financial centers of China's economic dragon.
Bachelor Mountain showed a realistic picture of the harsh conditions these men endure in such isolated environments. It also made me think of other harsh environments like North America in the early 1800's when waves of asian immigrants flocked to North America to make their fortunes. But what made these men stay? I guess for Liangzi, it was love.
What I could not understand, and the film did not explain, was why tour buses would come to such a godforsaken town. Inasmuch as I could tell, there wasn't much here that would attract tourists. The ones shown in the film were mostly in their 20's and 30's and just wanted to party.