People Mountain People Sea
(Ren Shan Ren Hai)

Guizhou, south-western China. Right from the first shots, this masterly
second film introduces a paradoxical mixture: the immutable serenity
of a mountain landscape is shaken by the soft, almost mute, violence of a
murder committed with a knife, in broad daylight. The general indifference
and the absurdity of the crime are conveyed through long shots, rather than
the more predictable medium shots. Yet, the visual harshness, enhanced
by almost burnt-out images, is only the first in a series of surprises. When
Lao Tie, a peaceful local peasant, decides to take revenge on behalf of his
murdered brother, the film turns into a brilliant variation on the chase
motif, a fundamental feature of cinema. As he meets a friend who could
help him if he was not completely destroyed by drug addiction, and then
calls upon his ex-wife, beating her as if it was perfectly normal, Lao Tie
gradually turns into an agent of the violence he is supposed to fight. His
quest also reveals a devastated country, miserable houses where the wife
survives with her second son, and the mine up north where the murderer is
supposed to work. The police is corrupted, workers are crushed to death in
mines, stealing is rife… Like a virtuoso, Cai Shangjun takes to further lengths
the portrait of a dusty China which Wang Bing started with West of the
Railroads (winner of the Montgolfière d’or award at the 2003 F3C.) CG