Peacock
Posted to www.marxmail.org on June 16, 2006
Set in 1976 in some unidentified midsize city, "Peacock" tells the story of three young adult members of the Gao family trying to make their way in post-Cultural Revolution China. This is very much a fleeting moment in time when Chinese society is still marked by the austerity of the Maoist era and when foundational beliefs in communism have all but vanished--soon to be replaced by consumerism.
Structured as a kind of trilogy that puts each child
successively into the foreground, it begins with the tale of Weihong (Zhang Jingchu), the
daughter and youngest child. Returning home one day on her bicycle, she
experiences an almost mystical encounter with a group of male and female
paratroopers parachuting into a nearby field. When the parachute strings of the
squad leader, a handsome man with a
After the Red Army rejects her application, she carries a torch both for the handsome squad leader and the numinous parachute. At home she sews together her own parachute, attaches it to the back of her bike like a kite and rides through the streets until unceremoniously crashing into another bike. While she lies semiconscious on the street, an admirer, whom she has rejected in the past, takes the parachute hostage. He will only release it after she has had sex with him in a nearby forest. In this film, love--like all other ideals--comes in short supply.
With hopes for a career in the military dashed, she settles for more realistic goals that mainly involve leaving her oppressive family household and her job washing bottles. She throws herself at a local party bureaucrat's homely chauffeur and makes him promise to find her another job before they get married.
Her older brother is the overweight Weiguo (Li Feng), whom a childhood illness has left slightly retarded. He is simultaneously tormented by neighborhood bullies and doted upon by their overprotective mother. Weihong and middle brother Weiqiang (Lu Yulai) occupy a middle-ground, alternating between fraternal feelings and impatience with his slowness.
In an odd way, all of the children are preoccupied with the same issues that faced the characters in "Pride and Prejudice," finding a marriage partner: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."
Unfortunately for Weiguo, he has neither fortune, nor beauty, nor intelligence. But this does not prevent him for aspiring high. In his modest if not impoverished world this means wooing a factory girl he has fallen in love with after spotting her on the street. His doting but realistic mother approaches her on the street with an offer of cash if she comes to dinner. She doesn't have to accept Weiguo's love, since it is obvious that he is no match for her, but she simply has to go through the motions of seriously considering him. The outcome, although ignominious, does not have a lasting impact on Weiguo who faces life with a sunny if somewhat uncomprehending grin.
The last episode is devoted to Weiqiang, who is the most sensitive and intelligent of the three children. He provides the film's narration and probably encapsulates the POV of the film's first time director Changwei Gu and screenwriter Qiang Li, who has written the script for a film now in production titled "The Aunt's Postmodern Life."
Changwei Gu has a long and distinguished career as a
cinematographer and has worked both in
“I didn’t set out to make a political film. This era is just
very familiar to me. It is my generation. The late 70's and early 80's mark the
end of the Cultural Revolution and
Full: http://www.firecracker-media.com/issue04/interview02.shtml
He has succeeded beyond all expectations. One of the great
things about contemporary Chinese film is its ability to dramatize the lives of
such ordinary people. In the face of a society that worships material success
and ever increasingly the cultural values of the West, including those
displayed in
"Peacock" was the opening feature in this year's
Asian Film Festival in