re:mote voices

Title: Durian Durian [Liulian Piao Piao]
Cast: Hailu Qin, Wai-Fan Mak, Xiao Ming Biao, Wai Yiu Yung
Director: Fruit Chan

Blurbs are a funny thing, and the inaccuracy which comes with them sometimes is something which I might go as far as describing as being a pet hate. A blurb is necessary – a quick paragraph or two on the back of a book, or in a brochure for a cinema, or whatever – enough to give you a quick summary of what it is about, with no spoilers – much more valuable than a couple of quote which tell you nothing.

In this year’s Chinese film festival in Glasgow there have been a couple of discrepancies in the brochure which haven’t borne true in the actual films. From that I think the worst example of this is the description of Fruit Chang’s Durian Durian. The description talks of a young girl’s account of her father’s daily attempts to sell cigarettes and wine to raise money for the family. But that only covers about the first 10 minutes of the film, and doesn’t even mention the characters that really make up the core of the narrative. Which isn’t really a big deal, but the film is actually about a woman who spends time in Hong Kong as a prostitute – something quite different.

Durian Durian should have been the second film by Fruit Chan in this season, but for some reason the first, Little Cheung was pulled. Which is a pity, Chan being one of the few directors in the season I had prior knowledge of, his film Made In Hong Kong having shown a couple of times in the past. Chan, I think, could be said to have a very raw style, something which delivers powerful results. Compare Durian Durian to something like Millennium Mambo, which also showed in this season, there the direction was too heavy, the scenes at times too contrived, while with Chan the characters and their emotions are more important than an image. With the result that his work is more striking and more sensitive.

Durian Durian is set primarily in Hong Kong, though the time frame isn’t entirely clear, we are presented with a city which is affluent. As such it is a shining light for the mainland Chinese, who would rather be there than their own towns. We are given two characters, two girls, both who have three month permits to be in Hong Kong. Fan is very young, and her family is determined to stay in Hong Kong no matter what, so they hide out in immigrant areas, wary of the police, while her one legged father struggles to raise money, and her mother works all the hours she can in a restaurant, bringing home any scraps of food that she can. Qin is 21, and like so many other main land girls, she has come to Hong Kong to prostitute herself. Trying to make as much money as she can in the 3 months she is allowed to stay. Of course it turns out the two girls stay in the same area, so while the first part of the film concentrates on Fan, washing dishes in the street, looking after her younger sister, and the like, we see Qin walk past, with her local pimp, a couple of times. This leads to a conversation or two between the two girls, which then allows for the film to flip to Qin as a lead.

The delivery of Qin’s life is a curious one, concentrating more on the mundane nature of the job, rather than the sex. During the day she sits around her one bedroom in a boarding house, waiting for phone calls – by night she sits in a restaurant which has been taken over by the gang, the local guys run the business, taking calls from clients from bath houses, while the girls sit together chatting and eating between assignments. Qin tells how at her peak she did 38 men in one day as casually as she complains about the mess all the showers she is taking are making of her feet.

The biggest contrast, and next stage of the film, comes when Qin returns home to a town in the north of China. She is entirely transformed, on the sweltering streets of Hong Kong she is continually putting on make up, she has long black hair, and is always wearing skimpy little dresses for the clients. Back home she gets her hair cut, and with that it becomes just how clear Qin really is, we see past this sassy street girl, and see this young girl with a family. In her home town she is in a snowy region, with the result that she is always wearing heavy coats, and adorable ear muffs. Perhaps unsurprisingly, no one from her home town knows what she was doing. With the result that they are all delighted and amazed at the amount of money she has made she is reluctant to discuss when she is going back, even more so when one of her aunts suggests that she take her cousin with her next time.

As for the title of the film, a durian is a large fruit, which makes several appearances throughout the film, and is apparently foul smelling. Which is certainly something that can’t be said of the film, not a stinker at all, in fact one of my absolute highlights for the season!