Vegetate

The third teaming of director Wang Jing and writer/producer Xie Xiaodong again uses a social issue to background a drama that is as much about the relationship between its main characters as the issue itself, though here the latter has more prominence than in either "End of the Year" or "Invisible Killer." Made with the same visual finesse as "Invisible Killer" - with cold, corporate Beijing contrasted with the warmer-hued, more homely look of Shanxi, which the protagonist visits to trace her family - "Vegetate" doesn\'t blend the human and professional stories as smoothly as the 2009 movie, and in its latter half, as the leads take on the big-business baddies, packs in too many convenient twists for its own good. However, from its opening scenes, as the stressed-out main character quits her high-powered job only to collapse after a traffic accident, the movie has an assurance and refined visual language that marks it out from so much other Mainland production. Put simply, Wang and Xie are one of the most interesting movie-making teams in China\'s current industry, with a signature that\'s become immediately noticeable.

In a very different role from her cool cop in "Invisible Killer", actress Feng Bo holds the screen as the amnesiac pharma expert without becoming either over-fragile or gung-ho tough. Quietly driven, and establishing a relationship with Li Naiwen\'s sleazy but likable paparazzo that starts out as one of convenience to both of them, Feng\'s Zhu Li develops naturally from a woman building a new life to a quiet crusader who finds the case she\'s investigating has resonances far beyond what she dreamed of. Though the whistle-blowing dominates the movie to its detriment in the latter stages, the chemistry between Feng and Li still makes the picture - which would further benefit from a better English title - highly watchable.

 

by Derek Elley