In Mandarin this charming film is He ni zai yi qi. Directed by Kaige Chen, it was released in 2002. We just saw it on our new player after I bought the DVD at the local Blockbuster in Chetumal, Mexico. It promised to be in Ingles, subtitulos en Español (titled El Violinista in Latin America). Someone didn't know, however, the difference between Chinese and English; it was in Chinese with Spanish subtitles.
That has importance only to introduce some of the strengths of the film and film-maker. It is a wonderfully visual film for another story of a child prodigy and an artistic competition. The photography moves the story as the story moves the pictures. The characters are well-drawn and forcefully acted. The plot is not really complex (at least until the twists at the end) but it moves you along. The dialog is well-done and sparse, which was appreciated given my slow reading level in Spanish. The sparseness is real and appropriate.
The story is of a 13-year-old violinist of prodigious talent who travels from the Chinese hinterlands to Beijing for a music competition that could catapult him into a different class and change his future. He is accompanied by his father, a simple working man trying hard to find the means to advance his son. He discovers that he must also learn to understand the differences that such advancement will mean to their relationship.
The boy has the adventures of a boy that somehow are the more moving when he changes everyone with whom he comes into contact. There is a young woman he admires/befriends and her dysfunctional love affair, two music professors of widely different styles, the violin he carries and its story and, most of all, the shifting of relationships and classes, the unfolding of secrets and a few lessons in love.
Did I make it sound appealing? I hope so. This is a fine, well-seen and well-crafted film that is happy, sad, loving and charming without ever being sappy or clichèd.
See it. Preferably in your native language.
Running time: 116 minutes. Written by Kaige Chen and Xiao Lu Xue
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