Shower comes clean
in China premiere

By Steven Schwankert
Over 500 people gathered in Beijing's Twenty-First Century Theater for the Chinese premiere of "Shower," the latest collaboration between director Zhang Yang and producer Peter Loehr. Guests included almost the film's entire cast.

The film's premiere was highly anticipated. "Shower" had walked away from the Toronto Film Festival with the international jury prize, and Zhang Yang had been named best director at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain.

"Shower" tells the story of two brothers, Daming (Pu Cunxin) and Erming (Jiang Wu), and their father (Zhu Xu), who runs one of Beijing's remaining public bathhouses. The film opens with Daming's return from Shenzhen, after receiving a postcard from Erming, who is mentally-challenged, that Daming believes means his father is dead. Instead, Daming finds both brother and father alive and well.

Daming's discovery is cause for relief but not necessarily joy. His father knows that his sudden appearance is not due to any deep affection, but to confirm or disprove that his father is still alive. While the father and Erming enjoy a close relationship, Daming's employment and marriage in Shenzhen (which is only hinted at throughout the film) seems to be as much a choice as the result of any extraneous circumstances.

However, when Daming's father falls ill and is temporarily unable to continue his work at the bathhouse, Daming remains to fill in the gap. During this time we begin to meet the establishment's patrons: the two guys who stage daily cricket fights; the pudgy opera singer, the neighbor whose wife constantly beats him. We see that while Daming views his father's work as servile, the bathhouse's customers turn to him for advice, counseling, and first aid just as much as for guaranteed hot water and a comfortable place to while away the day. "I know that you look down on me and my work. But every time I see an old customer come in, I'm happy," Daming's father tells his unfilial son.

Interjected into the film are two other bathing interludes. Director Zhang said that the film had originally been written in the style of his 1998 hit "Spicy Love Soup," with several stories focusing on bathing as experienced in various parts of China. This idea was eventually dropped in favor of a more linear script, but the story of a northwest China girl's pre-wedding bath, and the pilgrimage of a woman and her granddaughter in Tibet were saved. Intensely beautiful, the northwest China story line has been used too often in modern Chinese film to be entirely effective. It could easily have come from the cutting room floor of an early Zhang Yimou film, despite Zhang Yang's denial that the scene was influenced by, or an homage to, any of China's Fifth Generation of directors.

The Tibet sequence depicts a pilgrimage to a sacred lake in Tibet, one that can only be made once in a 12-year cycle. Shooting in Tibet inflicted a serious case of altitude sickness on Zhang, who had to be evacuated to lower altitudes. While both represent excellent cinematography work, the transition to each is too jarring. The narrator's voice does not carry over, leaving the audience somewhat lost as to the setting and relevance to the rest of the story.

One poignant scene that could have run longer is footage of the large-scale demolition that took place in Beijing during the past year to prepare for the 50th anniversary of the People's Republic. The relocation of many older families to other parts of the city has been ignored as a social issue and in film, and a more lengthy sequence could have been a subtle but meaningful statement that does not necessarily represent progress.

Enjoyable as both a film about family and a sense of place and belonging, "Shower" is not without its flaws, not the least of which is its predictability. There is little that happens in the film that is not expected. It's hard to say whether Pu Cunxin is wooden or excellent as Daming; the character is so generally devoid of any feeling that he doesn't smile, cry, or generally show any emotion at all. In contrast, Jiang Wu is superb as the child-like Erming. Jiang said that after landing the role (which was given to him only after much pleading on his part), he chose to adopt for the part the personality of a young child: happy, care-free, but very much a creature of habit. Similarly, Zhu Xu plays both a compassionate father to his disabled son and the friend and confidant to his customers, and in that he does a terrific job.

"Shower" is very much a departure from the festival prize-winning films we have seen from other directors. While earlier this year it seemed that any director whose last name was Zhang and first initial Y. could win an award (Zhang Yimou, Zhang Yuan, Zhang Yang), "Shower" is different from the cinema verite style that Zhang Yimou has adopted of late, and is far more commercial and accessible to a wide domestic and foreign audience than Zhang Yuan's dark and generally unwatchable sub-culture pictures. International awards for the film are already drawing cat calls from Chinese journalists, who ask or imply that the film was made for consumption by foreign audiences, not Chinese ones, as if only movies incapable of winning international awards should be seen by domestic viewers (although one would be forgiven for taking this view of the Chinese film market given its regular offerings). While it may fall prey to anti-Beijing regional biases ("Shower" is very much a capital city story), "Shower" should do well at the box office in China, beginning with its release in Shanghai early next month. "Shower" is expected to open in American theaters next spring, distributed by Sony Pictures Classics.