Lovers in the Water

Love triumphs over death in rural China

Shanghai Aug. 16, 2010 -- Lovers In The Water, a feature film by co-directors Zheng Zheng and Chen Fu, is currently undergoing the final stages of post production in Shanghai. This is Chongqing Normal University film professor Zheng’s third feature film. Singer Shang Hua, best known for her hit pop single QQ Love and films like Lao Wu’s Oscar, takes the female lead and male supermodel Li Xueqing makes his acting debut in the lead role.

Lovers In The Water (手舞之恋 or Bai Shou Wu Zhi Lian literally “Waving Hand Dance of Love”) was filmed in June 2010 in quaint locations like Gongtan old town along the 1200-kilometer Wujiang River about 260 kilometers outside of Chongqing, China’s largest city. The rural location is important to this tale, which reflects the mindset and metaphysical angst of China’s “thirty-something” generation.

In this tale, an upwardly mobile Chongqing professional (Li) in his thirties learns he has a terminal illness. He cleans out his desk, walks out of his office and throws away his cell phone and then returns to his tiny home village seeking some meaning to his life. When he boards the bus to the rural hill town of his youth, he has a fateful meeting with the village school teacher (Shang).. In a nostalgic gesture, he reopens his deceased father’s restaurant, which brings him into further contact with the teacher. What results is a platonic love story as well as a return to a simpler time.

Shang Hua (left) and Li Xueqing (right) pose on set in Gongtan village

Zheng filmed this feature in the minimalistic style of the Taiwan new wave directors like Hou Hsiao-Hshien. While his last film, I Think Your Dancing is Beautiful (2009,) showed his ability to produce a film with modern style, pacing and cinematic skill, the camera language of Lovers in the Water is a simple as the rustic society in the Wujiang mountains. Zheng had big production filming equipment like dolly and crane and an expert crew but most of the time, he was shooting very simple shots that lend a very basic sense to this film.

Director of photography Jeffrey Chu, was also cinematographer on films including Japanese director Atsuhiro Yamada’s Happy Ending (2009.) Chu said Zheng clearly visualized the film and practically edited it with the camera. This may have been common in the past when shooting on expensive film stock, but modern directors shooting on HD tend to have fast-paced editing and strong coverage, shooting each scene from several angles. But Lovers in the Water indulges in long shots and a slow lyrical pace.

“I started making suggestions for some creative shots and to get ‘coverage’ of the scenes,” said Chu. “But Zheng was not interested. He really knew exactly what he wanted. It is rather experimental in this modern age, but for this film, it really works.”

The simplicity of the shooting builds a mood that reflects the soul-searching of the protagonsit, said Chu. It does evoke the style of Taiwan’s new wave filmmakers or the French auteurs. Zheng however points to South Korea’s Jin-ho Heo’s Christmas In August, also a platonic romance between a terminally ill man and a charming young woman. There are certain scenes in Lovers In The Water which echo Christmas In August. In both films, the protagonist is suddenly taken to the hospital and the lover, who has no idea of the illness, returns to find only the closed shop.

“Urban life and modern love can become complicated,” said Zheng. “I wanted to make a film that explores the purity of love.”

Zheng Zheng (left) prepares to film a scene with actress Shang Hua (center)

In Christmas In August, the two lovers have an unrequited love, but nonetheless develop a relationship that is very powerful and becomes the center of the film. Zheng’s lovers remain platonic, but never seem to form a deep bond. The center of the film becomes more about the protagonist coming to terms with his death … and his life.

 This film is a spiritual journey that expresses the zeitgeist of the generation in China approaching middle age. They are beginning to come to terms with mortality and the meaning of their lives. In a pivotal scene, one of the protagonist’s childhood friends dies suddenly and all of his friends share his own need for soul searching as they realize that all too soon they will all face the same fate. In this rural village, life is centered around the water. We never see the protagonist’s death, rather the last we see of him, he is diving into the pure water as If it were a sort of communion.