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Jiang Hu: Life on the Road

Original title: Jiang Hu: Life on the Road
Year: 1999
Running time: 150 min.
Country: China
Director: Wu Wenguang
Screenwriter: Wu Wenguang
Cast: Documentary
Genre: Documentary
Synopsis: In the film Jiang hu, the director Wu Wenguang invites us to follow the destiny of a troupe of Chinese singers and dancers who are performing from village to village under a not-so-big top. For several months he mingles with the core of this world, observing the ups and downs of fairground life. Wu Wenguang is interested more in the daily routine than the travels, in often-repeated gestures or the disputes sparked by cramped living space. His video camera allows long mobile and close-up shots to be captured. One feels he has been able – without ever intervening in the film – to create a relationship of unusual trust with each player. As he becomes a good friend of the troupe, he manages to document the ordinary moments when the character and moods of the various artists are revealed. “Is it misery or happiness?” asks the troupe’s leader in a painful moment of alcoholic lucidity. Because one of this film’s main themes is money, which flows into the tills – or not, as the case may be – money that has to be given to the authorities to be able to perform in a village, money for the never-paid wages… And although the film begins when the troupe is fairly prosperous, the departure of the manager, who entrusts his son with the management, brings a slow deterioration of their daily life. A journey to the heart of contemporary China, far from quaint or political clichés, this film steps back to powerfully reveal that country’s reality. - Jean Perret

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