December 2004-Film Review: Shower(2000, Chinese) (advanced copy)

not yet published

Shower

I’d like to share a wonderful movie with you. It’s not a very well known film and the odds aren’t good that you’ve seen it but it was very popular in China and much of the world winning numerous awards and accolades. To some, this will spike terrific interest, but to those of you who, “don’t like to read at the movies”, before you turn the page, please allow me tell you a little about one of my new favorite films.
It’s called Shower and it’s not about adult situations, towel snapping in high school locker rooms or practicing regular hygiene. It is about relationships; between father and son, men, community, husband and wife and humanity on a larger level.
Shower is set in a suburban men’s bath house, a mix between a sort of broken down Burke William's, Cheers, and a pool hall. The proprietor, Liu (Xu Zhu), an old man generous of heart acts as mediator, host, marriage counselor, entertainer and shrink to the men of the local community. Liu has two sons, the younger whom lives with him, Er (Wu Jiang) is mentally handicapped and his elder son, Da (Quanxin Pu) is a career driven executive living in a Southern cosmopolitan center who initially shows embarrassment in how humbly his father and brother live.
Da, believing that his father has died, comes back after misinterpreting a letter from his brother. But before he can jump back on the next plane heading south, he begins to see the value in the family life he has been missing out on for so many years. We see him evolve from cold and modern to warm and familial.
And it is that very element of changing life encapsulated within Shower that makes it so engrossing. The characters are all flushed out with such care and precision that we are genuinely concerned with each of them and the journey they individually go on. The natural pace of the film is rolled out masterfully and deliberately by relative newcomer, Yang Zhang who also penned the piece.
Many times Zhang captures deep emotional connections and exchanges through short and often wordless scenes, which in a foreign film, add a great deal to audience interpretation and personal connection. What is not said, rather what is subtly understood between characters, often is more powerful than Hollywood’s heavy-handed and noisey mise-en-scene.
There isn’t much of a soundtrack either except for showing patrons, source music and rhythmic hand-slap back messages. However the film is more than vibrant as the bath house is filled with the sights and sounds of old men pitting their fighting crickets against one another, young entrepreneurs testing out half cocked business plans, wives yelling at henpecked husbands through steam filled corridors and a constant colloquium on all subjects the human experience.
Enough can’t be said for the fine work of the entire cast with each supporting player adding a unique facet to the filmic canvas. I do, however, reserve my highest regard for the three leads whose roles were crafted with sincerity, honesty and humanity. They create real people with genuine relationships who are increasingly intriguing. One actor in particular, Xu Zhu, I have seen in another film made a few years prior to Shower called Bian Lian, (The King of Masks) This film is priceless and I highly regaurd it.
There are no martial arts in this movie. There aren’t any flying or wire-enabled treetop battles of will. There is, however a good story and a very intimate connection between the characters of the story and the audience. And while all being very Chinese, Shower remains so naturally familiar to American audiencecs because of how very human it is.

Shower (Xizao). 2000. USA.
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 92 min
Country: China
Language: Mandarin (Subtities)