This Chinese film is a subtle story of teenage sapphic love
BY YASMIN VINCE, IMAGE BY TOTEM FILMS
First loves always hold a special place in your heart, no matter how they turn out. Looking back, they are almost always layered with a hazy dreamlike softness as we try to keep a grip on how it felt to first fall in love. A Song Sung Blue, Geng Zihan’s sapphic coming-of-age story, attempts to subtly recreate this feeling on screen. While its subtlety perhaps drifts too far, the result is a visually stunning piece of cinema.
The Chinese film joins 15 year-old Xian (Zhou Meijun) as she prepares to spend the summer with a father she hates while her mother goes off to work in Africa. Shy and quiet Xian soon meets Mingmei (Huang Ziqi), her polar opposite and 18 year-old daughter of the receptionist at the photo shop run by Xian’s father. She soon becomes infatuated with Mingmei.
The film had its UK premiere at the Queer East Festival in April and heads to Brighton this week, as part of the festival’s national tour. Last year, it was screened at Cannes, as well as several other festivals in Asia, and was nominated for several awards. One of them was for Best Cinematography at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. It’s easy to understand why – the film is one of the most visually stunning of the last year. Sweeping shots of the northern territory of Harbin are doused in a soft blue light, perfectly encapsulating the melancholy with which Xian approaches the summer. Whenever Mingmei is on screen, the camera switches to intimate shots, picking up flashes of red, hinting at the passion the 18 year-old brings to the screen and that Xian feels inside. So beautiful is the camera work that you may not even need to read the subtitles. Watching the colours shift as the camera tracks Mingmei’s every movement is enough to tell this story.
The rest of the film is remarkably subdued, just like its shy protagonist before her first crush lights a fire inside of her. Dialogue is sparse and the audience relies on little hints on the faces of the actors or in the choice of song sung by the choir. For instance, time and time again, we hear various people sing an old Chinese primary school song, including Xian’s choir and Mingmei, who sings it in Korean at a wedding, hinting that the feelings Xian has for her may not be as one-sided as we thought. Without the knowledge of Chinese cultures or the languages spoken in this film (Mandarin and Korean), details like this and their importance may be missed by UK audiences. As such, the subtlety for which the director has been lauded may go too far and the story loses some of its richness.
Despite this, the film is still worth a watch, if only for the nostalgia all summer coming-of-age films instill in the audience. Like Call Me By Your Name, A Song Sung Blue’s story may not end happily but it’ll remind you of all the emotions you felt back when you were young enough to not know what it was you were feeling. In this case, Geng’s film may do slightly better than Guadagnino’s. While the Italy-set story, littered with sunlight, warm tones and the glittering countryside, makes you miss the summers of your youth, this Chinese sapphic story will make you miss the potential of teenage crushes. It’s not afraid to remind you that they don’t always turn out well, but in doing so, it’s a reminder that even when first love turns into first heartbreak, it’s a unique feeling that we will never have again.
A Song Sung Blue will be shown at Duke’s at Komedia, Brighton, as part of the Queer East: On the Road on 29 October.
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