In Stonewalling, the latest film from Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka, the focus is Lynn, a young woman training to become a flight attendant while in a relationship with a familiar type: a lover who has seen some success (or is born into it) and now requires his partner to step up. In a strictly capitalist sense, there isn’t anything wrong the sentiment but it does take a toll on the recipient. You can almost see Lynn physically reduce in size when her boyfriend speaks to her about what she should do, which generally involves her ascent from training school to airline job, armed with great English.
In any case, Lynn learns she can make money selling her ova. It probably seems easy enough, most of the production processes having been taken care of by regular biology. But after an exam, she is informed there’s one complication: she’s pregnant. Out goes the opportunity—but only just. Biology again is helpful: there will be more eggs but they’ll come quicker if she gets an abortion. What to do, what to do?
In Ji and Otsuka’s hands, Lynn’s story is a slow study of the underbelly of Chinese capitalism which, even with the popularity and mega-billions of TikTok, doesn’t seem too far different from what obtains with the ordinary and the poor elsewhere. The desperation and uncertainty is always present and to escape it, even for a few weeks, can mean dabbling with the sub-legal. In choosing Yao (who has featured in the pair’s previous two films) to play Lynn and presenting her as extraordinarily ordinary the way they do, it is as if the directors (Otsuka is also the film’s cinematographer) are insisting on the robust universality of Lynn’s experience in China.
The social commentary and political undertones are quite clear. Lynn’s mother, for instance, runs what appears to be an unaccredited clinic, but is more interested in a multilevel marketing scheme that promises better returns and, one imagines, doesn’t have the kind of medical hazard that would come with her only child’s abortion or childbearing decision. Lynn’s father, on the other hand, is mostly passive, save for one scene where his insistence on his wife’s focus on her clinic leads to a somewhat hilarious old-people fight, featuring a cleaver.
That scene is the film’s most vigorous and out of step with the firm, unhurried filmmaking deployed by the directors. At over two hours, there is a very reasonable argument against the film’s pacing, and yet there is something to be said for it — it’s really a miracle how a dour, resolutely indecisive heroine can sustain interest. Part of that miracle lies in the performance of Yao; part of lies in the directors’ fidelity to her experience.
We observe Lynn as she goes through the pains of pregnancy and the rituals her mother takes to comfort her—all of which is conveyed in such a manner as to suggest intimacy with the story being told. The directors have explained that part of their story was built from interviews conducted with real young people. Kudos to them for somehow finding an engaging tale, maybe even an engaging truth, in a collage of experiences.
There have been many films about the subject of abortion; Berlin’s Silver Bear winner, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, is notable for its success across the festival circuit. As with that film, which was set in the U.S., Stonewalling offers commentary on the country in which it’s based and the way it treats the birth (or not-to-birth) question. Eliza Hittman’s film found a compelling focus for its abortion story in its location because of America’s different state laws. In China, as can be deduced in Stonewalling, finding a place for abortion is not really the problem. The issue is deciding to have one. But as an only child—probably because of China’s former one-child policy—Lynn may not even have that much of a choice in what happens to her body. Stonewalling will see a surfeit of attention from festivals and platforms seeking Asian content of a decidedly dramatic kind. Its first stops are Venice, BFI London and the New York Film Festival.
Directors, production design: Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka
Cast: Honggui Yao, Xiaoxiong Huang, Zilong Xiao, Long Liu, Chi Cui, Xiaoyu Ren
Producer, cinematography: Ryuji Otsuka
Editing: Ching-sung Liao, Ryuji Otsuka, Men Du
Music: Chor Guan Ng
International Sales: Good Move Media
Production company: Yellow-Gren Pi
Venue: Venice Film Festival (Giornate degli Autori)
Language: Mandarin
Running time: 148
