When Wang Xueming (Eddie Peng) and Mrs. Liang (Sylvia Chang) exchange a glance at the latter’s husband’s wake, it’s a romantic moment that mimics the sort of light, amicable, and understanding exchange between a younger man and older woman that is perfected in the opening moments of Douglas Sirk’s All That Heaven Allows. But in Wen Shipei’s Are You Lonesome Tonight it takes a bit of a morbid twist because you see, the young man is the one unknowingly responsible for the older woman being widowed. This Chinese thriller takes its time in stringing two unexpected events – a car crash and an unlikely age-gap friendship – together and does so in a visual canvas that can only best be described as ‘cool’ and ‘chill’. As unrefined as those descriptors may be, they convey the sort of dichotomous laid-back but also fully in-control choices of director Wen Shipei.
An Unlikely Pair
Taking its title from the famous Elvis Presley song, one which is covered by a Chinese singer as background music in the film, Are You Lonesome Tonight embodies the sort of wandering and wayward arc of two people who feel alone but for two totally different reasons. Mrs. Liang is now a widow but she isn’t particularly devastated by her husband’s death. Whispers around suggest he was into some bad stuff. Even Wang remarks that at the wake she didn’t seem too upset.
Wang is the Philip Marlowe sort, wafting through crowds of people giving only passing acknowledgments, and running tangentially to most things going on in his life with almost no lasting impact. Even when he does enter into some action it’s almost inconsequential. One sequence sees him walk straight into a street fight almost as if he wants to feel pain, just to feel something. He randomly picks on one person or another to wail on with his fists but they barely notice him aside from a few light blows. He passes through the brawl like a ghost through a solid brick wall.
A Distinct Visual Contrast of Night and Day in Guangzhou
The one thing that does affect him is the hit-and-run of Liang’s husband. In the dark of night, filmed in intense color saturations of red and teal, Wang feels a giant thud hit his car. The scene is given a pulpy and intense vibrancy by the lighting. The rest of the movie continues its plays with light – high saturation at night and a soft ethereal glow during the day. The light seems to jut out from areas violently taking over the frame. The film uses a team of four cinematographers and they all seem to be competing with each other in highly disparate styles in different spaces.
Yet, there is a visual cohesion to the ordeal, especially in the dissolves and fades, which mix colors and moods in brilliant transitions from one frame to another. The textures laid over each other give the film an unstable energy that makes things feel constantly on edge.
Conclusion:
The narrative, the characters, and the visual canvas coalesce surprisingly potently for a debut film. There is a lot here that suggests Wen Shipei has both a unique eye as a filmmaker as well as a world-view for the kinds of characters and places that speak to him. Guangzhou becomes a potent playground for the movie’s formal imagery that builds distinct contrast in what it feels like during the day and at night and what kind of people exist at its center and its peripheries. Despite what its title might suggest, this film isn’t maudlin and it certainly isn’t one which seeks desperately to impress. It’s a cool film because it navigates confidently within a specific shade of its filmmaker’s craft.
Are You Lonesome Tonight released on VOD in the United States on March 17th, 2023
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