Family Ties

Harrowing tales of tortured familial relations are standard in Chinese cinema, but Zhang Jiabei's visually stunning Cherries (now on DVD) is distinguished by some outstanding performances and its subtle evocation of the texture of southern rural life

The narrative of Cherries (dir Zhang Jiabei, China, 2007) revolves around the eponymous main character, a mentally handicapped woman married to a lame farmer in Yunnan in the early 1980s. Cherry longs to have a child, and when she stumbles upon an abandoned baby girl one night her dream seems to have come true. Her husband, however, is not so enthralled. He quickly finds himself locked out of Cherry’s affections and realises with dismay that the stray baby will prevent him having a child of his own under China’s birth control policies.

As the abandoned girl matures, we see the initially tender affection between Cherry and her foster daughter corroded by the prejudices of other village children and the girl’s growing embarrassment at her step-mother’s inability to conform to social mores. While her early years are sketched in idyllic terms, you can almost feel the glass ceiling of rural existence suffocating the girl as she gets older. Zhang Jiabei also effectively conveys the grind of village life through the disparity between the stunning green luminosity of the Yunnan landscape and the dark, colourless interior of the peasant family’s abode.

Cherries’ conclusion is undermined by a trite and unnecessary voiceover, but overall this beautifully shot film effectively draws viewers into a haunting, emotionally complex story from a side of Chinese life most of us only ever glimpse through a passing bus window.

Dan Edwards