So Close to Paradise

Dong Zhi and Goa Ping are two friends who move from the Chinese countryside to the city, like so many in the eighties, to try their luck. Dong Zhi finds a job in the harbour; hard and honest work is the fastest way to success as far as he is concerned. But Goa Ping chooses for petty crime. In a nightclub, they meet the singer Ruan Hong. Goa Ping hears that she knows Su Wu, a gangster who has robbed him back-handedly. When she refuses to say where he is, Goa Ping decides to kidnap her with the aid of Dong Zhi. They take her to their apartment, where she is at first their prisoner. However gradually a complex relationship develops between the three of them. Ruan Hong becomes the mistress of Goa Ping, while Dong Zhi, the narrator of the film, falls in love with her. With a bitter voice-over, he links together the fragments of the story. The film, that has been on the shelf since 1995, sketched an all too negative picture of Chinese society according to the authorities. Traces of censorship are now clearly visible: colour differences indicate that certain scenes have been shot again. Nevertheless, So Close to Paradise has not lost any of its power. Without maintaining a purely realistic style, Wang shows an authentic picture of the underbelly of Chinese society and reveals great sensitivity in portraying seized up lives and the vain attempts to break out.