The Other Half

Xiaofen works in the office of a law firm in one of the explosively growing cities in southwestern China. That sounds posher than it is. Her work is made up of listening to female clients and documenting their cases. Xiaofen herself does not have fewer problems than these women. She feels anxious and insecure and not without reason: the man she lives with disappears suddenly and may have a murder on his conscience. Xiaofen tries to get him back home. The Other Half follows the vicissitudes of Xiaofen and also lets us hear from her clients.
Ying Liang, his debut film Taking Father Home was seen last year in the VPRO Tiger Awards Competition and won prizes at many festivals, has again come up with a complex production within a year. Fictional and documentary narrative styles combine seamlessly in this case. The complaints about household quarrels that Xiaofen hears are told straight into the camera and provide an impressive picture of the problems (of women) in China. Ying and his female producer and co-scriptwriter Peng Shan do that in a restrained, yet no less detailed, well-informed and above all compassionate way. At the world premiere at Tokyo FilmEx, in late 2006, the film won the special jury prize. (GT)