River Without Buoys

This classic drama of three men sailing down a raft on the Xiao River during the Cultural Revolution was a spectacular popular success when released in China in 1983. Wu Tianming, future head of the Xi’an Film Studio (where he nurtured the Fifth Generation directors’ first works), crafts a tight, visceral, masculine narrative dramatising the victimization of ordinary people by Maoist radicalism in the Cultural Revolution. The boat’s boss, Laowu, is a wiry survivor, whose good nature belies the depth of his pain after having forced himself to abandon his lover to protect her from persecution. Crewmate Shi Gu’s macho bluster also hides his despair at his forced separation from his girlfriend, whom a corrupt local official wants to marry. The third crewmember, Zhao Liang, is easygoing but fearful of falling afoul of the radicals onshore. But the outside world erupts in unpredictable ways, visiting on them the pasts they thought they had abandoned.
The film’s pure narrative thrust is supported by a mature, smooth technical finesse, with a particularly fine subtle use of camera movement. The cast is uniformly excellent, but 1940’s veteran Li Wei’s rich, subtle, powerfully physical, ultimately spiritual portrayal of Laowu is the film’s true glory. (SK)