A soulless romance

ON the surface, The Christ of Nanjing would seem an ideal subject for a Sino-Japanese art film. The source material, a novel by Rashomon author Akutagawa Ryunosuke, is set in 1920s' China and depicts a romance between a male Japanese writer and a Chinese peasant. The settings include the beautiful canals of Jiangsu and the traditional architecture of pre-World War II Japan.

The trouble is The Christ of Nanjing never ventures too far beneath its gorgeous surface. Director Tony Au Ting-ping has created a turgid romance that does not ring true either emotionally or dramatically. For 100 minutes we are treated to the suffering of two tortured souls: a highbrow Chinese-speaking Japanese writer, Okagawa (Tony Leung Ka-fai), who is racked by guilt over his affair with Kam Fa (Tomita Yasuko).

Okagawa's character is the more static of the two. He is tormented by blinding headaches at the beginning and agonises throughout. Kam Fa goes through a greater transformation, from voluptuous virgin to a venereal disease-stricken madwoman. But despite the graphicness of their passion and torment, it is portrayed in a leaden manner.

The script seems to suffer from flaws nearly as fatal as Kam Fa's affliction. The film-makers take such pains to establish bonds between the writer and the peasant. Yet when he returns to his wife and family in Japan, it simply makes no sense that he would not leave Kam Fa, who turns to prostitution, provided for financially. Similarly, it strains credibility that he would not have come to Kam Fa's aid before her disease entered an advanced stage.

The most intriguing aspect of The Christ of Nanjing is its curious title. Kam Fa is a Christian with a pure and innocent belief. Later, when disease makes her delusional, she mistakes a brothel-hopping Eurasian reporter as the Messiah and goes to bed with him. This pivotal scene, and her faith, lose much of their potential power on screen.

However, the film is a visual feast. Eddie Ma Pun-chiu's art direction, Eddie Mok's costumes, and Bill Wong Chung-piu's cinematography, combined with Au's superlative visual sense, have created beautiful scenes although they tend to overwhelm. Every scene is pretty whether or not it is appropriate such as the glorious yellow-flowered fields of Kam Fa's home that belie the crop failures and famine.