ReviewVenice 2019: Saturday Fiction film review – Gong Li in a Chinese Casablanca, Lou Ye’s evocative spy thriller
- Black-and-white tale of spies, lovers, desperation and betrayal set in Japanese-occupied wartime Shanghai feels like a Chinese version of Casablanca
- Gong Li excels as an actress back from Hong Kong to appear in a play; no one is who they seem in this densely plotted film that keeps you gripped to the end
4/5 stars
Unveiled in competition at the Venice Film Festival, Saturday Fiction, by “sixth generation” Chinese filmmaker Lou Ye (Spring Fever, Blind Massage ) is a sophisticated period drama. Set in the “solitary island” of Japanese-occupied Shanghai in 1941, the moody black-and-white tale of actors, espionage, love and betrayal feels like a Chinese Casablanca, with characters desperately trying to survive any which way they can.
The story revolves around Jean Yu, played by the ever resplendent Gong Li in one of her first major roles in several years. A famous film actress, she returns to Shanghai from Hong Kong, partly to seek the release of her ex-husband (Zhang Songwen), currently held by Japanese authorities, but also to feature in a play called “Saturday Fiction”. Of course, that’s just scratching the surface; as one person observes: “She’s like a box of secrets.”
Much of the action takes places in the British and French Concession areas of Shanghai, still largely free from Japanese influence, notably the Cathay Hotel, run by the elegant Saul Speyer (German actor Tom Wlaschiha). There are a lot more characters in a dense plot that isn’t afraid to befuddle its audience; the sequences early on, as the play-within-the-film melds into the narrative, are particularly tricky to follow.
Gradually the film settles down, as Yu is set upon by a mega-fan, Bai Mei (Huang Xiangli), and becomes embroiled with the play’s director (and her old flame) Tan Na (Mark Chao Yu-ting), who clearly still has the hots for her. Whether she feels the same is just one of the questions asked by a film that – as its title suggests – has the feel of an old-school matinee.