Somewhere between the movie and the video installation, “Chinese Portrait” is the result of Wang Xiaoshuai travelling China with his camera since 2009, and shooting various people and settings throughout the country.
“Chinese Portrait” is available through Asian Shadows
The title of the film could not be more fitting, as the production comprises of a series of portraits that highlight the vastness and the different aspects of the country. In that fashion, the portraits (who occasionally differ in shape) include places like Xichuan, Shenzen and Xinjiang, with the latter being one of the most central, as Xiaoshuai presents a number of images from the lives of Chinese Muslims who inhabit the area. Furthermore, settings like trains, factories (working or demolished), farming villages, fields of green, construction sites, hospitals, hutongs, streets in various urban centers, and the beach, combine in order to portray a quite thorough presentation of China, both as a constantly developing country and as one that is eager to leave the past behind.
Furthermore, the film is also about the Chinese people, and in that fashion, it includes workers, miners, farmers, sheepherders, students, sick people, individuals just passing by, families simply going on with their everyday life and many more.
Through the excellent framing, Xiaoshuai manages to portray all of the aforementioned quite artfully, particularly in the scenes where he has made a number of people “pose” for him, either in groups or individually, which resulted in some truly memorable “compositions”, particularly in the ones where the “protagonists” are looking straight the camera.
Valérie Loiseleux’s editing is quite good, as the succession of portraits retains an element of surprise each frame change, while the time allocated to each portrait is the nominal for one to watch every detail without getting tired.
Evidently, the lack of narrative and dialogue make “Chinese Portrait” a difficult film both to describe and to watch. However, if one were to perceive it as a visit to a gallery, one will soon realize that connecting the images is like putting together the pieces of puzzle that shows the whole of China, in its past, present and future forms, and that is where the production’s value truly lies.