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Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl

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Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl
Directed byJoan Chen
Written byGeling Yan
(novel)
Joan Chen
(screenplay)
Produced byAlice Chen
Joan Chen
StarringLi Xiaolu
Lopsang
Zheng Qian
Music byJohnny Chen
Distributed byGood Machine
Release date
February 1998 (Berlin Film Festival)
Running time
99 minutes (theatrical)
CountryChina
LanguageMandarin

Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl (Chinese: 天浴; pinyin: Tiān Yù) is a 1998 Chinese film directed by actress Joan Chen based during the 1970s in People's Republic of China, during the Cultural Revolution's Down to the Countryside Movement. This drama film is the directorial debut of Chen.[1] The film stars Li Xiaolu (Chinese: 李小璐) and Lopsang (Chinese: 洛桑群培).

Plot

Xiu Xiu (Chinese: 秀秀), a 15-year-old girl living in the city of Chengdu, moves out to study horses in the countryside with a nomadic Tibetan. She is told that after six months, she will return to take charge of her all-girl cavalry unit. However she quickly discovers that she is not returning. She learns lessons about life while struggling against corrupt government officials who manipulate her hopes and body. Her only friend is the eunuch horseman, Lao Jin.

Xiu Xiu and Lao Jin stay in a tent together and become friends. But over time Xiu Xiu realizes that she has no way of getting out of the place due to changes in policy by fickle bureaucrats, she begins to lose hope. She falls for the lies of a peddler who told her he could get her out, but rewards her for sex with an apple. Her innocence is slowly corrupted by a stream of men who use her only for sex, barely keeping up the conceit by telling her that they'll get her back to her hometown. Lao Jin, emasculated and docile, can only watch in sadness as Xiu Xiu loses hope in the system, in herself and in men. Xiu Xiu even starts to believe in the lies the men perfunctorily tell her, as she spitefully lectures Lao Jin that the men who come in the night and have their way with her are important men who can help her get back.

Xiu Xiu gets pregnant by one of the men and had to go for a traumatic abortion in the hospital. The female doctors gossip about Xiu Xiu and think she is a whore who likes entertaining men. After the operation, she gets raped by one of the patients, a man who shot himself in the foot to get handicapped benefits in the state-controlled economy. Lao Jin gets angry and assaults the rapist, but he is restrained by the other patients while the doctors make snide remarks about how Xiu Xiu enjoys being raped.

After Xiu Xiu recuperates, she tries to shoot herself in the foot so she can get sent back home, but she cannot bring herself to pull the trigger. She asks Lao Jin to shoot her foot. But she decides against it and intimates to him to shoot her dead instead. Lao Jin shoots her, then shoots himself and falls on her body so they can be finally together in death.

Reception

Distribution

Although the U.S. distributor claimed the film was banned in China for sexual and political content, the script was actually approved by the Chinese government. The film was only banned after the filmmakers decided not to wait for permits before shooting in Tibet (such permits are required for a film to receive official approval).[2]

Awards and nominations

Golden Horse Awards
  • 1998: won for Best Film (Joan Chen)
  • 1998: won for Best Director (Joan Chen)
  • 1998: won for Best Screenplay Adapted from Another Medium (Joan Chen)
  • 1998: won for Best Actress (Li Xiaolu)
  • 1998: won for Best Actor (LupSang)
48th Berlin International Film Festival
Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival
  • 1998: won the Jury Award
Paris Film Festival
  • 1999: won the Special Jury Prize
  • 1999: nominated for the Grand Prize
  • 1999: won Best Actress (Li Xiaolu)
Mons International Festival of Love Films
  • 1999: won the Grand Prize
National Board of Review
  • 1999: won the International Freedom Award
Independent Spirit Awards
  • 2000: nominated for Best First Feature Over $500,000 (John Chen, shared with co-producer Alice Chan Wai-Chung)

References

  1. ^ "Wettbewerb/In Competition". Moving Pictures, Berlinale Extra. Berlin: 37. 11–22 February 1998. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  2. ^ Tian yu on IMDb
  3. ^ "Berlinale: 1998 Programme". berlinale.de. Retrieved 2012-01-23.
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