When finally released in late August, it made no impression at the box office, with a weedy RMB20 million compared with Sister’s astonishing RMB860 million in the spring.Īfter graduating from the Central Academy of Drama in literature and directing, Yin worked on several theatre and TV productions, and started developing the story of Farewell in 2016. Starring the same young actress, Zhang Zifeng 张子枫, though in a much less complex and “grown-up” role, it was originally set to be released on 16 Apr this year (two weeks after Sister) but was suddenly pulled three days before, for “technical reasons”, despite already having been certified in early 2020. A fairly conventional high-school tale of a girl’s attachment to a bad-boy classmate, it’s told (rather unnecessarily) in flashback and lacks the small incremental detailing of characters and relationships that made Sister so involving. Shot prior to her impressive family drama Sister 我的姐姐 (2021) but only commercially released after that film’s unexpected success, Farewell My Lad 再见,少年 was the feature debut of writer-director Yin Ruoxin 殷若昕 but is nowhere close to her subsequent film in quality. But by the following year he had effectively stopped studying, and that summer had become seriously involved in a crime committed by Liu.) By Chinese New Year in Feb 2002 Zhang Chenhao had been pressured to rejoin Liu’s gang as a way of paying back his father’s debts, though Li Fei had still tried to help him continue his studies. Li Fei had later learned that she’d lost out to Song Juan in winning a place. And at school, during the second year of senior high, the two had been split up in class, as their teacher had told Li Fei that by associating with Zhang Chenhao she was imperilling her chances of winning a place on a student-exchange programme to Sweden in November. Zhang Chenhao had found himself drawn back into gang life, despite Li Fei’s entreaties. And in Jul 2001 Lei Fei’s father had heard he would be losing his job as a department head. (Zhang Chenhao had found his father had gambled away the family’s savings. He had started calling himself Sisyphus, after the Ancient Greek god sentenced to roll a boulder up a hill for eternity.) In the police interrogation Li Fei is asked who Sisyphus was. At school Zhang Chenhao’s marks had continued to improve, as had his relationship with Li Fei. After giving Wang Yu some money, Zhang Chenhao had announced he was quitting the gang – and was, surprisingly, let off by the gang’s leader, Liu. Zhang Chenhao had said the little amount of his mother’s compensation money had been used up, but he’d promised Wang Yu to find some more. But then Wang Yu, chief hoodlum of the gang he used to run with, had tracked him down and demanded some money. In the end-of-term grades he’d shown an improvement. He’d been determined to “create a miracle” and get to university. Zhang Chenhao had kept on flattering Li Fei and she finally agreed to help him with his studies, as she secretly quite liked him. His gang friend Sheng Ming, whose father had died recently, had come by and wondered why he hadn’t been hanging out with him. At home Zhang Chenhao had a drunken father to deal with, and a mother who was in a coma from a car accident. On a visit home Li Fei had learnt that her father had laid off people in his department and himself hadn’t been paid by the mining company. He had a reputation for being a brawler and lazy at studying he had pushed his way into her acquaintance and arranged to share a desk with her in class. Li Fei was living in a rented flat near the school and next day had bumped into classmate Zhang Chenhao who lived in the flat opposite. Classmates had said they’d heard that workers were being laid off there. An object of curiosity among the other girls, Li Fei had been the only one to come from the mining area of town, which was reachable by a small train. (In Sep 2000, on her first day in senior high, the shy but intelligent Li Fei, then 15, had been appointed deputy class head the equally intelligent Song Juan had been made class head. Under arrest, Li Fei (Zhang Zifeng), 32, is interrogated by police (Dong Bo, La Mei) about her long-term relationship with her male accomplice. Fairly conventional story of a high-school girl drawn to a bad-boy classmate lacks narrative drive and tension.Ī police station in Yunnan province, southern China, 2017.
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