Brief History of a Family
First-time director Lin Jianjie plays out his mystery-thriller in the aftermath of China’s one-child policy.
Image courtesy of Blue Finch Releasing.
Any film that seeks to be enigmatic carries the possibility of being intriguing while also running the risk of being frustrating. This Chinese work, a debut feature by the writer/director Lin Jianjie, illustrates that all too well since much of it is indeed intriguing but its concluding scenes will leave many viewers dissatisfied. An open ending that invites the audience to interpret it for themselves can encourage speculation in a beneficial way, but in Brief History of a Family it feels more of a let-down.
This is a pity because Lin's film has a great deal to recommend it. Four characters are absolutely central to the narrative, three of them being members of the Tu family. We first meet the student son, Wei (Lin Muran), but his parents (Zu Feng and Guo Keyu) are no less important to the story. The fourth key figure is a classmate of Wei’s, the fifteen-year-old Yan Shuo (Sun Xilun) who, following an accident at school (he falls from an exercise bar after being hit by a basketball), is befriended by Wei. Possibly to make up for it given that the ball had been Wei’s, the latter invites Shuo back to his home to play video games. The Tu apartment is such that it confirms that the family is well-off whereas Shuo is from a poor background. He tells us of how his mother died when he was ten and it soon appears that his father who drinks too much is prone to beating him. Even on that first visit to the Tu household Shuo had been invited to stay for dinner and before long he is regularly encouraged to return.
The opening shot of Brief History of a Family is a rear shot of Shuo hanging on to the bar and to introduce a film with a close-up like this echoes Vertigo. However, Lin's piece never feels Hitchcockian although from early on the music score by Toke Brorson Odin creates a sense of unease and foreboding. Indeed, it has understandably been pointed out that this film carries echoes of more standard works, many of them American, in which some outsider wheedles their way into a household often with evil intent. Shuo could be just such a character, but one of the features which makes Brief History of a Family so distinctive is the fact that his motivation is an open question. Sun Xilun is ideal in this role, his face suitably inscrutable. The boy does nothing that would overtly suggest that he is not to be trusted and Lin’s screenplay is careful to show how both Mr Tu and Mrs Tu contribute to giving him a place in their family. For Mr Tu there is recognition that Shuo enjoys classical music just as he does (Bach’s ‘The Well-Tempered Clavier’ is quite a feature in this film) and before long we realise that Shuo’s willingness to apply himself at school makes him the kind of son Mr Tu would like to have had. That is very much in contrast to Wei who, rather than learning English in order to go to a school in America which is what his father wants of him, is far more interested in embracing the sport of fencing and staying put in China. Mrs. Tu too finds Shuo an appealing child, somebody whose presence could compensate for her having had to comply with the Chinese requirement for one child families. Consequently, when Shuo’s father dies it feels entirely convincing that Mr and Mrs Tu should come up with the idea of adopting the boy.
As time passes Shuo’s place in the family grows ever stronger so we can understand that Wei should feel that Shuo is taking his place and be resentful about it. Just how far this might go is one source of tension here, while the fact that there have been no scenes showing Shuo’s relationship with his father encourages one to consider the possibility that the boy’s history is an invented one to earn the sympathy of Mr and Mrs. Tu. If Sun Xilan is ideal as Shuo, Guo Keyu as Mrs Tu is equally adept and Zu Feng and Lin Muran are admirably cast too.
Lin and his photographer Zhang Jiahao ensure that Brief History of a Family has an atmosphere precisely judged to play on the uncertainties in the story and the music heard on the soundtrack makes a huge contribution to this too. There are, however, a few touches both in the writing and in the direction which seem contrived to hint metaphorically at what might be going on and the fact that Mr Tu is a biologist leads to the occasional use of a central circular image to suggest that the characters are being studied as though through a microscope. But, more importantly, I do feel that the story calls out for a clear-cut ending. There are certainly times when this film carries echoes of Bong Joon-ho’s 2019 masterpiece Parasite including the underlying emphasis on class differences. Early on that is neatly illustrated by a scene involving soy sauce which, without feeling forced, encapsulates the extent to which the Tu family exist in a different world from that of Shuo. But, whereas in Parasite that kind of issue remained a central feature, here it carries less weight just as the one child rule has a place in the tale told here without being made to feel a key point. The lack of any extra forcefulness in these areas leads to one looking for a strong resolution to the narrative as the essential way of providing satisfaction here. Without it Brief History of a Family stands as striking work splendidly acted and with a character of its own, but not as a film which lives up to one's hopes for it. I wish that I felt differently about its denouement but even so I suspect that the film has enough qualities to stay firmly in my mind.
Original title: Jia ting jian shi.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Zu Feng, Guo Keyu, Sun Xilun, Lin Muran, Feng Zu, Wang Ce, Wang Shi, Zhu Zhu.
Dir Lin Jianjie, Pro Ying Lou Ying, Zheng Yue and Wang Yiwen, Screenplay Lin Jianjie, Ph Zhang Jiahao, Pro Des Xu Yao, Ed Per K. Kirkegaard, Music Toke Brorson Odin, Costumes Wu Yanmei and Xu Yao.
First Light Films-Blue Finch Releasing.
100 mins. China/France/Denmark/Italy/Qatar/Japan/USA. 2024. UK Rel: 21 March 2025. Cert. 15.
