Good Cats

Hao mao

(China, 2008, 103 mins)

HDV

North American Premiere

Selected Filmography:  

PROD: Peng Shan
SCR: Ying Liang, Peng Shan
CAM: Li Rongsheng, Ying Liang
ED: Ying Liang
MUS: Zhang Xiao, Lamb’s Funeral
Cast: Luo Liang, Peng Deming, Liu Xiaopei, Wang Qian, Zhu Qing, Lin Min

Luo Liang is a young man on the go. Hustling, like many urban Chinese men his age, to find a springboard to a comfortable future in a rampaging, semi-corrupt Chinese urban economy, he has landed as a chauffeur to a property developer-cum-gangster. Ying Liang's Sichuan-set drama shows just what Luo Liang has to do in order to get ahead in a society with no rules, other than the injunction to get really rich, really fast.

The "cat" in the title comes from former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's dictum that the colour of a cat doesn't matter, as long as it catches mice. Ying Liang's film sharply satirizes upholding "any means possible" as the guiding philosophy of a new society. After Luo's employer Boss Peng's attempts at buying out a village are stalled by an even more brazen village mayor's goons, Peng's methods shift, and the demands on young Luo become more extreme. At the same time, Luo is pressured by his more upwardly mobile in-laws and by his former mentor, now sliding towards bankruptcy and depression.

Ying Liang and his co-writer and producer Peng Shan this time adapt their ultra-low budget video toolbox to suit a more ambitiously expansive range. Their one startling innovation, a rock band as occasional onscreen Greek chorus, lifts the film from black comedy to something near sublime.

-- Shelly Kraicer

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