“The cloud from my hometown is floating above me.”
What’s poetry? For some it’s merely a matter of kind, which helps the content material or the theme the poet addresses. On the identical time, sticking purely to the shape is a bit short-sighted as – like with all literature – it could remodel individuals, locations and even time, in search of one thing stunning, noteworthy or insightful, which then can remodel the reader as he/she now has a brand new perspective on the world. Whereas there’s this notion that poetry must be about magnificence and kind, this definition doesn’t totally recognize what poets can do, if they’ve the required abilities. In a approach, this considerably banal description could function a strong basis when approaching Guo Zhenming‘s documentary “Tedious Days and Nights”, a narrative of a poet coming again to his hometown, solely to search out it in a state of decay, mirroring his personal bodily situation.
Because the function begins, we’re already in the midst of the poet Zeng Dekuang assessing the harm executed to his residence. Dwelling in a tiny flat with a good friend of his (?), he has grown accustomed to a routine of visiting a barber store to strike a dialog, going into native bars and getting hammered, and finally going to among the prostitutes. In between, he finds the time to go to among the locations which had been as soon as vital in his childhood and youth, similar to a run-down theatre the place he seemingly re-enacts reveals and festivities and even recites some songs celebrating the efforts of Mao’s Get together.
Little or no occurs throughout 110 minutes of working time, and you’ll be simply tempted to go away the cinema throughout a screening of Zhenming’s function greater than as soon as. Other than the aforementioned routine, Dekuang and the individuals he meets day-to-day are a reasonably illustrious collage of misfits, degenerates, drunks and weirdos, with him being maybe the star of the present. Strolling slowly via his house and infrequently displaying his personal elements into the digital camera, we will see him (and his pals) typically debase themselves on account of their drunkenness. There are some moments, that are fairly disgusting and thus difficult to have a look at, as any sense of dignity is gone, when for instance he efficiently tries to burn his pubic hair utilizing a small lighter, with one in every of his pals eagerly watching.
You can’t assist however discover a way of voyeurism in these moments, particularly because the digital camera appears to share some form of enjoyment of displaying you these sides of filth and absurdist debasement. On the identical time, there’s one other layer to the visuals and the forged of misfits, which certainly finds factors of magnificence, peace and comedy on this decrepit panorama. The poet, very similar to the digital camera, appears to be on the lookout for a promised future, an echo from the previous voiced by Mao and different social gathering officers, an integral a part of the songs Dekuang recites within the empty theatre. Identical to the protagonists of Samuel Beckett’s well-known play, they’re ready for the arrival of one thing, in the meantime attempting to kill time as finest as they’ll and delving an increasing number of into the abyss of absurdity. Because the poet’s hometown resembles an industrial break, there are the reminders of the previous, absurd guarantees of a greater future, which by no means got here, however which some individuals nonetheless appear to await. It’s an acrid depiction of misplaced hope in addition to a poetic view on the connection of the previous and the current, whose moments of magnificence derive from the power of the phrases and a sure notion of resistance.
In the long run, “Tedious Days and Nights” is a documentary which is actually not for everybody given its pictures. On the identical time, Guo Zhenming manages to inform the story of a reconnection with the previous, the guarantees as soon as voiced by political leaders and a dire look at the moment.
