Watch this: Dying to Survive is a potential game changer
Script’s ingredients: Love, business, health, corruption, sex, crime, punishment, religion, God, hell, heaven, government policy, judicial dilemma, comedy, tragedy. Scenes: Red light district, pole dance, striptease, church, hospital, multinational muck, smuggling, public protests, vandalism.
En route: Loads of swear words, profanities, stunts, thrills, jokes, pathos.
Ending: Redemption with a social message.
This ain’t some Hollywood flick — not even Bollywood masala. This is China, and Dying to Survive (I’m not a god of miracle medicine) is a Chinese movie with English subtitles. I hereby recommend it for Oscars and the rest.
Before I explain why, some basics for “dummies”:
Adapted from a true life story, the new film is trending on Chinese social media and mainstream media because of its earnest (if a bit maudlinly melodramatic) portrayal of a socially relevant, consciencestirring theme — Big Pharma vs small citizens.
First-rate screenplay, performances, direction, music … all ensure you won’t really mind some parallels to Dallas Buyers Club, Traffic and such flicks.
A renowned Chinese film analyst told me on WeChat: “Many said this movie finally washed away the shame of Chinese filmmakers. … They were constantly saying, ‘Why can’t we make (socially) relevant movies like our Korean and Indian peers?’ I have never seen a Chinese movie with such strong word-of-mouth. Some screenings ended with standing ovations.”
(The said chat happened well past midnight, when I was desperately trying to stay on top of saturation coverage of soccer, tennis and cricket.)
Dying to Survive has added significance — and not just because it shows people of emerging markets China and India (where I come from) teaming up to overcome the unethical drug pricing of some Western multinationals. A milestone in Chinese cinema, it redefines the role of film in society, in this new era of digitalization and globalization.
In supporting meaningful Korean and Indian movies of late, massive Chinese audiences have indicated their preferences and values. I’d like to imagine that the unexpurgated, searingly raw Dying to Survive reflects the courage of the State administration concerned to encourage local cinema to evolve to global standards.
This approach will create a level playing field for Chinese filmmakers in the domestic market; it can also potentially pry open the global market for local filmmakers, in the event of winning an Oscar here and a BAFTA there. Besides, Chinese audiences can feel proud that domestic cinema is second to none.
Dying to Survive shows that socially relevant features can be box office friendly; it’d be smart (and necessary) for the industry to be responsive both to audiences’ changing preferences and to foreign competition. Films like this have the potential to promote international amity among people.It’s the economy (and culture and society), stupid — not politics.
The movie dispels Western stereotypes of China, and hence is relevant in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative, opening-up, the quantity-to-quality shift and the trade war. China needs to be understood correctly by the world; and in depicting the nation as a modern, vibrant and conscientious society with a sense of humor, Dying to Survive seems to challenge attempts to portray the country as an aspiring or closet economic hegemon in the garb of a cultural titan.
Dying to Survive shows innovative honors — The Best Game Changer Award? — may be needed, as in sports. If a film breaks a redundant mold, sparks a trend, shapes the future of a film industry, influences a society’s mindset, or helps change the course of history, then it deserves recognition, whether or not its cinematic aspects measure up to the exacting standards of the awards jury.
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