THE BEST IS YET TO COME
Starring: Bai Ke, Zhang Songwen
Director: Wang Jing
Category: I (Mandarin)
4/5 stars
Films championing journalistic integrity and the pursuit of truth have been a mainstay in Hollywood since its earliest days, with recent hits such as Spotlight, The Post and She Said underscoring their continued popularity and dramatic heft.
Such films are understandably more scarce on the mainland, where the media remains under strict government scrutiny. But growing demand among film-goers for more grounded, fact-based stories has opened the door to inspirational human interest stories, such as the one chronicled in The Best Is Yet to Come, Wang Jing’s directorial debut.
The film premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in 2020, and is inspired by the true story of journalist Han Fudong, who exposed nationwide discrimination against an estimated 120 million people living with hepatitis B on the mainland.
Many of those with the disease were asymptomatic, barring them from employment and education opportunities across the country – which ultimately led to government reform.
Bai Ke plays Han Dong, a struggling 26-year-old who, like so many in the early 2000s, has left his steady factory job and moved to Beijing in the hopes of becoming a journalist.
Despite penning several keenly observed and well-written articles on online message boards, he has been rejected from esteemed publications owing to his lack of formal education. That is until Jingcheng Times writer Huang Jiang (Zhang Songwen) agrees to take him on as an unpaid intern.
While The Best Is Yet to Come is Wang’s first film, the Beijing Film Academy graduate cut his teeth serving as assistant director on many films from influential auteur Jia Zhangke, who produced this film. Like his mentor, Wang’s effort retains a gritty documentary feel that lends the story an extra layer of front-line authenticity.
Unfolding in the wake of Sars, when China was in a state of rapid economic growth – personified by the accomplishments of Yang Liwei, China’s first man in space – Han’s discoveries stand in marked contrast to this perceived age of ambition and opportunity.
The real Han Fudong appears briefly on screen as a senior reporter.
Frustratingly, the film crescendos to a clumsily executed and overly sanctimonious climax that sits painfully at odds with the measured and enthralling drama that comes before it. For the most part, however, Wang has delivered a stirring and assured debut.
James Marsh
The Best Is Yet to Come opens in cinemas today