A character bursts out: “always the same shit”, comments one of the two titular characters in Vivian Qu’s muddled family drama. That scene might well be inspired by real events on set. The Chinese director’s third feature (after Trap Street in 2013 and Angels Wear White in 2017) is filled to the brim with the absurdly melodramatic, hilariously unrealistic dialogue that her young protagonist Fang Di (Wen Qi) has to recite for a screen audition. Fang Di storms out mid-scene because she considers the material trashy. She has been hired as a stunt double, in a historical fantasy blockbuster. This physically demanding work sees her being lifted and swung on wires. It’s an elective metaphor for the tightrope walk her life has become.
Soon the headstrong stunt woman finds herself in real danger as her troubled past catches up with her. This happens in a very literal sense: Fang Di’s younger cousin Tian Tian (Liu Haocun) locates her. Their unhappy childhood in the sewing factory of Fang Di’s mother is revealed in flashbacks. These suggest a tight bond between the girls. They grew up like sisters, a situation the director mentioned as a common social effect of China’s one-child-policy. Fang Di hides her emotions underneath her tough shell. But most of these feelings remain obscure. The director seems to have forgotten that there could be more to her hero than protecting others.
Tian Tian gets onto the film studio set thanks to several unlikely coincidences and also the help of delivery driver Ming (Zhang Youhao). Ming takes care of the confused girl for no reason. He is one of numerous stock characters. Qu uses them in order to bridge the gaping holes in her script, provide some broad comedy, and also chase her protagonists around. At best these types are merely soulless. At worst they are outright offensive. The most drastic example of this is Tian Tian’s manipulative father (Zhou You). His blank gaze, shuffling walk and lack of redeemable qualities make him a crude caricature of a drug addict.
He is the cause of everyone’s misery and money issues, above all his daughter’s. She hammers this bigoted message home by crying “My father is trash and so am I!”. Qu adds some vicious drug dealers to the plot. They imprison Tian Tian for not being able to pay off her father’s debts and inject her with heroine (because that’s what evil dealers do, right? Nancy Reagan would be proud). And these are merely the first few scenes of a messy plot that could only be saved by embracing its own trashiness.
Too many genres and themes are mixed into the confusing plot: gangster, thriller, family, tragedy, female buddy, fantasy, and even a touch of comedy (around three stooges and a hapless hotpot joint owner). Qu does not explore the full potential of her own ideas. Not even the relationship of Tian Tian and Fang Di, which is reduced to clammy childhood memories. Of all characters Fang Di is the most underdeveloped. She’s hurled through the air for action scenes, but one never learns about her motives. This lack of depth is especially frustrating because Wen worked with Qu in Angels Wear White delivers, and her performance is the film’s most solid. Anyway, she couldn’t salvage an entire film on her own.
Girls on Wire premiered in the Official Competition of the 75th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival, when this piece was originally written. Also showing in Karlovy Vary.
