Ash is Purest White (2018)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Ash is Purest White (2018) – Z. Jia

When we first meet Qiao (Tao Zhao), she is a gangster’s moll in rural Datong, China, hanging out with the “jianghu” (a sort of Chinese yakuza with a code of honour) in a mah-jong parlour. Her main man is Bin (Fan Liao), the leader of the local group who seems to be managing his affairs competently, assisting corrupt business leaders (the kind who enjoy ballroom dancing), until he is attacked in a gang war.  Soon, they are both in jail.  When she finishes her five-year sentence, things have changed. Director Zhangke Jia shows us a developing China (beginning in 2001 and ending in 2017), including the building of the Three Gorges Dam. (By the end, everyone is on their smartphones). At the same time, he charts the personal relationship between Qiao and Bin, which sees the power dynamic between the two subtly shift. Qiao is a strong female character who is mistreated but never gives up.  She remains loyal and supportive to Bin, if stony and aggrieved, but such traits may not allow women to retain the power they gain over men. Indeed, Jia’s main focus here seems to be about the plight of women in a world dominated by men (in which they can have power only by association or temporarily). But in the end, he gives us an interpersonal (if not sociological) tragedy, and a mesmerizing one with lots of wry anecdotes and some immense Chinese vistas thrown up on the big screen. Definitely worth a look.