Touching tale is a real eye-opener

Director Bai Zhiqiang has long been capturing the essence of his home province Shaanxi, especially the northern regions known for being part of the Loess Plateau, the highlands in north-central China marked by yellowish soil and eroded mountains.

For years, he roamed the area and worked on documentary projects, but one fateful overnight stay at a rural primary school during one of his field trips proved to be a turning point.

In a conversation with the school's headmaster, Bai realized that almost all of the school's 160 students were "left-behind children", whose parents had left the nearby villages to find work in the cities. Some of them only had a single parent or were orphaned.

"One of the children I met once had tried to run away to the city in search of his father. He wished that he could sit on his father's shoulders and watch fireworks together. This story inspired me to make a film that brings attention to the plight of China's 'left-behind children'," Bai says.

For this film, Bai thought his usual documentary approach would be unsuitable for this subject, as he was concerned that the authentic footage might cause harm to the children.

After five years of filmmaking, Bai's first narrative film, Like Father and Son, hosted its premiere in Beijing on Feb 4 and is due to hit cinemas nationwide on Feb 25.

Set in northern Shaanxi in the 2000s, the film tells the story of truck driver Gou Ren and a "left-behind" child Mao Dou, whose lives cross paths when Gou Ren passes through Mao Dou's village and Mao Dou sneaks aboard his truck, hoping to hitch a ride to find his father.

After a sequence of unintended occurrences, the two set out on a journey to locate Mao Dou's father, searching numerous construction sites as Gou Ren gradually takes on the role of a father figure.

With its comedic yet heartwarming storyline, the film aims to draw attention to the plight faced by migrant workers and the children they leave behind in rural areas.

"The film's absolute authenticity is one of its strongest appeals," Bai says. To bring a sense of realism to the production, he chose to match a cast of novice actors with the characters.

"I thought, if I couldn't find a suitable child for the role, it must be that my script has not embodied realism perfectly," Bai adds.

The young actor that plays Mao Dou, Bai Zeze, was selected from a local primary school, and Hui Wangjun, performing as Gou Ren, was a taxi driver prior to participating in the film.

The two actors, Bai Zhiqiang and producer Tian Jiaoping shared their experiences and thoughts during a Q&A session after the premiere screening.

"I felt slightly befuddled and unsure of myself after I was told I got the part," Hui explains.

"The director encouraged me to believe the story was entirely true and see myself as the protagonist. So I continued driving my taxi, with my hair unkempt and beard untrimmed."

His disheveled look seemed to persuade some of his riders. One particularly intimidated passenger quickly disembarked without bothering to wait for his change.

A five-minute documentary recounting behind-the-scenes stories was also screened at the premiere, which shed light on some of the difficulties the crew faced while making the film.

Both the director and the producer say that, while insufficient funding made the filmmaking process difficult, the crew remained cheerful and determined.

"Although we didn't have enough money and there were too many problems, I felt that the time we spent together was filled with joy. We always found solutions and constantly lifted each other's spirits," Tian says.

Tian shared several anecdotes from the production. For instance, when preparing to shoot the fireworks scene in the film, the crew could only purchase a limited number of fireworks. As it happened to be around Spring Festival, the crew requested that the villagers hold back on setting off their own fireworks until the scene was ready to be filmed.

On another occasion, the crew couldn't even afford petrol for their vehicles. Hui had to borrow 30,000 yuan ($4,400) from his cousin, so that the filming could continue.

"We are not trying to incite sympathy. The hardships we encountered are not important. What matters is our perseverance in expressing what we wanted to convey," Bai Zhiqiang says.

The filming process involved 12 revisions of his screenplay, and he was assisted by veteran scriptwriter Lu Wei, who Bai Zhiqiang met during a previous documentary shoot. Lu later served as the film's supervisor and Bai Zhiqiang's scriptwriting mentor.

It was not until he completed the third version of his screenplay that Bai Zhiqiang was confident enough to show it to Lu, and the feedback he received said that, "the characters are believable, the story is rooted in real life, and the film has potential".That reassured him to move forward with the project.

"Some people have said that I like to film 'marginal people'. I was quite stunned when I first heard this, because these ordinary people comprise the majority of China's population, yet do not get a lot of representation on the big screen," Bai Zhiqiang says.

"Since I have access to film as a medium, 'this machine with voices', I should speak for these ordinary people and tell their stories. The ordinary people are not marginal, but the majority."

The film has appeared at multiple film festivals, including FIRST International Film Festival, Beijing International Film Festival, and Silk Road International Film Festival. It was nominated for the 23rd Shanghai International Film Festival's "Asian new talent" award and named as one of the top 10 new Chinese-language films at the 6th Cinephile Prize, held online in 2021.

The film is now available for preview in around 100 Chinese cities. The crew is also going to visit 20 major cities in China, meeting with audience members, sharing their stories and answering their questions.

"It is rare to see such nuanced down-to-earth details in a film, such as the dirt under the protagonist's fingernails and the glistening of a child's running nose in winter. Only those with similar life experiences will pay attention to these details. This is what I call the texture of a film," says Shi Chuan, professor of the Shanghai Theatre Academy.