60°International Berlin Film Festival by Rita Di Santo

For its sixtieth anniversary the International Berlin Film Festival opens with a Chinese movie and closes with a Japanese film marking clearly its cinematic geopolitical orientation.

The opening movie “Apart Together” is a bright and funny tale of a Chinese Civil War veteran from Taiwan who meets his childhood sweetheart again in Shangai. Director Wang Quan’an gives another gawk into the Chinese history, looking at the modern hotchpotch that is the People’s Republic of China on the Chinese mainland and the island republic of Taiwan (which China still considers a breakaway province).

The film is placed over fifty years after the proclamation of the People’s Republic of China on the Chinese mainland and the founding of the island Republic of Taiwan. For the first time a group of ex-soldiers of the Taiwanese People’s Party have the permission to go back to China and be reunited with family members in Shangai. Lui Yansheng is one of those soldiers who goes back to Shanghai to meet Qiao Yu’e and their son, who was born after Lui took flight. After fifty years, many thinks have changed. Qiao Yu’e has a family with an officer in the People’s Liberation Army: two daughters and grandchildren. Lui Yansheng arrival is joyfully welcomed by all the family members and by the local community. In the streets, the local band plays and a generous meal is served. In Shangai, Lui is considered a special guest by all. However, the jolly atmosphere changes when the real purpose for Lui’s visit becomes known. Qiao Yu’e is asked choose:a busy plot, where all the family members find space to expresses their different personalities or a impersonalized life with the trappimgs of modern Taiwan with a sense of community largely void.
The director uses photography to capture the atmosphere of the town ringed by old buildings, small streets with a lousy community life. Additionaly Quan’an indicates the passing of time by the move of Qiao Yu’e’s family into a modern building with cold interiors where the life of the community has vanished after just one year. Sentimentality and sanctimony about traditional ways are absent. This underpins the movie with a blunt reality. Notwithstanding, the film has plenty of romance and witty dialogue to carry it throught this exploration.