In the Chinese drama Angels Wear White, screening this week at Gene Siskel Film Center, writer-director Vivian Qu addresses the issue of corruption in contemporary Chinese society. The subject may be familiar to anyone who’s kept up with Chinese cinema over the past two decades, but Qu’s approach is somewhat novel in that she considers the issue from a female perspective. Angels follows the police investigation of a government official suspected of having sexually assaulted two 12-year-old girls at a seaside motel in the western city of Binhai; rather than focus on the official, Liu (who barely appears), Qu looks at the assault victims as well as the female employees at the motel, who become witnesses in the investigation. All the principal characters are exploited over the course of the film, and their struggles show how women are particularly vulnerable to abuse in modern-day China.
Shooting largely with a handheld camera, Qu generates a jittery energy that makes the characters’ stress palpable. This feeling escalates as the investigation closes in around the witnesses, forcing them to compromise their morals to protect themselves. In the movie’s second half Mia tries to blackmail Liu by threatening to give her cell-phone video to the police. She intends to use the payment to buy a state ID card on the black market, which would enable her to seek better employment in Binhai. Her actions mirror those of Xin’s parents, who also try to exploit Liu’s guilt for financial gain. These developments conjure up an atmosphere of pervasive desperation, which Qu presents as the inevitable result of a corrupt culture. v
Directed by Vivian Qu. 107 min.
