“Border” is, could we say, a participatory film. The basic plot is not that difficult to pick up but there are gaps where the viewer must make decisions what is transpiring and in what direction the film is heading towards. One could enjoy the participatory ride or suffer from annoyance and frustration. Not a mass market film.
The setting of the film is a drab coal mining town on the Chinese Mongolian border. It is a bleak, barren, grimy and decaying town. The film’s characters are not much different than the town they inhabit almost completely devoid of emotions. Even during a murder both murderer and victim are robotic without fear or anger.
The impression conveyed is both the town and the souls inhabiting it are soulless.
There is minimal dialogue and where you encounter it too has no emotion.
Luo Jia (Zheyan Li) is a young coal miner sharing a flat with an older security guard at the mine. It could be there is a sexual relationship between the two but it is more boredom than passion.
Su Qing (Feng Qi) is a sex worker and she can often be seen in the street wearing bright coloured clothing. An old fashioned “street walker” with a pimp-accountant.
Jia gradually enters a relationship with Qing but again there is no passion. Jia proposes in a most nonchalant way with Qi responding, “Can you afford to keep me?” Early in the film we hear her say on her phone, “Mommy is working”. Qi has dependents.
The mine closes and all the miners are unemployed and try as he may Jia is unsuccessful in finding employment.
Jia has a pistol and he approaches a car parked on an empty rooftop parking lot with a man and a young boy in it. Classic abstract arty moment with a spinning top with the boy watching it. Has Jia committed a murder? Yes, one of the many abstract moments in the film.
Why are the film’s characters soulless? Something you might wish to consider.
The film’s conclusion is extremely abstract with Qi’s young boy crawling on the dusty ground of a farm then standing up. Almost as if it’s the child being symbolic of that bone flipping in the air in “2001 Space Odyssey”. See what I mean the “participatory film genre?”. The thrill of the guess!
Not sufficient emotional content to classify the film as “neo noir”.
A Hong Kong/South Korea/USA production.
The film recently screened at the San Sebastian Film Festival.
RKS Film Rating 65/100.
