A brave attempt to make an existential allegory with no apparent point in mind, BEFORE BORN is promising but baffling.
The film begins crisply enough as a man with a briefcase (Huang Guangliang, AKA Tommy Wong Kwong-leung, veteran supporting player in Hong Kong films like Benny Chan's A Moment of Romance and Ringo Lam's Prison on Fire) barges into a seaside hotel looking for Li Chianggao, the manager of a travel agency. Briefcase Man unsuccessfully attempts to bribe a startled woman in a nightgown returning to Li Chianggao's room, and gets no further at the travel agency.
He encounters a woman who is also looking for Li Chianggao. She decides to camp on the beach in a tent, and the two eventually hook up for a series of time-wasting activities, waiting for the return of the mysterious manager. Briefcase Man takes photos of people and places. The two cross paths with Nightgown Woman and we learn a little bit more about Tent Woman. Briefcase Man has an epiphany, gives up his search, and disappears.
Briefcase Man's replacement is younger but just as single-minded initially. Young Briefcase Man retraces the steps of his predecesor and encounters the same women. Many of the same scenes are reenacted, but with roles reversed.
According to IMDB, this is the third film that Zhang Ming has directed over the past 10 years. To a certain extent, he knows what he's doing as a director. A number of sequences are beautifully composed. The pace attempts to be langorous. The actors are restrained. The seaside setting, especially a sequence in a harbor filled with small boats, is refreshing.
Yet the picture is dramatically inert and has no clear direction in mind. We have dualities and symbolism without adding up to anything. The festival catalogue makes a daring comparison to Antonioni, but surely this is the Antonioni of Eros rather than L'Avventura, all style with no substance.
Festival Atmosphere: Sedate, very respectful. Perhaps 60% of the small auditorium in the Italian Cultural Institute was filled, a very nice turn-out for a Friday afternoon screening of a film by an unknown director.
BEFORE BORN also played at the Berlin and Hong Kong festivals. This is its US Premiere. It will play again tonight at 7:30 pm.