Dearest (亲爱的) was released in 2014, directed by Peter Chan (陈可辛). The film is a tragic melodramatic story about abduction of children in China nowadays and it explored how those crimes could affect both families. It challenged the ethics for child trafficking, where everyone is victim. The story happened in a divorced family, Tian Wenjun( 黄渤), Lu Xiaojuan(郝蕾) and their dearest son, Tian Peng. It set in the southern metropolitan city Shen Zhen, where most citizens are immigrants from other part of China. One day their beloved son was missing, and it became a nightmare for the family even though they were desperately using all the possible ways to find their son. However, the story did not end when they finally found their son after many years, the conflict between the foster parents and the real parents became the central drama challenging audience's nerves.
For many years, child trafficking is a social problem that cannot be underestimated in China, especially in the rural areas outside the protection of laws. On one hand, the One Child Policy in China had make Chinese families put a lot of values on their children; on the other hand, the less fortunate families are desperately hoping for a child to carry the family line. Whereas the fact is, the standard of legal adoption in China is very strict and complicated, especially for the people who have less education, for the reason that they would be seen as not qualified for adopting children. Hence some people would go for the illegal way to get what they want. According to the research done by World Health Organization, about 10 percent of women(in US) have difficulty getting pregnant or staying pregnant, and in the area with more pollutions, the percentage will go up, and media used this American reference to estimate the similar situation in China, and came to the conclusion that in China, over a million family have the needs to adopt children. With demand and supply and lack of government intervention, it seems that there would always be a black market for child trafficking in China. “Dearest” was made based on this kind of social background, in this film, Li Hongqin’s family couldn't get offspring and her husband had to steal the children from Tian Wenjun’s family in ShenZhen far away from their home to carry out the family line. Li Hongqin’s family and Tian Wenjun’s family, represent the polarized society in China, one representing rural family, the other one representing urban family, and they both fought over each other for their beloved one.
Peter Chan is a respectable Hong Kong director, he is the first director who had won Hong Kong Film Award(金像奖), Golden Hourse Award（金马奖）, Gold Rooster Award(金鸡奖）,all three Chinese film awards. “Dearest” is his fifth movie made in mainland and this film made a huge difference from what he did previously. Even himself admitted that this film was his most satisfied film and it was made to be his most “detailed” and “extreme” film ever. He was inspired by a documentary about child trafficking, which actually happened in ShenZhen, and he was deeply touched by the real story and the screenwriter felt it was their social responsibility to make it into a film. Considering it was based on true story, the film was made in a very realistic way to reflect the social problem, and criticizing the tragic reality. The overall visual colors of this film looks dark and grey to match the depressing mood; The structure of this film can be divided into two parts, the first half part is about how Tian Wenjun family went out and search for their missing son; the second part is about what happened after they have found that missing child, and this plot twist brought the story into a next level, as the audience realized that after conquering many obstacles to find the missing child wasn't the end of this story, and the misery still continued. After a few years the young child had accepted his new home and new mother, the connection of the child and the illegal parents had been nurtured, it would be very painful to cut off the link, therefore, left a difficult ethical choice for the audience.
This film portrayed Chinese society in a realistic way, and inevitably it has to touch the government, the police and the court, which are the sensitive areas that might trigger anger from the authority. Whereas this film was successfully released in public and did stirred a lot of debates online. The authorities were indeed filmed in a slightly negative way, for example, the police officers were doing their duties, who strictly followed the rules and procedures, but eventually missed the best time to find the missing boy. Another scene that impressed me is the court scene in the later part of the story, when the lawyer Gao Xia(佟大为) tried to convince the judge that Li Hongqin has the ability to adopt her child. I couldn't forget the eye from that judge, he looks like a wise old man who can stand for justice, however, one case after another, he just got tired and lost his patience, and the people waiting outside were still arguing loudly. The performance of that old judge scored, and I could feel from his eyes, that the struggles not only from ordinary people, but also from the legal system, and even the most sophisticated man could lost his patience, and had to endure the high pressure to make a tough choice.
Among all the characters, there are two characters share the same roles, one is Lu Xiaojuan, a divorced wife who married to a rich husband, another one is Li Hongqin, a woman from countryside who think she could not get pregnant. Both of them played mother’s roles, whether was the foster mother or the real mother, and they both showed strong maternal love for the son, Tian Peng. These two characters lead me into a dilemma, as they both made unforgivable mistakes, Lu Xiaojuan lost her child, and Li Hongqin acquired the boy illegally from her husband who stove from Lu Xiaojuan. And for me, the judgment of Li Hongqin was more negative at the beginning as she took the boy who should not belong to her, however, my mind was slowly changed and felt sympathetic towards her at the end of the film.
As woman from countryside, she represents the weakest class to authority, however, she still desperately fought against her fate just to have a look for her children. All the sacrifice she made had touched me, and that desperation was suffocating, and the separation of love brought an emotional turbulence inside of me.
Another character that left a great impression was the lawyer, Gao Xia. Director characterized this role in a believable and realistic way. When he showed up, he was just a sneaky young lad who liked to take advantage, and been kicked out from his office. He was unwilling to help Li Hongqin initially, and after seeing what she had been through, his conscience came back and decided to help her, and I can see the courage and determination that he wanted to bring justice for her. When the story developed further, and the audience could see his backstory, he had a sick mother who always lost temper, but he still had the patience to feed his mother. It glorified this character and make his actions more understandable.
For me, this film touched my heart deeply and I left a few tears when I was watching it. It shows a very different perspective of modern Chinese society, where there is a mixer of rich and poor, good and bad people, and most of the characters didn't have the ability to make a change for their life, even the most richest character couldn't find his own son. Considering the One Child Policy in China, a child for every family is a blessing, and when their beloved son was missing, and sarcastically the police couldn't provide help, they did not surrender their fate and decided to search for their son with all their heart. This film doesn't directly provide any solutions for child trafficking in China, but I think it serves its purpose of provoking the public views and media to pay more attention to this small groups in the society who really need some helps; this film also passed the permission from the authority, which I hope the authority would have self reflection and make more efforts to enforce the laws and justice.
