Ode to the Spring review – Chinese exploration of pandemic ground zero in Wuhan

Telling five Covid-related stories, this platitudinous urban-interconnection drama offers lectures on virtue and self-sacrifice and feels like state propagandaThis interminable anthology film about the pandemic feels like being force-fed lectures on altruism, family responsibility, self-sacrifice and neighbourly forbearance by the Chinese government (which produced it). Set almost entirely in Wuhan – Covid ground zero – it’s handsomely photographed, making the emptied-out city look drowned and dystopian. But its five mawkish segments contain hardly any worthwhile drama and the whole comes over as more of a public information film than anything else.First up in its parade of paragons is Shanghai banker Nanfeng (Fang Yin), who has come to Wuhan to propose to ex-girlfriend Xiaoyu (Dongyu Zhou). But she is in isolation in hospital, so he promises to look after her mother who is in intensive care across the city. In the second story, another government gold star goes to two migrant deliverymen who help a child ferry her sick grandma to hospital. Meanwhile, government official Wang (Jingchun Wang) has to brush up on his diplomacy when tower-block dweller Xiaomai (The Wandering Earth ’s Jingmai Zhao) irks the neighbours with her piano-playing. Back on the wards, two exhausted medical staff struggle to hold their family together as they try to save a colleague’s life. And, across town, apartment-bound youngster Le Le (Hangcheng Zhang) is bouncing off the walls, possibly due...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Film Drama films World cinema China Coronavirus Asia Pacific Culture Infectious diseases Medical research Microbiology Science World news Source Type: news