, directed by Jessica Kingdon to be premiered at Tribeca Film Festival, soon is another attempt...){kind=link}
How much we know of China and how much cinema can give us a less biased perspective of this evolving society. Ascension (2021-94 minutes), directed by Jessica Kingdon to be premiered at Tribeca Film Festival, soon is another attempt to provide that enriched lens. Kingdon’s fascination with China and documentary-style are not new as her portrayal and narratives in Routine Island and Commodity City. However, the film may remind viewers of Joon-ho’s Parasite(2019), which showed the class division, level of exploitation, and modern Chinese subjectivity.
The film has a simple episodic structure in three parts. Throughout the film, viewers get acclimated to see the change of lifestyles, aspirations, and concerns from the lower to the upper class. Formally, the pace is slow, the camera primarily static but versatile, and the music suspenseful. This aspect may bother some viewers who want to see less repetition and more of the contrasts and novelties of China and its 1.398 billion-strong population. In fact, for those who have been to China recently and understand the references, the film’s longevity is not baffling and shows more complexity than careless repeats. The subjects and individual scenes are craftily selected. From the sex doll shop to the butler training program, the documentary reveals and uncovers the faces of the many whose stories could have never been told. The scenes, sequences, and flow could awaken the sense of Chinese development, state of individual dehumanization, and uneasy coexistence of the contrasts.
The film is not short of memorable scenes. Some tease the audience to think more profoundly, and some could be more to show the state of respective class and their zeitgeist. The early dystopian first part of the film can be overwhelming to watch. It seems that workers are actual robots that have lost all senses and only do and obey what they are supposed to do. They could make 16 Yuan per hour separating the garbage or holing a pant while watching their favourite show. The scenes are absurd and realistic at the same time. Kingdon’s research and knowledge of the Chinese working class are commanding. The second and last parts delve into the middle and upper class. The switch is into sales, image, appearance, brand, and fan economy. As viewers, we are all aware of global trends which China is a huge part. However, the portrayal is once again absurdist. It shows the level at which Maoist China has not only turned into the factory and supply chain of the world, but it is also a place that only business and money speak. In there, you can enjoy a luxury hotel, butler service, magnificent water park, and golfing experience only if you have the means and connections. In addition, womanhood and business cards become synonymous, and absurdly they would be ready to trade their characters to stay popular and brandy. This modern image of China is not fake and fabricated. Chinese working class feeds the ultrarich. Their saving and the middle class is part of the development engine but with a different mentality and materialist mindset than ones that existed only four decades ago. Kingdon’s camera may have segmented the film but brings closure to these growing gaps at the end. She does so by juxtaposing them all into one, where the model with sexy legs and her professional photographers both remain ignorant of the lone weed cutter who has to take care of unwanted in the dreamland of the ultra rich.
Ascension has many other unique scenes. The opening and ending scenes stick to viewers’ minds for portraying the risks and haziness of the situation. Kingdon leaves the judgment to those who watch the film to decide if the Chinese dream is getting realized, is China becoming a fair society with a decent wealth redistribution scheme. The film’s title is inspired by a poem from a family member of Kingdon’s who indeed loved his country and despised its crude realism. Nevertheless, he also could have predicted that rapid changes in the collective national mindset and the emergence of homo-economicus in China cannot go problem-free-“Ascend and look to my heart only to find that everywhere is already razed.”
Grade: B+