Inspired by the novella entitled Ten Thousand Arrows Pierce the Heart by the writer Fang Fang, the film is set in Wuhan, in the deep heart of China, one summer in the mid-90s. It tells the tale of a family like any other facing difficulties, making sacrifices and which is riddled with misunderstandings. In Feng Shui we penetrate the heart of the Ma family to examine the dynamics, the contradictions, the complexities. From the very start, the tension in the family is palpable. We meet them as they prepare to move into an apartment assigned to Ma Xuewu by the factory where he works as a line manager. The increasingly strained relationship is apparent from the opening lines. His wife, Li Baoli’s aggressive attitude embarrasses Ma Xuewu, even in front of strangers. It appears to be the latest of many such scenes.
The move into a new, spacious and comfortable apartment, which for Li Baoli is a positive result of all their efforts, becomes the trigger for a series of dramatic events that rain down on the family, starting with the separation of the couple. The husband’s request for a divorce is an arrow as painful as it is bewildering. Li Baoli confides in her childhood friend Xiaojing, who is also going through a crisis period with her husband Liu Dongfeng. Li Baoli’s attempts to reconcile with Ma Xuewu go askew when she tries to involve their eight year-old son, Ma Wenzhao, known as Xiaobao, in their marital difficulties. The request for a divorce and the nights spent out of the house with the excuse of overtime at work create a strong suspicion that her husband is cheating on her, another arrow in the heart of Li Baoli, who cannot reconcile herself to the thought of losing him. Following her husband when he gets off work, her suspicions are confirmed before her very eyes when Ma Xuewu, in the company of a female work colleague, Zhou Fen, enter the sort of motel where rooms are paid for by the hour. The truth destroys Li Baoli. Deeply hurt and humiliated, she anonymously phones the police to report prostitution activity taking place in the motel. The police intervene. Li Baoli’s pain does not subside but she tries to get her family back on track under the illusion that everything will be as it once was. But another occasion presents itself to humiliate her husband. Her aggression towards Ma Xuewu shows itself with increasing frequency. Not even Xiao Jing manages to make her reflect on the disastrous consequences of her temper. Her mother-in-law, who announces she is staying indefinitely, only fans the flames, and the tension within the family becomes untenable; gloom reigns supreme. With this state of affairs, Ma Xuewu goes to find Zhou Fen to apologise and demonstrate what she means to him, but the woman seems indifferent in his attentions. The very same day, he receives his marching orders from his workplace, due to the embarrassment caused to the factory by him having been caught in flagrante by the police with another woman. The shock for Ma Xuewu is irreversible. The news of his suicide reaches Li Baoli in the shop where she works, in the wholesale market of Han Zheng Jie. In the note Ma Xuewu left for his family, there was not a word for Li Baoli. The suicide provokes terrible, inconsolable grief within her, while her son nurses a pitiless grudge against his mother. Xiaojing tries to tell her that all the misunderstandings, troubles and pain the family is going through could be explained by the position of the new apartment they recently moved into.
According to feng shui, the apartment has all the characteristics to cause unhappiness within a family, as dictated by the saying “Ten thousand arrows pierce the heart”. But for Li Baoli, the only major worry is the upkeep of her family, her son and mother-in-law.
Ten years later, Li Baoli no longer works at the shop but as a sedan porter at the market. Sacrifice, hardship and an insufferable pain caused by a son who has distanced himself from her; these are all the constants in her life. Jianjian, who is back hanging round the market after his release from prison, begins to lavish attention on her insistently, despite Li Baoli’s resistance. In all those years, she has allowed herself no distraction, no consolation. Despite all her apprehensions about her son, making sure he lacks for nothing and that he dedicates himself to his studies and, therefore, a promising future, another arrow is all set to pierce her heart when, having passed his exams with top grades, Xiaobao reveals all his animosity and hate towards her by throwing her out of the house. Li Baoli relives the same coldness her husband bestowed upon her exactly ten years earlier. Hurt and humiliated, once again misunderstood, she cannot find inner peace. However, a night spent wandering the city gives her the strength and reason to continue, as a mother, to sacrifice herself for the good of her son.
The tension which reigns in the family is a constant throughout the film, from the start to the very end. The characters are all misunderstood, unable to find a common language to communicate their emotions and feelings to those most dear to them. The pain felt by Li Baoli, Ma Xuewu, the son and the grandmother finds no outlet, thereby forcing the characters to simply distance themselves from the others, as if time allowed no one to mature or to mitigate that pain.
Wang Jing explores the complexities of the human soul, in all its misunderstandings and equivocations of each of the characters. The relationships between couples, between generations, amongst the family are examined under a microscope, providing the director with enough material to reflect on traditions and on society.
Maria Ruggieri