After two typically exuberant black comedies, Cao Baoping changes gear and directs a “minimalist” film which opens a window on the experience of teenagers in China, while at the same time provoking reflection on two social issues: the policy of birth control and the abuse of animals. The film opens with a long take on the expressive face of a young girl looking at herself in the mirror, tormenting herself with seemingly banal questions. We are immediately catapulted into the interior world of Li Wan, a problematic, ultra-sensitive thirteen-year old plagued with the usual teen dilemmas.
The story, told in a naturalistic style thanks in no small part to the cast, unravels in Xi’an and revolves around a typical dysfunctional modern-day Chinese family: the parents, whose main aim is money and success, have divorced and their daughter is being brought up by her paternal grandparents, who spoil her and see to her every need selflessly.
Despite the fact that she is a star pupil, especially in the subject of astrophysics, young Li Wan has a withdrawn personality. Her only real friend is her cousin – a more unscrupulous, superficial girl – with whom Li Wan begins to open her heart. In the meantime, her father has married another woman who cannot seem to establish a cordial relationship with her stepdaughter; the couple bring into the world a son. Li Wan’s father, tormented by feelings of guilt towards his daughter, dares not tell her that she now has a baby brother. In order to sweeten her up, he gives her a cocker spaniel puppy.
Li Wan, who subconsciously wants to punish her father for having abandoned her, initially refuses the dog, but within the space of a few hours, predictably falls in love with it.
She calls the dog Einstein, and the two become inseparable.
Unfortunately, shortly afterwards, the puppy gets lost during a walk with the girl’s grandfather, and Li Wan’s desperation when she hears the news takes on epic proportions. Because Einstein is not only a cute creature: for Li Wan he represents her first love and perhaps is an escape from the stagnation of her family life. Her father and grandparents are unable to control Li Wan’s desperation, which has now spun out of control; in the end, to try to make amends, they buy another puppy and try to convince the girl that Einstein has found his way back home… But how can you fool such a bright, sensitive girl who’s in love? The silly attempt to fool her leads to an explosive situation, bordering on lunacy. Everyone treats Li Wan as if she were crazy, and even her cousin, who has so far been her friend and confidant, sides with the rest of the family.
Like the recurring nightmare in China in which truth is masked by political convenience, the adults who have been subdued by life into accepting compromises try to convince Li Wan that the dog really is Einstein.
But they do not take into account the idealism and arrogance of a mind not yet corrupted by experience.
Tension mounts to breakpoint in an intense, dramatic confrontation between Li Wan and her father which, despite the violence, manages to re-establish a channel of communication between the two. But Li Wan is torn between the desire to give in to her father’s affection and her determination not be made a fool of. In the end, the girl understands that she must accept that life is not perfect, and she decides to open her heart to the new Einstein… But when her father finally finds the courage to introduce her to her brother, who is by now two years-old, the stability of the family shifts drastically, and the dog is the one who pays the price! Li Wan has to swallow a bitter pill in order to become a grown-up, but the film’s finale, an intelligent, unpredictable one, gives hope for the future of the young protagonist and her entire generation.
Maria Barbieri