Transcendent

Zhang Linzi’s directing debut is based on the novel The Mirror Project by Xiao Dun, published in 2016. The underlying theme of the film is existentialism: destiny, desires, freedom of choice. The narrative vehicle to tackle these issues is the encounter-clash between humans and so-called “transcendent” replicas which scientifically make up “the epitome of the human condition,” are models of genetic perfection, but being artificial and programmed, they are implicitly lacking in the characteristics which define human nature. In the film, we also get to glimpse an eschatological message – the replicas are a metaphor for the human condition, programmed by man who, in turn, is conditioned by forces greater than himself.

The story is divided into three episodes, which converge in the end, despite being set in different eras, the successive “generations” of the replicas. With technological progress, the transcendents become increasingly sophisticated and complex beings: the first generation has an expiry date of twenty-five years, and unclear sexual traits; the second live for longer and have a more defined sexual identity, while the third are hermaphrodites. The three episodes are centred on three individuals from the different generations, all with their different abilities and stories, with one defining characteristic which makes them stand out from other replicas: they rebel against the technology that created them, they wish to be the masters of their own destiny and decide the moment of their own demise.

The rebellion and the desire to be free come about after the encounter with human beings who, despite being weaker than the replicas, are free. The first generation replica is a talented racing driver, but he has a human friend whom he believes is better than him because he can feel a sense of responsibility and fear – instincts that the replica does not possess – and therefore he drives in a more intelligent fashion than him. The deep friendship between the two, which also alludes to a possible homosexual attraction, is interrupted dramatically by the replica who does, however, leave his friend a little robot to protect him, one that calls to mind BB-8 from Star Wars.

The second episode revolves around a second-generation replica a boxer who gets beaten frequently in the ring to earn the money needed to pay his sister’s hospital bills. He encounters a young human female doctor who doesn’t realise he is a replica. She falls in love with him and decides to save him from physical deterioration by injecting him with stem cells; this provokes an unexpected reaction, in that he begins to feel different, he begins to turn into a human being. His artificial nature – some humans define replicas as mere “products” – clashes with the human abilities acquired, with tragic consequences. He also leaves something behind for his human love: he impregnates her.

The third episode centres on the couple’s offspring, a son who is by now adult and on his deathbed, as he has inherited an illness from his father which can only be cured through a transfusion of blood from other replicas who, it is believed, have since become extinct. By sheer luck, he comes into contact with a third-generation replica who looks like a girl, but is in fact a hermaphrodite. She also has something else that differentiates her from the other members of her species: she wants to be identified by her name, not just a number, as is usually the case with replicas. Having a name means having an identity and a place in the world – we can hear a far off echo of Confucian philosophy in this – and her insistence that she has a name is one of the most moving moments in the film, as she remembers how as a child, along with other replicas, they invented names for themselves, and that by using them they managed to obtain the object of their desires: desserts and ice-cream. And in this case too, with an unexpected and dramatically pointless attempt, the replica tries to rebel against destiny. The human that is saved through sacrifice is wracked with guilt for the lost friend, but the film’s final message is one of joy, because freedom of choice is more important than a life lived without being master of one’s own destiny.

Zhang Linzi

Zhang Linzi (1985). He graduated from Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology. Selected as one of the best 25 young directors in the Chinese Young Generation Filmmaking Forum award. Named Future Star of Chinese Film in the fifth edition of the Beijing Int’l Film Festival. He directed the made-for-TV film One and a Half Summer (2014).

FILMOGRAPHY

2017 – Transcendent