Aftershock

A Chinese blockbuster about the survivors of two earthquakes is a remarkable story of loss and redemption.

Although Aftershock is a remarkable film that celebrates the strength and nobility of the human spirit, it will be seen by few outside China. Apart from an aversion to subtitled films, the West seems obsessed with the sugary-sweet fare offered by Hollywood to take to a film that deals with death and loss. It’s a pity because this brilliant Chinese film pays tribute to the value of human life and to the redeeming qualities of prayer, sacrifice and forgiveness. And it places the family at the heart of human endeavour.

Aftershock is the second biggest selling film in the country this year after Avatar and looks set to make the reputation of Feng Xiaogang, China's most commercially successful filmmaker, outside of China. Feng is already well known here for his comedies and for his 2007 movie Assembly, which took a very realistic look at the Chinese civil war.

Aftershock is set against the backdrop of two major earthquakes to hit China – the 1976 Tangshan quake that claimed nearly 250,000 lives and the Wenchuan (Sichuan) quake 32 years later that took 70,000 lives. The real aftershock of the film is the emotional and psychological trauma of the survivors.

The two quakes are connected over the intervening period through the lives of a pair of twins caught in the Tangshan quake when their mother has to make a heart wrenching choice to save one or the other. Faced with losing both children she ultimately chooses her son Fang Da over twin sister Fang Deng.

Fang Deng’s body is carried from the rubble and laid to rest next to her dead father while the distraught mother carries the twin brother to find medical attention for his injuries. Miraculously Fang Deng survives, waking next to the body of her father. Apparently suffering amnesia, she is taken to a People’s Liberation Army hospital and ultimately is adopted by a childless PLA officer couple who take Fang Deng (now called Ya Ya) to their home city away from Tangshan.

We witness the growth and development of the two children over the next few years. Fang Deng, raised by the PLA couple, goes on to study medicine. Fang Da suffers through hardships with his factory worker mother as China begins its transformation to a modern consumer economy, and he leaves Tangshan to seek his fortune in China’s booming south after the country’s opening in the 1980’s.

While the director probably didn’t intend the movie as a statement against abortion, it certainly makes a poignant comment. In her fourth year of medical school Fang Deng becomes pregnant to a fellow student. When he urges her to get an abortion, she refuses. Everyone does it and it’s no big deal, he says. But, in one of the film’s most powerful moments, she explains that the boyfriend does not understand what she went through in the Tangshan earthquake, when she awoke in a field, surrounded by corpses. For her the life of this unborn baby is a symbol of hope and a chance to give the maternal love she was denied. So she drops out of medical school to have the baby.

The Confucian virtues of parental love and filial duty are important themes. It also shows the importance of festivals in family life: whether it is Chinese New Year, the Festival of Hungry Ghosts or Grave Sweeping Day, Chinese society is bound up with family.

But the ultimate message is forgiveness and redemption. During the rescue operation after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake Fang Deng and her brother, Fang Da, are reunited and she later travels with him home to Tangshan to meet her mother. The emotional meeting that ensues could easily be overdone, but is not. It is heartrending as Fang Deng comes to terms with the unthinkable choice her mother had to make, and the pain her mother has endured for 32 years in the belief that her daughter was dead.

A caveat is necessary. The film may be too powerful for younger viewers. Also, although this is China’s first IMAX film, it is not necessary to see it on a supersized screen. Apart from the opening earthquake scene, IMAX is almost superfluous with a story as potent as Aftershock.

Overall the acting is convincing and lead actors are superb. Many of the extras were survivors of the Tangshan quake. Perhaps this is a tribute to their lifelong suffering. If you see only one foreign-language film this year, make it this one. It will tear your heart out. But that’s what makes a great movie.

Alistair Nicholas is the founder of AC Capital Strategic Consulting, a China-based communications advisory and training company. He also advises companies on the use of social media and search engine optimization strategies. 

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