Dam Street

After her controversial début Fish and Elephant, the first Chinese film about a lesbian relationship, Li Yu again portrays the life of a young woman. This time against the background of the repressive social climate in her home country that does not tolerate young people becoming pregnant. When the talented 16-year-old student Xiao-Yun finds she is expecting a baby, it’s not only her child – but also her future – that is taken away from her and she is condemned to an existence as a second-rate background vocalist in her local band in the southern Chinese province of Sechuan. Once she was destined for the opera, but she can only expect scorn and the sexual advances of uninhibited, clumsy men. She becomes involved in a relationship without any future with a married man. Then she meets Xiao-Yong, an inquisitive and precocious boy and her mother’s pupil, who slowly but surely reveals himself to be her protector. Once he has seen the beautiful Xiao-Yun bathing, he becomes obsessed by her. From little friend he turns into servant, younger brother and innocent replacement for a real partner. But Xiao-Yong is eventually not able to help the woman with whom he feels more than tied to take the decisive step that can give new meaning to her life. The sophisticated cinematography, beautiful colours and synergy between the characters come together in a love story in which fate seems inevitable. (SdH)

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