November 01, 2007
Tuya's Marriage
A Forced Marriage
My mother was born in inner Mongolia, not far from the film's location. This is why I've always liked Mongolians, their way of life and their music. When I learned about the extent to which massive industrial expansion is turning the steppe into a desert, and how local administrators are forcing the shepherds to leave their homelands, I decided to make a film that would record their lifestyle before it all disappears forever.
-Wang Quanan
The Berlinale Golden Bear winner Tuya's Marriage is in many respects an oxymoron: a melodrama bereft of the stylized, heightened conventions often associated with Western entries. In operas and classic Hollywood productions, the plot usually centers around heroines (or heroes), who strive to break free from loveless bourgoisie arrangements. In Tuya's Marriage, the Mongolian peasant characters can only be so lucky. They live in stark, dire conditions. Marriage is not so much a dream as it as a reality; a partnership based upon sufficiency. Early on in Tuya's Marriage, we meet the headstrong and pragmatic herdswoman Tuya, who permenantly dislocates her back, one day, during grueling labor. At the behest of everyone - including Tuya's sister-in-law - Tuya divorces her loving but paralyzed husband Bater, in hopes of a finding a new man who can take care of her and her two young children.
Awash in lingering shots of Tuya drawing water and minding the flocks of sheep, director Wang Quanan's lyrical meditation on the trials and tribulations of daily living bears strong resemblance to another Mongolian-set film, The Cave of the Yellow Dog (Byambasuren Davaa, 2005). Time is setting down, and as such, parents of modest means are adapting to change. For previous generations, Inner Mongolian kids have stayed home and helped their parents in farm work. Cave of the Yellow Dog and Tuya's Wedding represent that watershed moment, where farming parents no longer pass the torch onto their offspring. The prologue in Cave of the Yellow Dog informs the audience that the eldest daughter spends most her time away in the city, enrolled at a boarding school. During her quest for a new husband, the heroine of Tuya's Wedding reconsiders the pedigree of some unlikely suitors. In a scene, played for laughs, Tuya expresses hindsight regret, after turning down a 60 year old retired school teacher's marriage proposal.
Tuya's Wedding is a very sweet-natured film, rich in screwball comedy (you have to see the scene where potential suitor Sen'ge attempts to blow-up a well as dowry - it's classic). But to extend a comedic analogy (or cliche), the film has the soul of a sad clown. Beneath its self-deprecating candor is a torn and broken heart, often hidden from public consciousness. Case in point: A devastating turn-of-events in the middle of the film, in which one person's triumph becomes another person's tragedy. Tuya loves Bater dearly and is reluctant to have him sent away.But after several failed attempts, Tuya finally negotiates with a prospective suitor: the oil tycoon and former schoolmate Baolier who is willing to pay for Bater's permanent stay at a nicely accomodated nursing home. Upon arrival of his new home, the alienated Bater deluges himself with liquor and slashes his wrist with shards of glass, shortly thereafter. A hybrid of melodrama and neo-realism (with the exception of Yu Nan, who plays Tuya, the rest of the cast members are non-professional actors, billed with parts of the same name), Tuya's Marriage is a moving, humane portrait of people on the brink of change. Don't miss it during its theatrical run.
