China’s
economic progress has been fueled by the migration of hardworking
men and women, recruited by factories to move from the countryside
to the major metropolitan centers. Some migration has occurred
without such recruitment, as the cities are magnets for enterprising
young people, and many end up in construction jobs. However,
some of the migrants fall through the cracks. Factory workers
who are less productive are discharged but stay on in the
cities, surviving through illegitimate businesses, while some
of those who go to the urban centers on their own lack the
skills to earn a decent living. No film demonstrates China’s
urban underbelly more graphically than So Close to Paradise
(Guniang, Biandan), directed by Wang Xiaoshuai.
Filmed in Wuhan, the movie has occasional voiceovers by Dong
Zi (played by Shi Yu), a recent arrival in the city who is
a lowly shoulder pole carrier, that is, someone who carries
heavy objects on both ends of a wooden pole that rests on
the back of his neck. He lives in a two-room shack near the
polluted Yangtze with Gao Ping (played by Guo Tao), who is
from the same village, Huangpi. Dong has no idea how Gao earns
money, but he dresses up in a suit with a hidden metallic
belt and claims to be a "businessman," whereas filmviewers
soon suspect that he is somehow involved in the criminal underworld,
as speaks knowledgeably about the Juangpi gang, composed of
those from Huangpi. Gao’s obsession is to find a man who cheated
him out of some money, and the film begins with a flashback
to the incident when he was swindled in the province. Gao
left the countryside for Wuhan ten years earlier to track
down the swindler, and at the beginning of the film he somehow
learns that Ruan Hong (played by Wang Tong), a Vietnamese
nightclub singer at Lilikaraok, can lead him to the swindler.
Accordingly, Gao drags Dong to the nightclub, where they spot
Ruan, who sings "Little Paradise," a song that evidently suggests
the title for the film. After the show is over, she emerges
from the nightclub wearing the clothes of a prostitute, and
they stalk her. On the second night of the stalking, they
kidnap her and bring her to their residence, and Gao rapes
her, demanding that she reveal where the swindler lives. When
she refuses, Gao offers her love, and the two become lovers.
Later, when he insists that she must reveal the swindler’s
whereabouts, she again refuses, and Gao pays her off as if
she were a prostitute (Indeed, she appears to be one of some
10,400 Vietnamese women purchased in the 1990s to be wives,
prostitutes, or maids in China.). Although Ruan leaves in
a huff, she later pins a note on their door with directions
to Fatty, who in turn may lead him to the swindler. Gao then
locates Fatty, who leads him to the Boss of the Tongxiang
gang, but he has to fight his way out, the metallic belt not
entirely sufficing to defend himself. Gao then locates the
swindler, who has no money saved to return to Gao, so he drops
him into a pit, which he covers with boards. Next, Gao leaves
town, as he is responsible for the murder of the swindler.
Mistreated by the Boss as his mistress, Ruan returns to sleep
in Gao’s bed, as Gao has promised to marry her and leave Wuhan
on November 6. When Gao fails to return to the room on the
appointed day, she returns to the Boss, who ascertains that
she has been living with Gao and goes to the room to locate
Gao, but only Dong is present. The Boss then humiliates Ruan
and terrorizes Dong, demanding that Dong call him as soon
as Gao returns. The police also visit the room to inquire
about Gao, who is suspected of the murder, but again Dong
has no idea where he is. However, the police soon interrogate
Ruan, also in the dark regarding Gao’s whereabouts, and jail
her as a prostitute. A City Life news reporter (a state propaganda
employee whose broadcasts are occasionally heard during the
film) goes into prison to have Ruan tell her life story on
television, with the aim that humiliating Ruan will prompt
other prostitutes to abandon their trade. Finally, Gao returns,
too late to rescue Ruan, and urges Dong to return to the village,
where he claims that life has improved and will be much better
than in Wuhan. As we are informed by a voiceover at the beginning
of the film, Gao is then murdered by the Boss and his thugs.
At this point we might expect that Dong, unable to pay the
rent for the shack alone, would meet an unpleasant fate. Instead,
a news reporter voiceover indicates that Dong provided evidence
of the murder that led to the conviction of leaders of the
gang. Meanwhile, the main room of the shack is rented by someone
to store VCRs; in compensation for providing security for
the miniwarehouse, Dong receives room, board, and a small
stipend. Upon release from prison some months later, Ruan,
long impressed by Dong’s humility throughout the tragic events,
returns to visit him and to hear how Gao was killed. After
she caresses his cheek, he shows his true emotions by giving
her a walkman purchased from his savings that contains a tape
on which he recorded her singing "Little Paradise." He then
displays the film’s only big smile, and credits roll. Clearly,
the purpose of the film is to explain why urban crime is rampant
amid rapid social change in China, where government crackdowns
on crime fail to look beneath the surface. One hundred years
ago, when the industrial revolution in Europe and North America
brought about similar conditions, sociologists described the
society as "disorganized," but no such social disorganization
can be found in So Close to Paradise. Some of
those who fall through the cracks, whom sociologists have
often characterized as engaging in "deviant behavior," find
an orderly if unconventional way to survive in So Close
to Paradise. The Marxist critique of the society depicted
in the film would be that Chinese society has become materialistic
rather than communitarian, and censors in China who financed
and then cut parts of the film doubtless believe that their
interpretation will be the universal explanation. But the
non-Marxist critique, based on mass society theory, is that
the social problems depicted in So Close to Paradise
result from a lack of intermediate institutions intervening
on behalf of the masses to pressure the government to provide
better conditions. The needed intervening institutions are
organized but independent interest groups, sometimes called
"civil society," which are the fundamental underpinnings of
modern democracy. MH
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