The Ambiguous Focus (Mandarin)

I have mixed feelings about this film after watching it. I had no expectations, so I was actually pleasantly surprised to see the film. Shown from 2 different perspectives on what went wrong in a relationship, it was very interesting to see how most things in life are not black or white. There is a whole lot of gray as well and it all depends on whose angle you are watching things from.

Nan Zhang and Zhe Zhang have known each other since high school and its almost their 10th year anniversary. Highly introvert, Zhe is struggling writer while Nan works and looks after both of them not just financially but also at home etc. Zhe finds out hat Nan has been cheating on him with his colleague Jimmy. Despite ignoring that and pleading for Nan to not leave him, Nan leaves. His close friend and mentor Chunzi, who is struggling to find love for himself, is there for Zhe's emotional support at this time. A new guy Chao starts seeing Zhe who then soon finds out that Chao has also secretly been seeing Chunzi. Feeling that he owes his friend, he lets Chao continue dating Chunzi. He visits home where he finds Nan's father is in hospital and Nan comes to meet him as well. The 2 men reconnect as friends for a couple of days and go back to town. An altercation leads to Jimmy and Nan breaking up and the Nan and Zhe connecting over drinks with a possibility of reconnecting as lovers. Chapter 2 begins from Nan's point of view. We see how literally Jimmy had forced himself on Nan. Not only does Jimmy take advantage of financial needs of Nan when his father first fell sick, but he also blackmails Nan of coming him out to his father if he doesn't make Jimmy his boyfriend. He even hires a money boy to show him how given an opportunity Zhe will chest on him which he does breaking Nan's heart. But he is stuck and can do nothing about it. He still loves Zhe very much but jimmy has his full control over him. Eventually Jimmy gets in an accident and realizes what he did is wrong and comes clean to Zhe. Now that everyone knows the truth, Zhe and Nan are back to talking but they both know that they have come far enough to acknowledge that they both have moved on and there is no more love left between them. Maybe the love between them had already gone before Jimmy came into picture and that just became the reason for their split.

In addition to the main story, there is a side story for Chunzi and Chao , which shows the struggles of gay men in closet and their duties towards their family in Chinese culture but to be honest don't add much to the core story. While I was seeing the first part from Zhe's point of view I found myself getting frustrated asking so many questions like why is Nan behaving this way, why doesn't he say anything to Jimmy, why would he leave his love of 10 years for an obnoxious guy like Jimmy, why did Zhe cheat on him and why does the lovers life seem so boring and dragged. But when the second part started and we started getting Nan's version of the story; things started to make sense and I was very pleasantly surprised. This was no ordinary story and was being presented to us from two sides of a coin which suddenly made me very interested in it. The film is not over the top at all. Its more focussed on the struggles of a mature couple who have been in love forever and how they navigate life. You know sometimes you love a person and you have been with them for so long that they just becomes part of your routine or life and you don't even realize that you stopped loving them long time ago. I mean, you love them but you are no longer in love with them. And then an external part just becomes a reason for you to act upon it even though you may not want to. It has pros and cons. Clearly within Nan's shadow Zhe could never grow up. You see how Nan used to do everything for Zhe but when he is own his own, he eventually learns about life, how to make money, how to cook and how to live. So in all this sense, I have to say that this film had something very new and novel to say. On a negative side, the acting from leads was good but a little too restrained. You always feel that they are in some zone and why cant they talk to each other. I mean their life seemed so boring, that as an audience I would worry how did they even kill their time. I wish rather than speaking in their mind, they would talk to each other. Eventually everything boils down to communication in a relationship. I guess this has to do with more character development than the actual acting itself.

The film is almost 2 hours and is very slow, so it tests your patience, but I would recommend watching this because it offers something novel. It doesn't take sides but offers perspective. It shows you that sometimes you are so busy pleasing others that you forget your self identity which sooner or later comes as a breaking point in your relationship. (7/10)