Directed by Zhongyu Wang, independent women support their families in Danzhou. The women do business, manual labour, make money to look after their adult children, they’re emotionally and physically strong and yet the status of local men is still higher than that of women. Starring: Fang Zhang, Amei Liu and Lei Wang.
The style that Zhongyu Wang takes on with Danzhou Fisherwoman is candid, rough and relaxed, it simply jumps in the action and follows these women in their daily lives. In the process it constructs that larger view of their place in society but it always lets it flow naturally. That loose and flexible style is great but it does come with limitations, at a certain point it can feel like additional context could have elevated the film. To dig into some extra history and culture of Danzhou to add additional layers.
Although even without those extra details, the film still stands well on its own two feet. Particularly because of the charm of the women it’s following. Their independent, self-reliant and resourceful spirit is lovely to watch. The unintrusive perspective that Danzhou Fisherwoman takes, makes it feel like you’re becoming their trainee or apprentice, being taken along for the ride rather than purely a cold observer lens.
It also means that the film can keep its feet firmly on the ground, it sticks entirely to that everyday view, nothing is glamourised. Although that scaled back style does also mean that the film can struggle to sustain its runtime. Coming in at almost thirty minutes, with the pacing being quite slow, after a while tonally it can’t continue to build, and begins hitting the same note.
Danzhou Fisherwoman takes a candid look at older working women within a society that doesn’t give them their due. They’re surprisingly sprightly with strong personalities and they’re very easy to watch, even doing simple tasks. It does perhaps run a little long, losing steam in its later moments but it keeps the style consistent through, being completely natural and these ladies have a great deal of charm to offer.
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