Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl
Dateline: 11/11/99
Now
out on video is Joan Chen’s Xiu Xiu: the
Sent Down Girl. With just a short run in theaters, this movie is full
of tension and broken promises, and like most Chinese films, the principal characters
die in the end. At times the pacing is slow, and the editing is awkward, but
the scenery is beautiful (reminiscent of the enjoyable Russian film Close
to Eden, which takes place in modern-day Mongolia). The characters as played
by Lu Lu and Lopsang are endearing and absorbing, and, best of all, Xiu Xiu:
the Sent Down Girl is a love story.
Based on the novella "Tian Yu," by Yan Geling and written and directed by Joan Chen, Xiu Xiu: the Sent Down Girl is in fact two love stories set during the cultural revolution. The narrator, a boy whose own family has connections and therefore does not get "sent down," is in love with his classmate Wen Xiu. Wen Xiu, affectionately called Xiu Xiu, has a tailor father and no such connections, so she is sent to the countryside with the other students.
At first, Xiu Xiu works in a powdered milk factory, but then is ordered to the grasslands in order to learn horse handling from loner and expert horseman Lao Jin, who was emasculated during the wars with Tibet. Xiu Xiu is told she will be under the guidance of Lao Jin for six months. These six months pass quickly once she realizes that not only will Lao Jin be her teacher, but will honor her modesty and even create a hillside makeshift bathtub for her. However, things become grim for Xiu Xiu once it becomes clear she will not be brought back to her beloved city.
At first she is cheered by the prospect of romance with a peddler, but soon she is trading sexual favors with other men in hopes of gaining a pass to go back home. Men traipse in and out of Lao Jin’s tent with no regard to his presence, further emasculating the man who has grown fond of Xiu Xiu. It is Lao Jin who takes Xiu Xiu to the government hospital, and he who brings her back to the grasslands after a humiliating experience in the hospital. In the end, Lao Jin again honors Xiu Xiu’s wishes in a sad and grisly manner.
The relationship between Xiu Xiu and Lao Jin, while not cut from the same cloth as most love stories, is the highlight of the movie, along with the scenery, which is breathtaking. Xiu Xiu: the Sent Down Girl is an indelible movie that contains both faith and despair.
