China Love (2018) screens at DOC NYC
November 12th, 2018 by Mr. C
China Love was a whole lot more than what meets the eye. Yes, the main gist of the film was about a pretentious multi billion dollar Wedding photo company in China and the rule of the ironhand by the owner himself, Alex and his Jiahao Group. Apparently, most couples awaiting the hand in marriage in China or at least for those that can afford it, opt in to create these over the top, superficial dream-like pre-wedding photos. To the bride & groom to be and often the parents also, these staged photos are scenes of realizing a dream. They yearn for a beautiful and wealthy life and these photo shoots are a projection of these fantasies. In essence, the bride and groom are the stars, the performers – albeit on this temporary stage. The documentary makes it apparent that the new generation are the driving force behind the culture of these extravagant visions and still photos before the actual hand in marriage but the older generation in China also had the point of view that they themselves had to deal with being suppressed under the cultural revolution and the rigid hand of the Chinese regime when they were getting married so celebrations of taking wedding photos were not tolerated by the Chinese officials. During the Mao Tse Tung rule, you were flagged as having capitalistic views with something as simple as taking wedding photos. So as the older generation raised their children, the parents drove it home that before you take their daughter’s hand in marriage, Princess like pre-wedding photos basically are a must!
Alex, the chairman & founder of the JiaHao Group realizes the high demand of recreating these dream photos and obliges to create a money making machine to meet those demands! As they say the apples don’t fall far from the tree – Alex, a tycoon with a typhoon like personality was an interesting character to behold with his inspirational speeches to his drone of employees to make them realize the money making potential behind his empire to Alex’s iron palm disciplining when his employees don’t quite make the cut. Alex was like that heel wrestler that made the story move along. You either loved or hated him!
On the other side of the coin that made the documentary quite interesting were the social pressures of having to get married in China especially for the woman. If you were female and 28 years old and not married, the parents would basically try to hawk their daughters in these marriage markets to find a husband for them. As you can imagine, this can put a lot of undue stress on the young generation. It’s quite contradictory that the old generation would experience the suppression that they had to deal with and subsequently put pressures on their children in a different form. Then there is stress on the married couple to produce children! If you can’t make the parents – grandparents then there’s a whole new mind game & pressures being offered by the mom & dad!
A fun and lighthearted moment from the film arose when a charity group of volunteers that helped organize pre-wedding like photos and had conducted a fun ceremony that celebrated the lives of 5 couples that have been married for 50 years or more. This felt more real and unrehearsed in a sense which had a lot more meaning & symbolism behind their relationship which stood the test of time. It was quite touching!
China Love had a few more facets to the story than I first realized and it was thoroughly eye opening and entertaining!
Tags: china love, doc nyc, doc nyc film festival
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