"Loach is Fish Too" at Tokyo International Film Festival
(tiff-jp.net)
Updated: 2005-10-30 16:27

"I am always interested in people's spiritual and psychological state. I believe poor people have their happiness and joy and rich people have their problems. It is the spiritual life of poorer people that I am interested in. I like to depict ordinary people in the city and their search for happiness." The director expanded this point to a political level noting "there are so many migrant workers in China but no film has ever portrayed them so I felt it my responsibility to do so. Not enough films in China depict the ordinary people of the country." Some of the construction scenes are set in the Forbidden City, which may be an odd choice for a film about working people but the director thought it was perfect for his piece. "The reason I used the Forbidden City as a motif is that every hundred years there is a big renovation of that city and many migrant workers come to live and work. I thought it was very interesting that once the Emperor lived their but now the migrant workers are living in that city." 　　

A Chinese film like this one that touches on the sensitive subject of migrant workers might face opposition from the government but thankfully that is not the case with this eloquent work. The director related: "the film has passed all the censors in China and there was no problem with that. Thus it will be released, we just don't know when. Right now I'm waiting for word from the production company and the sponsors."Loach is Fish Too expertly fuses an evocative love story with a powerful portrayal of the tough lives of workers in China. As a multi-dimensional and challenging work it must be considered one of the front-runners for the Tokyo Sakura Grand Prize at TIFF.