‘Back to the Wharf’ Review
Stars: Zhang Yu, Song Jia, Wang Yanhui, Lee Hong-Chi | Written by Xin Yu | Directed by Xiaofeng Li
Outside of a few horror movies, my experience of Chinese movies is seriously lacking and it is something I should definitely try to change in 2023. Back to the Wharf feels like a great choice to start with that.
An escaped convict comes back to his home town after the death of his mother, fifteen years after he left. He soon learns that the past is still haunting him and gets mixed up in the seedy underbelly of the city and the reasons he left.
This slow-burn Chinese drama looks fantastic. Especially when the city and streets have rain showering down on them and the street lights are glowing. Many of the driving scenes featured this and I loved them. Two driving scenes feature crashes that look realistic and manage to shock without blood or gore. Just the sudden impact and the cinematography are enough. These moments aren’t the only ones that shock though because there are a couple of scenes that involve violence and blood, none more so that the impactful last ten minutes or so.
The slow pace allows the film to build its main characters (lead by three great casting choices) and this no doubt helps get that emotional hit by the end of the run time. Those three leads are fantastic though and Back to the Wharf wouldn’t be the same without it. Yu Zhang plays the escaped convict and somehow acts almost emotionless for a big chunk of the movie but this only makes the scenes where his emotions show even more important and he does it expertly. Alongside him is Jia Song. I loved her character and the way she portrayed her. Immediately intriguing and strangely likeable. Song has a natural charisma that oozes from the screen. Lastly, Yanhui Wang plays the father of the convict. It’s a role that is very familiar in this type of movie, so it needs to be played well to make it stand out and be interesting. You feel every emotion with Wang in the role.
The story is easy to follow but never too simplistic. Not featuring endless twists and turns to keep the audience guessing is a good thing here. The characters drive the story and keep you glued to the screen. My only real complaint was some of the music choices. Often it is noir-like and that fits when used. There is a kind of noir thriller style here and the music helps with that but at times the jazzy tones and weird eighties-style rock feel like they are intruding on the movie. It’s a small complaint really.
Back to the Wharf is the kind of movie that proves you don’t have to have a fast pace and numerous action scenes to keep your viewers griped and the time flying. There’s so much to enjoy here and if I needed a Chinese movie to remind me to watch more Chinese cinema in 2023, Back to the Wharf seems a perfect fit.
