Death Review – A Chinese medical comedy that uses patients who ask big questions | Video

‘Ydo you know the law of entropy? “Life is a process of constant decay,” says a doctor in a Chinese medical comedy – but not that you’d know from director Chen Sicheng’s first half-hour obituary. Credit sharks

After being removed from the sidelines, Xiaobing is approached by the head of the hospital to lead a project to study the medical treatment of cancer. So he finds himself part of the “Ward 10 Fearless Squad”, a group of patients whose appearance is complicated by the severity of their illness. Before long, he chose film director Dao (Wang Zichuan) to make a documentary about his roomies, including bullish property mogul Mau (Cai Ming), browbeaten first child Bowen (Huang Yi) and fib-spinning poppet, Xiaobing (Ye Quanxi) – called Little Bing.

Being Towards Death feels like Chen’s attempt to create something richer than the blockbuster Detective Chinatown quadrilogy he’s known for. At one point, Xiaobing appears as his own mouthpiece when he criticizes a group of film directors who have rejected Dao’s latest documentary. “Movies and home TV are pretty bad these days. Even though this movie has great jokes and shows, singing that we’re all in this thing called life together, it’s not doomed, it has important questions on its mind. Moving around different wardmates, it invests enough in each character to let the lead’s ideas fly.

Where revivalists now cite alcohol, food and nature as the things that make life worthwhile, cinema is Chen’s answer to the question – judgment is self-reflection. There’s a lot of self-promotion in his project, Dao, who’s always on the hunt for something sharp and clear (he even mentions Chen himself). Ignoring advice to avoid emotionalism at all costs from sixth-generation master Jia Zhangke – whom the group meets on their way to Hengdian World Studios – Chen seems determined, like Dao, to have a “painful” attitude towards existence. But they are not on Jia’s level, or they would realize that the necessary sour pain is not really here.