«If everyone was like me, this society, this country, our building – all would be happy, and everyone would be engaged», says young Chinese man Wu Haohao over a kitchen table.
Haohao is a self-proclaimed communist and an admirer of #Mao Zedong# and the #Cultural Revolution#. He confides his beliefs and aspirations in the kitchen, the place where his monologue is uninterrupted and dominated by nostalgia for «earlier times.» Those were the times of «great neighbourly relations» and a sense of community, he recollects his mother saying, «if we ran out of food at home, you could borrow steamed buns from [the neighbour] next door, and not go hungry.»
Entangled bodies
An aspiring communist at heart, by day Haohao is a video producer, known in «some Chinese film circles» for his low-budget, provocative – and often erotic – productions. This time, Haohao is the one in front of the camera as the main protagonist of Zhu Rikun’s new documentary No Desire to Hide. True to the film’s title, Haohao indeed seems to withhold nothing as the camera follows him. Entangled nude bodies of Haohao and his girlfriend Ge Ningning repeatedly come into view. Sometimes, the two expose themselves, seemingly relishing being watched and placing the viewer in the role of a voyeur. At other times, their nudity feels raw and honest, perhaps even apropos to the scene – when Ningning scrubs Haohao’s back in the shower or when she shaves her armpits and pubic hair in a bathtub.
«If everyone was like me, this society, this country, our building – all would be happy, and everyone would be engaged»
Throughout the film, the camera gives Haohao and Ningning an audience. At times resorting to what feels like a stream of consciousness, the documentary candidly portrays the protagonists’ emotional states and their complicated relationships, be it with one another or the country’s tumultuous history. Back at the kitchen table, Haohao nonchalantly speaks of «Mao and the Cultural Revolution», taking pride in China’s «wonderful spiritual wealth.» The party’s inconvenient truth about the Cultural Revolution that threw #China into a decade of mayhem remains just that – inconvenient, as Haohao quests after an ideology, a set of beliefs to lean on. As Haohao carries on with the contentious subject matter, his hopes to take communism to America transpire. Americans have «already achieved something basic to communism», Haohao says, erring in judgement profusely, «which is in their country, they have black and white and yellow people all living together. […]. But I am Chinese, I know something of the Cultural Revolution, and we can put this to good use.» Despite the grim ambition to put communism «to good use» in the #United States# where he believes to have «a scope to develop», Haohao is hardly determined to translate his aspirations into actions and breathe new life into the #socialist cause. In an ironic twist, indulging in the idea of #immigration, which is largely driven by capitalist forces, would presuppose that he takes the capitalist road to get there, even if the destination is communism.
A daze of possibilities
No Desire to Hide is essentially a character study of the Chinese youths that seem in a daze of possibilities and fatigued by having to reconcile them. Aside from his communist sentiments, which will likely be confined to private kitchen conversations, in day-to-day life, Haohao seems more in dismay about the «open relationship» with his girlfriend that becomes increasingly fraught with jealousy and mistrust. Haohao eventually admits that he «really prefers tradition, which is that women mustn’t sleep around.» He often frets his girlfriend with questions about having a child together, which she does not seem keen on, as it would deprive her of «equality.» Later, sitting on a bed, exposing her bare breasts, Ningning flirts with the idea of having a child next year but utters, «Whenever a kid is mentioned, I faint. It’s bloody violence.» […]. «Get married if you have a child. There would be no fun left. Too mechanical.»
Screening as part of the 25th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival
