THE VANISHING SPRING LIGHT (Yu Xun). 116 minutes. Subtitled. Opens Friday (April 6). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NNN
The first in a series of four feature-length documentaries to be collectively known as Tales Of West Street, Yu Xun’s The Vanishing Spring Light introduces us to the inhabitants of a decaying block of Dujiangyan City, in China’s Sichuan province.
One of the oldest communities in the country, dating back 2,000 years, the area is slated for redevelopment as part of a gentrification initiative. But until that happens, a woman named Grandma Jiang sits around outside her building keeping an eye on the mah jongg parlour within.
Grandma Jiang is in poor health, having fallen and subsequently suffered a stroke. As she deteriorates, Yu’s camera watches her recede from the community – and then records the family squabbling that fills the vacuum of her absence.
The Vanishing Spring Light has no narration or music its impassive, direct-cinema approach brings to mind the landmark studies of Frederick Wiseman and Allan King. Yu isn’t quite working at their level – he lacks their ruthless editorial sensibility and storytelling economy, and the doc’s two-hour length occasionally strained my patience.
But there’s enough human drama to be mined here to justify a little shifting in your seat.
