[Review] A Family Tour: The Unfree Stranger

In this star-studded holiday movie season, I doubt many viewers will notice the release of A Family Tour. Yet, it's a film I highly recommend.

A Family Tour is the work of Ying Liang, a Chinese director living in exile in Hong Kong. Fittingly, the story also revolves around a Chinese director exiled in Hong Kong. While there are slight differences in character details between the director and the film's protagonist, the movie essentially serves as a semi-autobiographical piece. In reality, Ying Liang was blacklisted by the Chinese government a few years ago after directing When Night Falls, a film about the mother of Yang Jia following his attack on police officers. Ying Liang was subsequently forced into exile in Hong Kong. In the film, the protagonist, Yang Shu, directs a film on the same subject, A Loner's Mother, which focuses on her own mother, who is Yang Jia's daughter. Yang Shu's film also leads to her being blacklisted by the Chinese government and exiled in Hong Kong. A Family Tour then tells the story of a trip she takes to Taiwan with her mother. Yang Shu's mother still lives in mainland China under strict government surveillance, and Yang Shu is unable to return home. Thus, they can only meet when her mother travels overseas.

"Free and Easy" travel, by its very nature, should be about freedom—travelers choosing their destinations, duration, and accommodation. However, the "free and easy" travel depicted in the film is anything but. Yang Shu, her husband, and son meticulously follow her mother's tour group, staying in the same hotels, all to seize every moment possible with her. Yang Shu, in exile in Hong Kong, appears to be free from direct Chinese government surveillance, yet she remains unfree, unable to relinquish the bond with her mother. Even though Yang Shu is often silent and seemingly fearful of her mother's disapproval during their interactions, she remains deeply concerned about her mother's well-being, shadowing her throughout the trip. The most striking moment for me in the film was when Yang Shu's mother, seemingly casually, stated that if she faced further difficulties from the Chinese government, she could simply cut ties with her daughter. While her words sounded indifferent, how can a parent-child bond be severed so easily? Perhaps she said this simply to allow her daughter true freedom. Yang Shu and her husband are not heartless people; they make a choice towards the end of the film and face separation. In the movie, the characters have minimal dialogue during their farewells, and several long, fixed shots are filmed with a detached calmness. Yet, the audience understands Yang Shu's profound reluctance and worry.

Beyond family ties, another reason for Yang Shu's lack of freedom is her struggle with identity. Despite being in exile in Hong Kong for several years, she doesn't consider herself a Hong Konger; she still identifies as Chinese. Even under pressure from the Chinese government, she values her identity deeply and yearns to return to her homeland. However, due to circumstances, she is forced to live as a stranger in exile. Through Yang Shu's story, the film explores the alienation and contradictions in a stranger's identity—a perspective that likely only an expatriate could capture. While Yang Shu appears to be constrained by family and identity on the surface, the underlying cause of everything is the oppression of the Chinese government. Although the film does not directly delve into China's political issues or the relationship between mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, the plot and character settings are subtly infused with critiques of Chinese society and its power structures. Yang Shu's forced exile is due to the sensitive nature of her work, leading the Chinese government to blacklist her under the pretext of maintaining social and political stability. Furthermore, the Chinese government attempts to force Yang Shu to alter her film's plot, an act of artistic censorship likely common in mainland China.

Simultaneously, the dialogues between the tour guide and Yang Shu's mother in the film consistently reflect the mindset and values of mainland Chinese: they quietly comply with government demands in all matters, with no room for dissent. The film humorously uses a line from Yang Shu's mother to label those who dare to oppose as "Hong Kongers." Besides exploring mainland society, the film also incorporates background details about Hong Kongers "disappearing," reflecting Hong Kong's deteriorating situation. Moreover, the film is cleverly set in Taiwan, thus encapsulating the differences between mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan in one movie, and highlighting the preciousness of Taiwan as currently the freest place among the three. However, given the current social and political climate, how long can this "paradise" maintain its status?

Before watching this film, I saw ROMA, which is considered a strong Oscar contender this year. While watching A Family Tour, I was struck by the remarkable similarity in tone between the two films. Both movies are imbued with a strong sense of realism. However, ROMA frequently employs sweeping long takes, while A Family Tour primarily uses fixed, long takes. Many scenes in the film focus on Yang Shu's family with other mainland tourists from the tour group in the background. Yang Shu's family is often very quiet, with little movement, while the louder and more active other tourists highlight the Yang family's low-key and reserved demeanor, emphasizing the ironic antithesis of "free and easy" travel. In the film, Yang Shu's child is indeed the freest, as he doesn't fully grasp the anxieties of Yang Shu and the others, nor does he understand the politics and society of the three regions. He is perhaps the only one who truly experiences "free and easy" travel on the journey. No wonder the director states at the end of the film that it is dedicated to his child, hoping that everyone can protect the freedom of our next generation.