Stonewalling begins with a shot of Chinese students, including Lynn (Honggui Yao), taking part in a glamorous party in 2019, where they discuss their plans for the future, like moving to the U. K. for a much better, luxurious life.
Lynn's boyfriend is very much one of the main participants of the gathering, though, his girlfriend seems rather uninterested and quickly leaves due to pain in her breasts.
During the party, it is said that everyone should take life as it comes. This poetic, almost motivational speech paints a perfect contrast with what's about to happen next.
Lynn and her boyfriend live together in a life where they don't have many complaints in terms of money. He paid for Lynn's English lessons and college, so they will be able to leave the country in the future. Still, Lynn doesn't seem satisfied with the state of her life, and doesn't seem to have much control of it, though, it changes when she discovers her unwanted pregnancy.
Despite her boyfriend wanting to have Lynn undergo an abortion, the pretty, young woman sees an opportunity to finally take action, motivated by her mother's financial problems. She's presented with an option to give birth and give up the baby to another family, to which her mother owes money. She accepts the offer, however, being pregnant doesn't stop her from working tirelessly to earn some money.
Stonewalling is a movie with many themes, and its two-and-a-half-hour run allows them to grow and prevail. But it's not a movie with a racing tempo. It's rather a slow journey that pains the viewers with each next shot.
While pregnant. Lynn enlists herself in a company that offers women's bodies as surrogates to rich families, while also helping her parents in owning a limping pharmacy clinic. Suddenly, the environment changes from lavish apartments in Changsha to dreadful, gray pictures of Chinese suburbs. The movie's beautiful, detailed, and almost flooded with different items, yet, they are absorbing.
This often agonizing but hypnotizing camera work blends beautifully with Honggui Yao excellent work as the movie's lead. Her emotions are often as bleak and subtle as the control the character has over her own life, but as it takes flight and accelerates, so does her work in front of the camera.
While exposing some valuable insights into Chinese suburban communities and their life, which rarely make the papers of Western media, Stonewalling also questions the unbreakable bond between a mother and her child. Can the bond be broken even if it hasn't been molded in the first place? Or is it always there from the first signs of pregnancy?
These and other themes are dancing with each other on a daunting stage, which turns even more gloom once China is struck by the first signs of COVID-19. We all lived through the pandemic and each have our own horrible memories of it. With the virus becoming a pivotal part of the movie's setting, the ongoing horror suddenly feels slightly familiar.
By the end of the movie, Lynn returns some money to his boyfriend, about which he complained throughout the two-and-a-half-hour spectacle. She intends to pay him back for English classes, with him refusing to take them as if he learned his lesson. Yet, Lynn keeps holding it in the air, insisting for him to accept, as if she also has learned her lesson, at last.
Lynn's boyfriend is very much one of the main participants of the gathering, though, his girlfriend seems rather uninterested and quickly leaves due to pain in her breasts.
During the party, it is said that everyone should take life as it comes. This poetic, almost motivational speech paints a perfect contrast with what's about to happen next.
Lynn and her boyfriend live together in a life where they don't have many complaints in terms of money. He paid for Lynn's English lessons and college, so they will be able to leave the country in the future. Still, Lynn doesn't seem satisfied with the state of her life, and doesn't seem to have much control of it, though, it changes when she discovers her unwanted pregnancy.
Despite her boyfriend wanting to have Lynn undergo an abortion, the pretty, young woman sees an opportunity to finally take action, motivated by her mother's financial problems. She's presented with an option to give birth and give up the baby to another family, to which her mother owes money. She accepts the offer, however, being pregnant doesn't stop her from working tirelessly to earn some money.
Stonewalling is a movie with many themes, and its two-and-a-half-hour run allows them to grow and prevail. But it's not a movie with a racing tempo. It's rather a slow journey that pains the viewers with each next shot.
While pregnant. Lynn enlists herself in a company that offers women's bodies as surrogates to rich families, while also helping her parents in owning a limping pharmacy clinic. Suddenly, the environment changes from lavish apartments in Changsha to dreadful, gray pictures of Chinese suburbs. The movie's beautiful, detailed, and almost flooded with different items, yet, they are absorbing.
This often agonizing but hypnotizing camera work blends beautifully with Honggui Yao excellent work as the movie's lead. Her emotions are often as bleak and subtle as the control the character has over her own life, but as it takes flight and accelerates, so does her work in front of the camera.
While exposing some valuable insights into Chinese suburban communities and their life, which rarely make the papers of Western media, Stonewalling also questions the unbreakable bond between a mother and her child. Can the bond be broken even if it hasn't been molded in the first place? Or is it always there from the first signs of pregnancy?
These and other themes are dancing with each other on a daunting stage, which turns even more gloom once China is struck by the first signs of COVID-19. We all lived through the pandemic and each have our own horrible memories of it. With the virus becoming a pivotal part of the movie's setting, the ongoing horror suddenly feels slightly familiar.
By the end of the movie, Lynn returns some money to his boyfriend, about which he complained throughout the two-and-a-half-hour spectacle. She intends to pay him back for English classes, with him refusing to take them as if he learned his lesson. Yet, Lynn keeps holding it in the air, insisting for him to accept, as if she also has learned her lesson, at last.