Review: The Fourth Portrait
Posted by Elliott Pen on September 6, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Serious dramatic films centered around children are always a tough draw, and unfortunately a black and white issue. With so much focus placed on the child within the film the whole piece is either a success or a failure; there is very little room for compromise. Di Si Zhang Hua’s The Fourth Portrait is no different. It is a tale of a fractured family, and a little boy struggling to piece his life together in wake of the death of his father.Xiang, played quite effortlessly by Bi Xiao-hai, is a 10-year-old boy who loses his father in a quiet hospital room in the opening of The Fourth Portrait. The sense of quiet is carried throughout by young Xiang who approaches his new new status as an orphan with stoic grace attempting to fend for himself. Quite soon he befriends an elderly janitor at his school, who teaches Xiang the value of trash and manages to unite him with his estranged mother, now living in Taiwan. It is through the strained relationship with his mother and step-father that The Fourth Portrait truly shines. Xiang’s mother is revealed to be a prostitute and her husband suffers a murky past at the suggestion of Xiang’s older brother, who is now missing.
As mentioned, Xiao-hai’s acting is quite effortless and convincing in being a little boy lost in the world. While he does not enjoy as many lines as some of his co-stars, his silence provides them with enough atmosphere in which to work and craft their own niche in the film. This is seen in Xiang’s befriending of an twenty-something man by chance in a washroom. While their dynamic is certainly not of the brotherly variety, the camaraderie is easily felt as Xiang’s slight suggestions of happiness come across in waves. Similarly his uncertainty and timid nature is equally felt when with the mother he has not seen in many years.
Just as Xiang is mostly a silent character, Hua’s filmmaking is equally silent but does his film a great service through this technique. Through it’s fluid camerawork the audience is cast much like a ghost when viewing the film. We are allowed lingering glimpses into these lives without the burden of actually viewing them. In a sense we are much like Xiang’s older brother, and this ghostly vantage is solidified with Xiang’s step-father’s confessional which may be one of the most powerful moments on film in 2010.
For those with the patience for a slow-burning family drama slightly coloured by the influence of Ozu, viewers of The Fourth Portrait will be rewarded in spades by this gem.
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