by Annette Basile
Worth: $17.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Fang Wan, Pauline Tan, Pearlly Chua, Koet Yenn Lim, Peter Yu
Intro:
… a deeply moving cinema experience.
This superbly crafted film comes in two distinct, interlocking chapters. Chapter 1 is set in Kuala Lumpur, on May 13, 1969 – the day of post-election sectarian riots that ended in tragedy and a state of emergency. Schoolgirl Ah Eng (Koet Yenn Lim) goes with her mother Su-mei (Pauline Tan) to watch the Cantonese street opera, Snow in Midsummer, which tells a Yuan dynasty tale of injustice and corruption.
Meanwhile, Ah Eng’s father (Peter Yu) and brother (Teoh Wei Hern) go to the movies at the Majestic Cinema, the family unaware that they are about to be separated as tensions erupt. Hundreds were killed that night – the vast majority ethnic Chinese – their bodies left in unmarked graves that will lay undiscovered until 2009. The official death toll is 196 but estimates run much higher.
We don’t really see the riots, just fire on the skyline, but we hear it, and watch its effects on the faces of Ah Eng and Su-mei, who take shelter backstage with the opera troupe. The camera angles are low and the lighting ominous, creating an altered sense of reality – you feel as though you’re in the front row of a theatre production.
Chapter 2 is set in 2018. Ah Eng (played as an adult by Fang Wan) is now married to a disagreeable man (a little like her father) and living on Penang Island. This half of the film follows her journey south, back to Kuala Lumpur, as she tries to come to terms with what happened to her family that night, 49 years ago.
Snow in Midsummer is the second film from Malaysian-Chinese writer/director Chong Keat-Aun after 2020’s The Story of Southern Islet. And it’s masterful. The acting is flawless, with Pearlly Chua a standout as the opera singer that we encounter in both chapters of the film.
Keat-Aun originally envisaged this as a documentary, and he’s aimed to create a historically authentic portrayal, having studied the documents and interviewed people who were affected by the tragedy – the performance of the opera actually occurred that night. The opera’s themes intersect with the unfolding drama, and this will be appreciated on a higher level by those aware of the opera and Malaysian history, yet Keat-Aun does include enough signposts for the wider audience.
Chapter 1 really is a work of art – its drama and artistry overshadowing the slower paced Chapter 2. But the contrasting halves nevertheless add up to poetic, poignant whole.
Snow in Midsummer is a deeply moving cinema experience.
