Although shot in China, the film is a Japanese indie production, written and directed by Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka.
Stonewalling is the third and final panel in a trilogy that includes Egg and Stone (2012) and The Foolish Bird (2017), all films about what it means to be a young woman in contemporary China.
Grade: A-
Stonewalling
Theatrical release poster
Literal meaning
stone gate
The film stars Yao Honggui, who also appeared in the first two films, as a young Chinese woman struggling with her everyday life–and then unexpected pregnancy.
It world premiered in a sidebar at the 2022 Venice Film Fest.
Lynn (Yao Honggui) ,age 20, lives in Changsha, capital of Hunan province, struggling to find meaningful work by balancing English classes with a training course to become flight attendant.
She is forced to scrape by through odd jobs in China’s unstable economy, including modeling cheap clothing and jewelry.
She lives in a hotel with her boyfriend Zhang, an aspiring influencer on TikTok who earns a living hosting parties and modeling. Restless and ambitious, Zhang aims to move to the UK.
Spanning about one year, 2019-2020, the tale depicts a woman who is facing a series of daunting hurdles, including her unreliable boyfriend, bickering parents, no job and an uncertain future.
By the time the story ends in 2020, everyone is wearing surgical masks and Lynn is exhausted, having tried every imaginable hustle. Her unexpected pregnancy changes almost everything, perhaps even signaling a better future.
The film is an understated, formally rigorous, slow-moving portrait of a young femme whose circumstances are presumably so particular that they manage to resonate in a more universal mode.
Stonewalling: Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka’s Portrait of a Young Woman in Perpetual Crisis
Although shot in China, the film is a Japanese indie production, written and directed by Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka.
Stonewalling is the third and final panel in a trilogy that includes Egg and Stone (2012) and The Foolish Bird (2017), all films about what it means to be a young woman in contemporary China.
Grade: A-
The film stars Yao Honggui, who also appeared in the first two films, as a young Chinese woman struggling with her everyday life–and then unexpected pregnancy.
It world premiered in a sidebar at the 2022 Venice Film Fest.
Lynn (Yao Honggui) ,age 20, lives in Changsha, capital of Hunan province, struggling to find meaningful work by balancing English classes with a training course to become flight attendant.
She is forced to scrape by through odd jobs in China’s unstable economy, including modeling cheap clothing and jewelry.
She lives in a hotel with her boyfriend Zhang, an aspiring influencer on TikTok who earns a living hosting parties and modeling. Restless and ambitious, Zhang aims to move to the UK.
Spanning about one year, 2019-2020, the tale depicts a woman who is facing a series of daunting hurdles, including her unreliable boyfriend, bickering parents, no job and an uncertain future.
By the time the story ends in 2020, everyone is wearing surgical masks and Lynn is exhausted, having tried every imaginable hustle. Her unexpected pregnancy changes almost everything, perhaps even signaling a better future.
The film is an understated, formally rigorous, slow-moving portrait of a young femme whose circumstances are presumably so particular that they manage to resonate in a more universal mode.