Chinese director Wang Jiangyong’s first feature, “The Night That Binds Us,” premiered in competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival. The film observes the complicated bond between a college student and an older dormitory manager, using distant framing and long, mostly fixed takes rather than close-ups to leave viewers room to interpret their relationship.
Adapted from a short story by Zhang Chu, the film follows Sun Guofeng, who is left adrift in Shanghai after his parents are arrested on suspicion of fraud. He encounters An, a dormitory manager grieving her daughter’s death and the collapse of her family. Wang said the source story’s image of a dancing dorm manager stayed with him and helped persuade him to adapt it.
Wang spent a year developing the screenplay, retaining what he described as the story’s pain of alienation and fragile beauty of a forbidden connection. He added Guofeng’s girlfriend, Yezi, and his roommate, Ale, widening the story to include relationships among the three characters.
The film’s spaces reflect the characters’ emotional states. An’s cramped duty room serves as a refuge, while the empty campus during the holidays mirrors Guofeng’s uncertainty. Wang also uses the cold dormitory, Shanghai’s rainy season, changing light and the distance between people in a room to convey their inner lives. He described the setting as a container for emotion, with the characters gradually becoming willing to enter one another’s spaces.
Wang said he wanted the camera to act as a quiet observer. Shifts in the characters’ positions and in the framing carry much of the emotional movement; only in the final long take does the camera follow Guofeng.
Hu Ling, who plays An, said she cried when she first read the script. She had stepped away from acting for a decade after beginning at age 15, and said the role convinced her to return. In shaping An’s grief, Hu and Wang discussed keeping it subdued, as if her heart had gone numb. They also agreed that the connection between An and Guofeng should not be played as a romance. Hu said she and Tan Zuhong, who plays Guofeng, maintained a courteous distance off camera.
The Hong Kong-France co-production took nearly a decade to complete. Filming lasted 28 days in 2023, while editing continued for three years and went through dozens of versions. Wang and producer Zhang Ming repeatedly removed explanatory shots in search of a rhythm that would give audiences more room to read the characters.
Wang said his next script remains in development. He plans to continue writing about ordinary people and complicated relationships while exploring different approaches to film language.
Sources: Variety.