Dead Pigs directed by the Chinese-born American film director Cathy Yan is a perfect tragi-comical parody of Chinese capitalism. Yes, China, that communist country that went through a horrible cultural revolution, got a shiny glamorous re-brand, and red banners with yellowish characters inspired by the Little Red Book (not Hood) by Chairman Mao may still hang on bridges and buildings all over the country. Party technocrats dressed in cheap suits are promoting fancy real estate projects using the knowledge of failed American architects, just because they look good in the glass box.
The movie is inspired by the 2013 Huangpu River incident, when pigs in Shanghai were affected by an unknown pandemic. In the movie, the pigs´ drama is shadowed by Miss Candy Wang drama: a brave permed small entrepreneur, owner of a hair saloon, her 3-generation house is in danger of being demolished because it bothers the bold development plans of a real estate company. She´s also bothered permanently by her loser of a brother, a pig farmer affected by the pandemic, who´s always under threat by lending mafia for his impressive debts.
Capitalism and professional success in general, are infantilized. This is a parody of a society, where grannies wasting their time in a smoked-filled taverna are enjoying playing with VR games and Gucci claded characters are abusing poor waiters. Faced with demolition of her blue 1-storey house surrounded by rubble, Miss Candy Wang is facing the bugger from the roof, in her night outfit, with ther white puddle with a pink ribbon in her arms. At the end of the incident, all those present, victims and oppressors do not sing the International but a love song that we, we can sing too, as on the screen is shared a Mandarin transliterated version. Welcome to kitsch capitalism!
Spoken in the Shanghai dialect, this movie is a delightful parody that displays the drama of a country in a transition to no one knows where. At least, there are talented film directors to create visual stories of various fragments of this unfolding show.
Rating: 4 stars
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