Tribeca Review: Violet Du Feng’s ‘Secret Letters’

The past, present and future of women in China’s oppressive patriarchal society is a big topic to ponder in 90 minutes, but Violet Du Feng is an unprecedented yet very exciting documentary. hidden letters It takes up a lot of space.

Visually, it has the low-level, instantaneous digital video look that is increasingly typical of festival documents and can confine their audience to a circle of experts. But there’s a lot going on on the surface in a movie about nushu, an ancient secret language that Chinese women use to communicate with each other without the knowledge of their husbands, fathers, or even children.

“Nushu is mostly about problems,” said Hu Xin, a guide from the Nushu Museum in Jiangxi province. Hu Xin is our port of entry to this mysterious world and represents a still vivid era in the memories of women submissive to men, leg-tie is normal (as in a arranged marriage) and divorce is out of the question. Desperate, Nushu came, wrote beautiful lines on fans and handkerchiefs or sang a cappella and passed it down from generation to generation. Surprisingly (or perhaps not), these letters were never about men: subject and listener were always brothers.

After Hu Xin, we meet Wu Simu, a former apprentice who has been studying Nushu for some time. It is the name of Wu Simu, and at first his girlfriend appears to be an enlightened, trapped young man from a nearby working-class family. Before long, however, something terrible is revealed, telling Simus to give up his “hobby” and work not one, but two jobs so he can buy a house, settle down, and have children.

Simu was lucky to get on board, but events suddenly unfolded and we discovered that Hu Xin was divorced and suffering at the hands of an equally controlling but abusive husband. Your comments are truly shocking; Despite her achievements and achievements, Hu Xin feels she has failed as a woman, she has no husband and children.

After that, two more stories come together, one is the story of He Yanxin, the last traditionally trained practitioner of Nushu. A friendly, cheerful and emotionless woman, she connects with Hu Xin, sharing stories that simply bridge the age gap between millennials and October.

But meanwhile, Du Feng’s movie happily watches Nushu’s future as he explores his past. While the humble and talented Hu Xin may seem like Nushu’s best brand ambassador, his superiors – all men – humiliate him every time, undermining his self-confidence and speaking strange sales language, holding promotions on the platform and even at KFC. . . lawsuits. The twist of the director, who presents these finger-fucking moments without comment, is not lost.

Unlike most documents, hidden letters It doesn’t really set a goal – it’s more of a patchwork job that has the best of true late ’60s Mays Brothers movie feel, specifically the candid scene where Simu is sitting down with his future sisters. A groom who speaks candidly about marriage and sacrifice. As a result, it all ends abruptly, but truly fulfills its purpose, which is the current story in the context of their life experiences, using nushu as a metaphor for the need for communication and connection between women who want their lives. To import.