Ash is Purest White (2018) is a Chinese drama film by Jia Zhangke. It stars his wife and actress Zhao Tao as Zhao Qiao, with the supporting cast including Liao Fan as Guo Bin and Diao Yi’nan as Lin Jiadong. Zhao Tao has been a constant presence in Jia’s films since Platform (2000). Liao Fan’s performance as Zhang Zili in Diao Yi’nan’s Golden Bear-winning Black Coal, Thin Ice brought him the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 2014 Berlinale.
The Sixth Generation
Jia Zhangke is an internationally acclaimed figure in the Sixth Generation movement of Chinese cinema. The Sixth Generation arose as an underground film movement in the 90s in response to the rise of state censorship following the Tiananmen Square Massacre of 1989. Unlike the lush historical dramas of the Fifth Generation, Sixth Generation films are systematically de-glamorized and focus almost exclusively on urban existence. ‘Urban’ in these films does not refer to high-end living but to the working class often caught in transition against the backdrop of China’s rapid industrialization. Apart from Jia Zhangke, Diao Yi’nan, Lou Ye, and Wang Xiaoshuai are also notable figures of the Chinese Sixth Generation.
Foundation and Reminiscence
Director Jia Zhangke is from Fenyang, Shanxi, Northern China. Along with the northernmost city of Datong, Fenyang has also featured in many of Jia’s works, including his breakthrough trilogy of Xiao Wu (1997), Platform (2000), and Unknown Pleasures (2002). Ash is Purest White is quite self-referential in nature; it’s a film where Jia revisits the places and even characters belonging to his previous films. With its 16-year timeline serving as a round-trip to Datong, Jia briefly skims over Fengjie and The Three Gorges region, which he popularized in his 2006 Golden Lion winner, Still Life. During Ash is Purest White’s touchdown in Hubei province, Jia even dresses Zhao Tao in the same yellow t-shirt and white trousers attire as seen on the poster of Still Life. Another thing to take note of is the box aspect ratio (4:3) that briefly references Xiao Wu before transitioning to the more traditional 1.85:1.
Story and Presentation
For ease of analysis, I have divided Ash is Purest White into three parts, corresponding to a chapter in Zhao Qiao’s life. The film does not belong to a single genre but covers a range of them, such as crime, romance, and existential drama, while not being heavy-handed when tackling genre elements. The cinematic style of Ash is Purest White feels like a unique spin on Antonioni, swapping out bourgeois Italy for the Jianghu underworld.
Chapter 1: Before Incarceration
This part focuses on Zhao Qiao’s relationship with Bin, who is a mobster, and the position of power she holds in his Datong fraternity. It’s a loose segment where all things not directly concerning Qiao happen off-screen. For example, we don’t know why Eryong (one of Bin’s ‘brothers’) is murdered, who put Lin Jiadong in jail, or who the boys aimed for when they struck Bin on his legs. Instead, we get to know about Qiao’s garish fashion sense, Y.M.C.A. dance routines at Bin’s nightclub, and Eryong’s love for ballroom dancing. Sounds amusing enough, but trouble keeps brewing, and Bin decides to teach Qiao how to fire a gun in self-defense.
In a pivotal scene that gives the film its iconic name, Qiao helps Bin to an elevated clearing from where a dormant volcano is visible. She asserts that volcanic ash is pure before firing a gun off to the distance with Bin by her side. Anything that burns at a higher temperature is made pure, but in this case, nothing much remains over the course of sixteen years. The next scene is the only instance of bloody violence in the film. Bin’s car is stopped in the middle of the road by a bunch of young gangsters seeking to dethrone him. To save him from their onslaught, Qiao fires twice into the air and is arrested for illegally possessing a firearm. She remains incarcerated for five years. Bin doesn’t visit her in prison or help her reduce her sentence.
Chapter 2: In Search of Guo Bin
Fresh out of prison, Qiao gets scammed on a boat to Hubei while tracking down Lin Jiadong in search of Bin. Jiadong and his sister Jiayan don’t reveal that they are sheltering Bin at the moment and lie about him working at some factory in Fengjie to send her away. Qiao leaves after learning of Jiayan’s relationship with Bin. While looking for Bin’s ‘factory,’ Qiao comes across a song-and-dance crew rehearsing on the street for their upcoming auditorium show. Jia beautifully films the lead singer’s interaction with Qiao, while the lyrics of the song he sings serve as a testament to her life with and without Bin.
After a fruitless conversation with him at a motel, she attends their concert when Bin refuses to stay the night. What follows is one of the best bits of social realism ever brought to life in film. Red, blue, and yellow colors wash over the lead and his band as they perform passionately to a middle-aged, lip-syncing crowd. There is a sense of comfort in these intense colors, unlike the unease brought on by lurid neon lighting in The Wild Goose Lake (2019). On the train back to Datong, Qiao meets an overenthusiastic man who claims to be developing UFO tourism in Xinjiang but is actually a convenience store owner in Karamay. The man lures Qiao out to accompany him to his place, but she leaves shortly after.
A bright bluish light zig-zags across the dark sky. It lights up Qiao’s surroundings as she walks towards an ostensibly empty building after abandoning the Urumqi-bound train in the middle of the night. It is Qiao’s second time witnessing a UFO, a magical experience in a thoroughly non-magical situation. Based on the last chapter, we conclude that Qiao safely returns to Datong with nothing but memories of a strangely extraordinary experience.
Chapter 3: And Life Goes On
Like Abbas Kiarostami’s film of the same name (also known as Life and Nothing More), life doesn’t stop for Qiao. She is revealed to have taken over Bin and Co.’s previous hangout at Datong. Many of the earlier associates work for her and frequent the diner. She has no husband and lives alone. Qiao takes in a wheelchair-bound Bin under her care and provides him with a room and a doctor to make him walk again. We have yet to learn about the current whereabouts of Jiayan, and Qiao stalls any further discussion on the subject.
Datong looks unrecognizable as a city in transition—barren patches of land clash with newly erected technical marvels. Qiao claims not to have any feelings for Bin but attacks when he is insulted by a former associate. Bin says he returned to her because she is the only person in Datong who wouldn’t laugh at him. Bin leaves Qiao the moment he can walk again. It is not known where he goes, with the implication being he has nowhere to go. It is wonderfully poetic of Jia to juxtapose the fitting of a security camera with Bin’s disappearance. It’s as if he is saying a person who doesn’t wish to be seen cannot be seen, even with a dozen surveillance cameras by our side.
Epilogue
Ash is Purest White is a solid film with a flawless second chapter and a fantastic conclusion. Zhao Tao is magnificent, the perfect person to bring Jia’s vision to life. The film takes a direction different from usual because the protagonist is a woman in a man’s world, a female character at the forefront of a traditionally male-dominated genre of film. Jia transcends genres by giving Zhao Qiao the space to become a protagonist. Hence, Ash is Purest White is not presented as a tale of revenge or fierce love but of existence and continuity. Qiao is not a vengeful anti-hero out for blood. She is an ordinary woman in China who faces heartbreak and injustice and overcomes at least some of them, if not all.
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