Le Monde’s review – Must-see
Cinephiles seeking both entertainment and respite from the summer heat may have noticed a notable number of Chinese films on offer in theaters recently. Among them, My Father’s Son, which introduces a previously unknown young talent to audiences outside China, stands out as one to watch. With this second feature – his first was not released internationally – Qiu Sheng, 35, takes on a subject as universal as the film’s title suggests.
Each type of parent-child relationship has its own signature. When it comes to fathers and sons, the necessary rivalry, unspoken love, the formative bond to rules and, ultimately, the regret of realizing essential truths too late to share them with one’s father are all familiar themes. Not to mention, as some particularly extreme Greek or Viennese texts suggest, the possibility of parricide.
All this makes fertile ground for great cinema, as demonstrated by such masterpieces as The Kid (1921) by Charlie Chaplin; There Was a Father (1942) by Yasujiro Ozu; Moonfleet (1955) by Fritz Lang; Misunderstood (1966) by Luigi Comencini; Little Odessa (1994) by James Gray; and The Return (2003) by Andrey Zvyagintsev. In its own way, My Father’s Son displays remarkable delicacy and narrative audacity, and brings a motif as old as the Bible (see Genesis, Chapter 22) into the age of artificial intelligence.
You have 62.53% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.
