What are you thinking about growing old? Is it a depiction of weakness, ugliness, or even uselessness? Perhaps, the fear and worry of old age is a horror for some people. Instead of realizing the dream of surviving to fight for a living, the image of despair over fate might just be something close to reality.
Tedious Days and Nights (Zhenmin Guo, 2023) follows the story of Zeng Dekuang, an elderly poet who returns to his homeland after a life of uncertainty. He traveled as a poet before deciding to return to his “younger days” at a coal dam. In his old age, he felt that his life force was different. Frail and lifeless.
Zeng’s return to the place reunited him with his poet friend, He Lu. This encounter made his life even more obscure. His days are filled with daytime gardening and karaoke parties at prostitution parlors. Zeng’s life change is the result of a historical wound that is slowly opened in Tedious Days and Nights (2023). His youthful life as a student leader of the democracy movement 32 years ago led him to his current path. After graduating from college, he never found a job or was accepted by a mining company. As a result, he wandered as a poet.
After reminiscing with He Lu, Zeng is also visited by another poet friend, Guan. Guan’s arrival further opens the wounds of his history. At the end of the film, Zeng, He, Guan, and other old poets gather. They sing verses and recite poems lamenting their fate and cursing President Mao. In between, jokes mocking the communist party repeatedly come out of their voices.
Tedious Days and Nights (2023) tries to invite us to witness the struggle of tracing memories that make humans dream of being able to freeze time. Old wounds that manifest into other wounds in the future are carefully presented through everything Zeng does. The hope that must eventually fade away does indeed not stop us from realizing that life must go on. At least, we all have-or will-go through it.
Tedious Days and Nights (2023) is selected in International Feature-Length Competition Festival Film Dokumenter 2023. (Ahmad Radhitya Alam) (Vanis)
Film Details
Tedious Days and Nights (混乱与细雨)
Zhenming Guo | 110 Minutes | 2023 | China | Color | 21+
Screening Schedule
12.07 | Gedung ex Bioskop Permata | 19.00 WIB
