Quitting

The Shower team changes direction with a dramatised re-creation of a screwed-up junkie's agonising steps towards rehab. Jia Hongsheng was a movie star in China before he got into 'new wave' film-making (Lou Ye's Weekend Lover, Wang Xiaoshuai's Frozen) and discovered heroin. He quickly became a junkie recluse, ripping off his friends, obsessed with Beatles music and convinced he was John Lennon's son. His anxious parents moved in to try to cure him, but gave up when he assaulted his father. Hospital care eventually helped him enough to resume acting (Suzhou River), but his future remains insecure. Zhang Yang directed Jia on stage ten years ago, which must be why he was able to persuade him and his family and friends to re-enact these painful episodes. But the film isn't docu-drama for its own sake; Zhang introduces Brechtian moments to stress that it is a re-enactment, and uses the story to reflect on a turbulent, self-destructive period in Chinese culture.