At the beginning of January 2020, Xiaorui, a director from China, decides to boot up a soon-to-be-discarded desktop computer to see what’s on the drive. He and his longtime crew members are surprised to see the final cut of the first film they ever worked on, a story of a young gay man that had never been published and still needed an ending. Xiaorui calls the film’s featured actor and his former producer, holding a private showing for all the old cast before he invites them to shoot a closing chapter for the film in an attempt to rekindle the project. After a bit of convincing, the crew agrees to gather at a hotel a few days later to start shooting the final scenes. During this first day, however, roadblocks appear and news of a strange disease spreading through Wuhan hits social media. The crew scrambles to respond to this emerging threat, but some are trapped in the hotel by quarantine procedures.
In An Unfinished Film, Director Lou Ye combines both fictional and documentary footage freely, and for those looking for a semi-genuine documentary, this will be frustrating: What was actually captured during the pandemic and what was put together to create the story are often unclear, and even when it is made clear, it’s being used to prop up the story. This makes it hard to tell where the truth begins and even what is being said or implied at times. The way documentary style is used makes for a particularly boring drama as well. A lot of highly positive reviews of An Unfinished Film heap praise like The Wrap’s “one of the most thoughtful, truthful and tactful depictions of the pandemic ever put to screen”, but I can’t figure out what they were talking about. This is the least thoughtful film I’ve ever seen about covid, and in many moments I was completely unable to identify with what was going on from any angle. It feels more like a film that’s trying to fabricate a memory than to genuinely remember.
An Unfinished Film ultimately lacks perspective: While people were dying, nurses and doctors were working multi-day shifts with no hope of replacement, and millions fell terribly ill, we watch this minor celebrity get room service and chain-smoke and whine about it on video chat. And none of that other stuff ever comes into proper focus, it’s all about the *pain* of missing out on New Year's celebrations (that didn’t get to happen anyway). Because of the seamless use of fiction and documentary footage on top of a hard to follow and difficult to swallow plotline, I can’t call An Unfinished Film anything close to “thoughtful, truthful and tactful”. Not Recommended.
Who might enjoy this COVID-19 pandemic film?
Viewers interested in experimental filmmaking, hybrid docu-fiction narratives, or Chinese independent cinema may find An Unfinished Film interesting. Fans of metafictional storytelling or behind-the-scenes drama might also appreciate its layered structure though traditional documentary audiences may be left cold.
How can libraries use this film in pandemic-era collections?
Public and academic libraries curating titles on the COVID-19 pandemic could include An Unfinished Film as a conversation piece or example of hybrid narrative techniques. It can serve as a counterpoint in discussions about how art represents global trauma but it is best paired with more grounded titles to provide broader context.