NYFF 2020: The Calming Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s New York Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

The Calming is a simple yet challenging film. It’s the sort of quiet film one could meditate to with the dialogue off. That doesn’t mean it’s bad or good, it just is.

The Calming follows a Lin Tong (Qi Xi), a Chinese filmmaker, as she travels around Japan, Hong Kong, and Mainland China following a breakup. While her ex-boyfriend is merely mentioned briefly at various times, never seen. Yet his presence is like a phantom hovering over Lin’s journey. While in Japan, she only briefly mentions the breakup to a colleague over lunch. When staying with a friend in Hong Kong, she hastily asks to change the subject when the ex is mentioned. When visiting her elderly parents in China, Lin only shrugs and talks about how her ex is out of town a lot for work. And in between these brief windows into her social life, we simply watch her spend time aimlessly wandering the streets or wistfully staring out of the windows of cars, trains, and hotel rooms.

What’s ironic about The Calming is that, in its pacing and tone, writer/director Song Fang has created something that feels like a Zen Buddhist mantra like “Be here now.” And yet, Lin and the film’s dialogue are doing all they can to avoid being too present in the moment to avoid confronting the breakup’s pain. It acknowledges that life is full of pain, yet also reminds us that we must shut out our desires to diminish suffering.

There’s not much more to be said about The Calming. Outside of a handful of small moments where Lin’s facade cracks, the film is a still pond. It lives up to its title.

still courtesy of NYFF

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Guest Writer