Ermo
Hong Kong, 1994; Chinese with English subtitles
Seen on video with Linda.
Ermo is the much younger wife of a former village "chief" who is trying, in rural Chinese fashion, to keep up with the Joneses. The town is nestled in the mountains and is accessible by a long winding mountain road. All the houses are about ten feet apart from each other. Ermo, her husband and son live in a comfortable house, but their neighbor--"Blindman"--is a successful hauler and has a TV. The only TV in the village. Tiger, Ermo's son, is constantly over there watching the tube
Ermo spends long days in physical labor, weaving baskets and making twisty noodles. She then trudges into the closest larger town to sell her wares. She is determined and will not be bargained down her selling prices. She endures the insults of Blindman's wife and eventually decides that she is going to make enough money to buy the biggest TV in the county, one even the county chief does not have. This leads her to eventually working in the city as a noodle maker at a restaurant, and even living away from home so she can make as much money as she can and not waste time commuting. She even starts selling blood for money, at an alarming rate. Another evil enters the picture as well: Blindman, who constantly complains of his "fat, slack-assed wife" is paying Ermo a lot of mind, and making the career suggestions that keep her from her home
Ermo is a tedious cross between Madame Bovary and Sunrise. It is hard to know whether or not it is the cultural differences that make it a less than compelling experience, or if it is in fact just slow moving and unempathetic. The movie clearly moralizes that the best things in life are free. That Ermo sinks to demeaning depths all for the sake of buying a 29-inch TV set really hits you over the head.
China is undergoing a major cultural change as free-market influences force rural dwellers into facing the 20th Century. Ermo's husband was once the Communist chief of the village. He keeps reminding everyone that he is no longer the chief when he is called by that nickname. It is clear that having what you need and living communally has been replaced by the art of the deal and having it all. If nothing else, Ermo provides a glimpse of what sort of mindset and circumstances a tremendous percentage of the global population possess. If most Chinese villages are like the one in Ermo, you can easily understand why the news of Tianenmen Square was easily propagandized; what you cannot see or hear, you cannot think about.
Ermo, like many women she probably represents, is naive and the best parts of the movie are when she "visits" the TV she intends to buy, wondering if the TV has forgotten Chinese when foreign language programs, and hoping it does not "wear out" by the time she has saved up enough yuan to buy it. God only knows what she would do when she finds out about VCRs.
Was it all worth it for Ermo? In many ways, the final moments of the film answer that question very well.
More reviews by Seth Bookey are available at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2679/kino.html
Copyright (c); 1997 Seth J. Bookey, New York, NY 10021 USA, sethbook@panix.com.
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