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Mr. Zhang Believes

Name: Mr. Zhang Believes
Director: Qiu Jiongjiong
Released: 2015
Duration: 136 min

Representation Score

7.0/10

Good

2015

Director

Qiu Jiongjiong

Runtime

136 minutes

Average Rating

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New Showbiz Analysis

Mr. Zhang Believes is a powerful film that explores the intersection of political upheaval and personal identity. By blending documentary interviews with theatrical imagery, it captures the tension between individual desires and rigid social structures. The film excels by centering the underrepresented experience, particularly through its nuanced depiction of queer identity and its critique of traditional masculinity. It avoids clichés, focusing instead on the emotional authenticity of a man caught in political dogmatism. While the film is deeply rooted in a specific Chinese historical context, it challenges broader cinematic norms. It successfully portrays the individual's struggle against systemic, state-mandated oppression during a transformative era.

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Category Breakdown

Does Mr. Zhang Believes have LGBTQ+ representation?

Excellent

The film focuses on queer identity as its main storyline rather than a side plot. It uses poetic, non-linear storytelling to break down the traditional closet and challenge the straight-centered assumptions of 1980s China.

How does Mr. Zhang Believes portray gender?

Good

The narrative offers a sophisticated critique of traditional masculinity. It highlights the psychological toll of conforming to rigid gender expectations and prioritizes emotional vulnerability over conventional masculine strength.

How racially and ethnically diverse is Mr. Zhang Believes?

Good

As a localized Chinese production, the film provides a deep immersion into a non-Western historical context. It resists globalized media homogenization by rooting the protagonist's role in his specific cultural milieu.

How does Mr. Zhang Believes represent religion and culture?

Excellent

The work critiques institutional power by framing the protagonist's struggle against the backdrop of the Cultural Revolution. It prioritizes subjective, emotional truth over state-mandated morality and systemic oppression.

Does Mr. Zhang Believes include disability representation?

Minimal

There is no significant evidence regarding the portrayal of physical or neurodivergent disabilities within the film's narrative.

Present on Screen

Exceptional centering of queer identity as a primary narrative driver.
Nuanced critique of traditional masculinity and performative manhood.
Sophisticated exploration of the intersection between politics and personal identity.
Effective use of avant-garde forms to challenge historical narratives.

Limited or Absent

Limited visibility or representation regarding physical or neurodivergent disabilities.

Official Synopsis

Zhang Xianchi is a man thrown into the Cultural Revolution and its afterimage, plunged into the ideological deadlocks of the era and suffering its consequences beyond it. Born into a family that supports the nationalist Kuomintang, Zhang eventually became a leftist and joined the Communist Party. But his family’s background eventually catches up with him, and in a series of bureaucratic measures, he is labelled as a Rightist, leading to a slew of irrational yet life-affecting consequences. His story is told through an exhilarating hybrid of forms, blending documentary-styled interviews and spectral theatrical displays within an ever-mutating studio-space. Hypnagogic in its imagery and ironic in attitude, Mr. Zhang Believes is a tour-de-force treatise of a man caught within dogmatic political maneuverings, which it critiques indirectly with creative and stoic fervour.

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