Ghost Town is an independent Chinese documentary by Zhao Dayong about Zhiziluo, a run-down and forsaken place in a mountainous region of Yunnan. The residents try to survive amidst wild dogs, dilapidated buildings, and a paucity of businesses. While people in China's large cities are beginning to taste the delights of material prosperity, these poor people have very little to spur them on to new dreams. In an interview, director Zhao Dayong says: "In this film I wanted to explore the idea of these lost histories and ravaged cultures, and by extension my own cultural identity, by delving into the lives and spirit of the ghost town of Zhiziluo." This ambitious and revealing documentary is divided into three distinct sections, each with its own stories and thematic emphasizes.
"Voices" focuses on Yuehan, a local Christian minister, and his 87-year-old father, John the Elder, a pastor who was taught by Western missionaries and spent time in prison for his faith. The older man of the cloth is very conservative and in a dispute with his son, argues that the Bible is against the use of musical instruments. He holds on to a passage from the Old Testament while Yuehan tries to change his mind with the argument that as long as they serve God they are okay. At a worship service, the people of his congregation sing at the top of their voices in strange harmonies. There are some deep-seated antagonisms between Yuehan and his father which surface in their encounters.
In "Recollections," we see how some negative and divisive forces are at work in Zhiziluo, causing pain and suffering. An enterprising young man who drives a truck is shocked when he learns that his girlfriend's parents want to sell her in order to make some money; he decides to leave the ghost town for a brighter future elsewhere.
Where there is poverty and hopelessness, there is addiction. A young drunken man argues with his elderly mother who is disappointed in him. Another oddball in the community is splitting with his wife and entertaining far-out fantasies of what he could accomplish on his own. He drinks too much as well. Both of these addicts seem to worse off than the dogs, cats, and chickens who wander the streets.
The final segment, "Innocence," looks at the primal struggle for existence of a 12 year old who lives alone in an abandoned building, catches small birds for his meals, and is shown wrestling with a pack of other boys who are incapable of subduing him. His freedom gives him plenty of time to explore and to play. He and a buddy attend a Lisu exorcism with a small group of others who end the ritual by chasing away the ghosts in the town.
Ghost Town captures and conveys the weakness of community in a depressed and forgotten place where religion is the only ballast that people have to hold on to in the midst of deprivation.
Screened at the 47th New York Film Festival, September 2009
