The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema & Tv
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
      • Shows
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

London Film Festival 2015

Poet on a Business Trip

London Film Festival 2015: Poet on a Business Trip | Review
11 October 2015
Melissa Hoban
Avatar
Melissa Hoban
11 October 2015

Movie and show review

Melissa Hoban

Poet on a Business Trip

★★★★★

Links

FacebookWebsite

Special event

Poet on a Business Trip follows the 40-day journey across China’s Xinjing region by director Ju Anqui and sole actor and poet Hou Xianbo, over a decade ago. It gives the audience an opportunity to look back at a land that has undergone extensive social change subject to China’s recent rapid globalisation, modernisation and economic growth.

At its core, the film is an honest depiction of human nature, visually guiding the viewer through the dusty landscapes of Xinjiang to the depressing dives where prostitutes entertain alcoholics. As Xianbo experiences the lives of ordinary people he creates the 16 poems that form and structure the piece. The poems reflect the simplicity of these lives, of sitting round and sharing food and beer with friends. Even Anqui and Xianbo’s relationship remains unglamourised as we see the emotional toll the journey takes on their friendship. A poet’s role is to compact human nature into a chunk that affects in a small space; Anqui shows us this process through the people he meets and the landscapes he encounters, creating something that is uncomplicated yet artful.

Whilst the fact that the film is in black and white was an accident (the colours degraded in the decade it took to make), it is a perfect addition as accidental atmospheric emphasis. The poems are powerful and often funny as they show a side to Chinese culture often not portrayed. This is a wonderful, uncontrolled look at the culture of a country.

It has been said that all film narratives can be associated with seven basic plots. Poet on a Business Trip falls under The Quest, depicting a journey of discovery – a trope that has been widely used and will be used again – and though it is slightly limited, Ju Anqui manages to refresh the familiar theme through the original landscape it depicts and a unique structure founded in the medium of poetry.

★★★★★

Melissa Hoban

Poet on a Business Trip does not have a UK release date yet.

For further information about the 59th London Film Festival visit here, and for more of our coverage visit here.

Watch the trailer for Poet on a Business Trip here:

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

Related Itemsreview

More in Film festivals

Valentina

★★★★★
Emma-Jane Betts
Read More

Kiss Me Before It Blows Up

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Tove

★★★★★
Guy Lambert
Read More

Well Rounded

★★★★★
Emma-Jane Betts
Read More

Dramarama

★★★★★
Emma Kiely
Read More

Rūrangi

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Rebel Dykes

★★★★★
Emma-Jane Betts
Read More

Firebird

★★★★★
Emma Kiely
Read More

A River Runs, Turns, Erases, Replaces: An interview with filmmaker Shengze Zhu

Selina Sondermann
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Melissa Hoban

Poet on a Business Trip

★★★★★

Links

FacebookWebsite

Special event

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Kaleo – Surface Sounds
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • London’s Michelin-starred restaurants open al fresco right now – and all those re-opening in May
    Food & Drinks
  • Weezer with the LA Philharmonic and YOLA at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Online
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • The Motherhood Project: An interview with creator and curator Katherine Kotz
    Theatre
  • Ride or Die
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Sheep Without a Shepherd
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Forget Everything and Run
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Turtle Opera: An interview with Turtle Key Arts artistic director Charlotte Cunningham
    Theatre
  • Laddie: The Man Behind the Movies
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Fear of Rain
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • 50 Next unveils the new generation of food industry pioneers
    Food & Drinks
  • Arlo the Alligator Boy
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • London’s Michelin-starred restaurants open al fresco right now – and all those re-opening in May
    Food & Drinks
  • Campfire in Kings Cross: Two Tribes deliver everything you’ve been missing with a night of beer, BBQ and live music
    Food & Drinks
  • Live from the Barbican: Moses Boyd
    ★★★★★
    Live music
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

London Film Festival 2015: Sailing a Sinking Sea | Review
London Film Festival 2015: Black Mass | Review