NYAFF REVIEW: ‘Zinnia Flower’ charts the grieving process after deadly car accident
Zinnia Flower is a thoughtful, touching drama from director Tom Shu-Yu Lin that will play the 15th-annual New York Asian Film Festival, June 22 to July 9. The film charts the grieving process of a widow and widower who both lost their spouses in the same car accident. The central performances from Karena Lam and Shih Chin-Hang are beautifully realized and resoundingly poignant. Their characters take the audience through their struggle with faith, the need to settle financial affairs, the question of moving on with one’s life and the many roadblocks that occur when mourning a loved one.
Chin-Hang plays Wei, a man who has his whole life ahead of him with his wife, a piano teacher. When the accident occurs, he is presented with the difficult decision of whether to try and save his wife from her injuries or their unborn child. In the end, he is the only one to venture home from the hospital, and what should have been the beginning of a family instead results in unfortunate loneliness and tragic loss.
Lam plays Ming, who is engaged to the love of her life at the time of the accident. After she hears the news, she becomes distraught and forlorn. Instead of canceling her honeymoon vacation to Okinawa, she decides to take the trip and see what the experience would have been like. One of the most effective scenes finds Ming cradling a column of pillows on her honeymoon bed; the pillows are stand-ins for her fiancé’s body, and the hurt is palpable during the scene.
Although Zinnia Flower could have easily become cliche, the 95-minute Taiwanese film stays true to its characters and keeps the drama focused on the grieving process. Chapter headings throughout the film center the action on Buddhist rituals of how a person travels through the 100 days after a family member’s death.
The journeys of these two characters are separate. Wei tracks down his wife’s piano students and returns unused tuition to them. He receives some solace when meeting the students and hearing their kind words about his wife. Lam, on the other hand, grapples with the selling of her new home and memories of her fiancé that continue to flood her mind.
Lin, the director, has a personal connection to this narrative. In a director’s statement, he refers to the loss of his own wife and how the story of Zinnia Flower emerged from that grief. He was interested in making a movie that was honest in dealing with the process of pain and loss. He achieved that goal.
As a director, he is effective in pulling powerful performances from his two lead actors. Lam, in particular, is so realistic and nuanced as Ming. Many scenes show her simply thinking about the new reality of her life, about the memories that abruptly stopped and whether there is a pathway to the future. Chin-Hang, in his own way, matches Lam’s performance with a slightly different interpretation of the grieving process. His character is one of sudden moves and deep contemplation. On a whim, he’ll move his wife’s piano out of his field of view. In another scene, he’ll spend time on his porch looking at the skyline.
Zinnia Flower is a powerful drama that should prove to be a highlight of the New York Asian Film Festival, which is presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Subway Cinema. The movie will screen July 3 at 4:30 p.m.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
- Zinnia Flower
- In Mandarin with English subtitles
- 2015
- Directed by Tom Shu-Yin Lin
- Written by Lin and Wei-Jan Liu
- Starring Karena Lam and Shih Chin-Hang
- Running time: 95 minutes
- Rating:
