As The Water Flows is one of many Asian films that played at the VIFF this year. Its subject matter isn’t exactly a film that would make you want to see it, but it’s worth seeing.

The film begins with a grandfather on a boat on a river with his grandchildren. The film then goes to the grandfather Xie Shuwen, a former college professor. He’s with his new girlfriend whom he has seen recently since his wife died. He will be having a dinner with his daughters and he’s unsure they will be happy with the news of her. The dinner happens and all three daughters are there with their husbands. Only one daughter brought their child: a pre-teen chubby boy named Panda. He delivers the news, but they’re not happy about it. Especially the oldest and the most orderly of the daughters. After the dinner, bad memories of the past agent the daughters.

After the dinner, the daughters move on with their lives. They’re busy maintaining a career, their own families and their children. They want their children to grow up well and be successful but there will be difficulties ahead. One daughter is proud that her son, the eldest grandson, is going to Stanford the next year. Suspicion of what’s really happening grows when Xie notices the grandson drunk. Panda appears to participate in classes well but he is the target of bullying because of his short overweight stature. Another daughter of Xie’s is unhappy her own daughter quit a job in a family restaurant and has different career desires.

Meanwhile Xie learns he has a terming lung cancer diagnosis. As he knows he’s dying, he continues to spend his quiet time at Green Lake Park but he also uses the time to spend more time with people close to him. That includes his new girlfriend, friends from the college he taught at, neighbors, and his families. Family dinners become more common. One daughter notices how he has become closer to the family even more so than when they were younger. She also notices how his harmonica which he used to play often is showing age. She’s especially angry when she learns he’s still smoking and playing mah-jong.

As time passes, what the children are hiding becomes more obvious. The granddaughter wants to go her own direction and she has fallen in love with a man. She hints she may want to marry. The older grandson admits he forged the acceptance letter to Stanford and that he will really be going to a common University. He’s broken-hearted about this. Also Panda is unhappy with the demanding regiment at his school. It becomes frustrating to the point Panda buries his schoolbooks in dirt. It’s time with grandfather Shuwen that the grandchildren are able to be more confident with their life and their decisions. Even the older grandson is able to find luck in his life as he meets the granddaughter of one of his grandfather’s professor friends.

Shuwen then has one last visit with his girlfriend. It’s a nice quiet occasion. The marriage between the granddaughter and her boyfriend happens and Shuwen is happy to be there. The occasion is a happy occasion for all and he’s able to have amicable conversations with his daughters, despite his cancerous coughing. The ending and credits role gives a hint the wedding is the last family occasion Shuwen is present.

The film is as much about the family dynamic and the family ties as it is about the main protagonist trying to find his purpose to live. We have the widowed grandfather who has recently been diagnosed with lung cancer. Even though he lost his wife, he wants to maintain a life for himself by playing mah-jong, meeting with his professor friends and dating again. We have the three daughters who are trying to maintain their careers, keep their marriages together, and raise their children for the future. They’re the ones with the biggest struggles now. Finally, we have the three cousins that treat each other like siblings. They dream of the future, but they also fear for it. They feel it’s demanding and unforgiving and they either don’t know what to do or they want to do it their way.

This all comes as Xie Shuwen learns he is dying, just a year after his wife’s death. He spends time with his children and their families. He becomes like a guide or a mentor to the grandchildren while the daughters feel he didn’t spend enough time with them during his professor days. It’s possible he wants to seek relations with his grandchildren and resolve with his daughters. It’s not an easy thing to do with the constant arguing between the daughters and him. To add to it, the daughters are not very welcoming to his new girlfriend.

The story is told through all angles. The biggest angle seen is through Xie’s, but we also see the story through the angles of the daughters and the grandchildren. The multiple angles make for a good way of telling a story and presenting the complicated scenarios, but it can get confusing at times. The story itself is so complex, it can often seem like a drama that’s drawn out longer than it should be. Often throughout the film, you’re tempted to question who the story is mostly about. Some would argue the film follows the same formula as 1989’s Parenthood. Some would also say it has a similar sound of 2001’s The Royal Tenenbaums. It’s easy to dismiss as such but if you see the story, it relates to real situations that one can see happening in their own family. That’s the biggest quality of the film. That probably every family can see an element of the film or the characters in their own life.

This film is the directorial and writing debut for Zhuo Bian. Not much is known about Zhuo’s filmmaking before this film, according to IMDB. With this film, he creates a well-arranged family story that starts with a family dinner, goes into the lives of the separate families and the members, often returning with another family dinner from time to time, then going off again, and ending with the wedding. This type of storytelling allows the story to be told from all angles and remind us that it’s a family story. It’s very complex and sometimes difficult to connect all the stories together, but Zhuo does a very good job. He also does a great job in placing the story to the Green Lake Park in Kunming, China. That’s the place where Xie often visits or meets with others as he reflects on his thoughts. Adding that in adds to the sensitivity and solitude of the story.

The film has excellent acting from Li Zhenping as Xie. As the grandfather who’s at a crossroads between living again after losing his wife and just learning he’s dying, he does a great performance that is low on the drama but makes for honest emotions. He does a great job of holding the story together. It’s hard to pick out the best supporting performance because all the other actors did an excellent job of playing their parts well. The daughters, the sons in law, the grandchildren, they all did their parts well. The cinematography of Wang Zixuan and Jie Zhu gave the dramatic story a picturesque telling with its various shots happening inside homes and outside in nature.

As The Water Flows is as much about the family dynamic over three generations as it is about the difficulty of a grandfather trying to maintain a family and maintain one’s life. It’s possible you can see something where you can identify in your own life with this film.