“The Secret Child” is a story common in a part of mainland China where some village children are brought up in single-parent families because their fathers have got remarried in the town where they work.
The chief female character is the ‘secret child’, whose father has all the while hidden her existence from his second wife. As if to emphasize the secrecy, her name is not even mentioned throughout the entire film. Her surprise visit, therefore, causes turbulence in the peaceful life of the three - member family and the ripples thus caused will remain forever.
The twenty-minute-plus film tells a very realistic story through vivid character interactions. For example, the girl is robbed of her wallet on her arrival at the town market. Her unwariness implies that she is there only for the first visit. When enjoying the drumstick with her father, she starts giggling for no reason at all, showing her long- cherished desire to be with him. Brushing her hair aside, the second wife comments on the girl’s resemblance to her father, her voice dripping with hatred and jealousy. When the young boy asks his sister whether she is there only for a visit, the woman’s intention is clear even without a separate scene showing her disapproval of the girl’s permanent residence. In fact, with structured details and dialogues well designed, the film is interesting despite the lack of entertainment elements.
On the other hand, the director seems to provide reasons for the treatment the girl receives. The scene showing the couple crammed in a bed with the boy in between is an indication of their financial difficulty. Besides, their store is unlikely to be very flourishing as it is located in a lonely part of the market with the neighbouring shops all closed. Besides, they keep talking about their inability to rent a bigger warehouse to guard the merchandize against typhoon attacks. All these seem to justify their reluctance to accept an added family member.
Moreover, the man is, after all, a very caring father. He asks whether the girl has had enough to eat. When the girl falls while roller-skating, he hurries to her rescue immediately. Then it is merely to sooth his wife’s anger that he slaps the girl for her slight mistake, for he later pulls a blanket round her shoulders, expressing his regret. He is obviously the last one who would opt to send her away.
Where filming techniques are concerned, the director seems intent on giving realism to a few scenes with the use of a hand-held camera. Medium shots follow the girl during her search for her father among crowded stalls with messy displays of merchandize. At times, the shots move a bit closer to the girl’s face to draw attention to her anxiety and insecurity in a totally strange environment. This is also true of the scene of a church with a queue waiting for drumsticks and noodles to be distributed. Similarly, handheld shots follow the girl when she is leaving the town, her back hunching as if weighed down by sadness. All this very effectively creates intimate moments by pulling the audience into the scenes.
Everything happens within a couple of days. The girl’s visit, like the typhoon, has caused some disturbance to the family. With her departure, however, life should be back to normal. Nevertheless, though the typhoon has gone, there is still worry about the coming of another. Likewise, the couple will, from now on, live with the thought about the girl’s revisit at any time. Indeed the repeated appearance of the red scarf probably suggests the endless existence of the family ties, as implied in the Chinese name “無休無止”.
