Busan Film Review: ‘The Donor’

Who says money can’t buy health or happiness? According to “The Donor,” there’s a price tag for everything. But seller beware if the buyer returns the goods. Through the harrowing story of a man who sells his kidney to improve his family’s livelihood, Zhang Yimou’s former deputy director Zhang Xichuan illustrates the yawning class gaps in modern China. There’s sustained force in the director’s almost matter-of-fact tone as he juxtaposes the outrageous impunity enjoyed by the rich with the poor’s utter vulnerability. This low-key yet provocative drama will enjoy a healthy run at festivals even if commercial prospects are slim.

A few years back, news of a teenage boy from rural China who sold his kidney to buy an iPad raised national awareness of the diseased materialism and peer pressure among the new generation. In “The Donor,” the protagonist’s reasons are grounded in more mundane economic conditions, including mass unemployment due to a market downturn, decline of state industries, and an inadequate national health care system, as well as intense pressures on families exerted by the competitive education system. These compounded factors are subtly alluded to in Qin Haiyan and Li Xiaobing’s lean screenplay, which runs a brisk 105 minutes, with almost no superfluous backstory. The fact that not only are people desperate enough to sell their organs, but that it seems as easy as trading in used cars is the film’s most disturbing revelation about society.

Yang Ba (Ni Dahong) a mechanic who’s been laid off when his factory closed down, earns a meager income repairing vehicles in a shack. His bossy wife Hua nags him to make more money, while his teenage son Bao barely acknowledges his existence, except when he needs fees for his college entrance exams. With a new railway being built, Yang knows it won’t be long before he’s evicted from his home to make room for the luxury high-rises already sprouting up around the shabby neighborhood.

So when a “freelance job” pops up, the film makes a point of showing how little he agonizes over his decision. It also shows how easy it is to exploit a loophole in medical law so that rich businessman Li Daguo (Qi Dao) can get Ba to sign an agreement saying he’s his cousin, thus making him a legitimate donor to Daguo’s sister Hui, who’s suffering from kidney failure. That Daguo keeps calling Ba “bro” and comments that “500 years ago we must have been one family,” only rubs in the cruel irony.

Ba, who hitherto has shown no visible emotion, breaks down in tears minutes before the operation, when Daguo whispers in his ear that he’s transferred 150,000 yuan (about $22,500) into his bank account. When Ba returns home afterward and makes up a story about the windfall, Hua is suddenly all smiles as she fantasizes about staying home to do nothing except “serve” her husband. It becomes clear that his sacrifice has as much to do with love as a need to prove his bruised manhood.

However, the transplant develops complications, prompting Daguo to search for a fresh, young organ. As he closes in on Ba’s son to fulfill a blatantly unfair bargain, his line of reasoning is bloodcurdling in its smug entitlement and absolute disregard for human life. There are a few twists on the way before the protagonists meet their inescapable fates.

Neither Daguo nor Hui are presented as growling monsters, but rather as people who get away with deplorable things because they can. It’s teasingly ambiguous whether humble, mild-mannered Hui is unaware of or complicit in the nefarious deals her brother is making on her behalf.

Ni’s expressionless face and bulging eyes as Ba convey a broken man who’s gotten all pride and joy knocked out of him. Meanwhile, in playing Daguo, Qi always appears in a gleaming white shirt and oozes false sincerity with silver-tongued smoothness, implying these same qualities are probably what helped the character make his millions.

Tech credits are pro within the tight budget. DP Dong Jinsong breaks up the monotony of static interior shots with gorgeous panoramic views of China’s sprawling urban landscape. His frequent use of closeups are most riveting when applied to Qi, whose blank smile makes one wonder if Daguo’s conscience pricks him at any moment. Stark shifts in lighting designate the two worlds inhabited by the Yangs and the Lis.

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