Touch (2020)

Content by Tony Macklin. Originally published on May 25, 2021 @ tonymacklin.net.

Touch could be called Grasp. It's in the total grip of Aleksandra Szczepanowska, who wrote, directed, and played the leading character in the film.

With Touch she was the first western woman to make an indie in the People's Republic of China. It's a tour de force accomplishment.

One of the strengths of Touch is its unpredictability. But that also leads to a lack of clarity.

In some ways, Szczepanowska throws everything against the screen to see what sticks. Not everything does.

Touch is the tale of the psychological, physical, tactile being of Fei Fei (Szczepanowska), a Caucasian woman married to Zhang Hua (Jun Yang), a Chinese man. They have moved to China, where Fei Fei is trying unsuccessfully to gain the status of Permanent Residency.

He husband keeps her at a frustrating distance from his business life and some of his social life. She is a dance teacher with a penchant for the tango.

She is restless, but meets Bai Yu (Jiangwei Yuan), a young, blind masseur - in a scene that may demand suspension of disbelief. They begin a sensual relationship that evolves into a dangerous state. She has two lovers - one gentle, the other harsh. But they both change, and she finds herself in a life of disorientation.

Szczepanowska employs often-blurry cinematography by Wei Ji - rain on a window, a spinning dance hall, an embracing couple. But blurry cinematography may not be the best way to show emotion.

However, Szczepanowska is a perceptive director. She even includes a reference to Gaslighting. And, about an hour and 20 minutes into the film, she employs a Hitchcockian shot of a man going up stairs with a knife-like object in his hand.

Szczepanowska may have a wayward touch, but her film still has enough firmness and ingenuity to move us.