It wasn’t a random act of violence like the ones that hit classrooms with greater frequency, but rather a broken spring of nature. More than 6000 parents whose children perished in the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake were inspired by the government to cut their losses and have another one. (Those who couldn’t conceive naturally were treated to in vitro fertilization.) Jian Fan spent over a decade following two families, their “replacement children,” and the chronic distress that accompanies non-healing wounds. Sheng couldn’t save his daughter Rain from the rubble, and resents her substitute for not being born a girl. Ranran began life under her grandparents’ roof; a couple could be fined for having more than one child, and the death of her sister, also named Rain, freed up a bed in her parent’s house. A calculated moment or two — the camera follows Sheng’s hand out of frame to obscure from family view the cocktail out of view of the family — are not enough to distract from Fan’s insight when objects, randomly placed in the peripherals, grow to have great significance. (2021) — Scott Marks
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