Director: Chuyao He
Writer: Chuyao He (Screenplay)
Starring: Jianchun Hao, Deyang Hou, Chengiang Li, Xianyuan Zhu
Plot: An 18-years-old Chinese teenager enters the merciless commercial world as a hard labor, where leads to the failure of his last struggle of innocence.
Runtime: 15 Minutes
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Important Look Before the Curtain of Christmas
Story: Before Christmas starts as teenager Xiao (Hou) and his family father Lao (Zhu) & Mother (Hao) move to poor part of a big Chinese city where Xiao and Lao start working in a Christmas decoration factory, they must work long hours and reach the supply demand to get paid. Xiao dreams of being a singer and can’t remain focused in this job, but his family needs the money. At 18-years-old Xiao must make the decision to follow his dream or face the reality of his life in this factory.
Thoughts on Before Christmas
Characters – The characters show us the family and the change they must make, Lao has always worked and knows how the get and keep a job, the mother has always looked after the house, but Xiao must accept that he has dropped out of studying and will need to face this life to survive. Xiao shows us the character that will face many young men at this age, the reality of life over the dreams you are pushed to aspire towards.
Performances – The performances from the actors help paint this bleak future for Xiao, they show us just how you could see the lives of these characters suffer from day to day.
Story – The story while short does follow Xiao needing to face the reality of life, while aspiring to be a singer. The reality is the family we need to work in a sweet shop style factory to supply the demanded for Christmas decorations in the western world. We see in jut the short time how the demanded rises and the workload goes past the possible achievement for a day forcing the people to continue on the work they are not prepared for. This shows us in a short story just how Christmas for everyone isn’t what we believe, we see how people must work in slave like conditions to prepare those material goods for that one month of the year, this does have the message for people to see and is one that will be important to the people who don’t understand or appreciate the meaning of Christmas anymore.
Settings – The settings show us the world this family is going to be facing for years to come, the bleakness of the future of a family stuck in this labor demand jobs.
Scene of the Movie – The date on the calendar.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – I would like to have seen what pushed them into this move in the first place.
Final Thoughts – This is a movie that shows us the work people must put in, so the Western world can celebrate Christmas, not fair equal pay, or work level expected the people to do. It shows the hardship families will face meeting this demand.
Overall: Important look behind the curtain of people needing to learn about Christmas.
Rating
