While 30 years separate “Art College 1994” from the here-and-now, the righteousness with which university students conduct themselves is eternal. We can look to contemporary events for more egregious examples of this phenomenon, but director Liu Jan, who wrote the script for his film along with Lin Shan, relies on hindsight to bestow a droll clarity on the pretensions, ambitions, and confusions of the young.
“Art College 1994” is a coming-of-age picture that is as much about societal change as it is about growing up. Mr. Liu’s biographical particulars likely figure into the story — he was a student at the Nanjing Art Institute during the story’s time-frame — but there’s no doubting that he poached upon China’s “time full of hope and ideals.” Mr. Liu has spoken of the changes resulting from his native country’s adoption of a market-driven economy and how this led to a greater awareness of Western culture. Not for nothing does the film begin with a quote from James Joyce.
The settings we see throughout “Art College 1994,” as well as the conversations between its characters, are peppered with non-Chinese references — from Marcel Duchamp and Henri Matisse to Kurt Cobain and Sophia Loren. At the music conservatory, a poster of Beethoven is an ever-present companion to burgeoning concert pianist Hao Lili (Zhou Dongyu) and aspiring singer Gao Hong (Papi Jiang). At the men’s dorm, “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” is passed around like a hot ticket. Outside the school grounds, Ronald McDonald is a constant companion, providing the lone splash of color in an otherwise drab township.
Did I mention that “Art College 1994” is a cartoon? The animation is naturalistic and of a piece with previous films by Mr. Liu, including “Have a Nice Day” (2018) and his debut, “Piercing I” (2010). The style of drawing employed is stark, stopping just short of caricature; the movement of the film is similarly limited. A precise linearity defines forms, bringing to mind the draftsmanship of Tintin’s creator, Hergé, and the meticulous contours typical of a 19th-century Japanese artist, Hiroshige. The color palette is flatly applied and as fresh or as drab as need be.
“Art College 1994” initially alights on two painting students, Rabbit (Shaoxing) and Xiaojun (Dong Zijian). The latter is studying traditional Chinese ink painting; the former, oils. They hang out with a cadre of ne’er-do-wells, including perpetual art school hanger-on Zhao Youcai (Huang Bo in philosophical stoner mode). The friends share a bête noire in another student, Lin Weiguo (Bai Ke), who has that rarest of all prizes: a blond American girlfriend. The glamourous Hao and winsome Gao are, to one extent or another, romantically interested in our heroes, but fate has its wiles, as do families who arrange marriages.
The screenwriters are blessed with a dry sense of humor — so dry that viewers who haven’t attended to issues endemic to the contemporary art scene might miss it altogether. Messrs. Jiu and Lin are as exacting as they are understated in their dialogue: The script is peppered with deadpan asides, mordant turns-of-phrase, and clueless reactions. Toward the beginning of the picture, Rabbit and Youcai have a conversation about Conceptual Art that is hopelessly circuitous and very funny. Naivete and cynicism are natural bedfellows.
“Art College 1994” is an amiable entertainment that shambles on for 30 minutes more than it should. Although Mr. Liu feints at having dramatic arcs, the movie doesn’t follow through on them in any concrete way, leaving characters high-and-dry when it deigns to take note of them at all. A handful of musical interludes have been included, I suppose, to provide tone, but the picture already has tone to spare.
The maundering of 20-somethings is something best savored in small doses. Those who have a fondness for their peregrinations, or a long memory, will forgive the peccadilloes of Mr. Liu’s wry and bittersweet outing.
