Zhi yin

From its crisp script to its entrancing cinematography, Guidance is a dazzling and ambitious debut film. Thoughtfully executed in every detail, this near-future sci-fi tale raises intriguing and confounding questions about relationships - interpersonal and with technology -- and the nature of truth itself. It pushes its modest budget with fantastic performances, elegant production design, and bold ambition. It's the kind of film that really sticks with you!

In the not-too-distant future, humanity slowly rebuilds itself a decade after The Great War. Believing that the ability to lie is the root cause of the devastating conflict, a tech entrepreneur creates a pill containing a nanotechnology app known as "Guidance" that allegedly will make everyone more enlightened. Once swallowed, an A. I. "installs" in the person's nervous system and aids their ability to detect deception in other people among other enhancements.

A young couple goes on a weekend retreat to the countryside, and they begin to use Guidance. However, recent events have potentially compromised their trust in one another. With the tech in their bodies, the couple tries to subvert Guidance in the hopes of saving their relationship before it's too late.

Starring Sun Jia as Han Miao and Harry Song as Mai Zi Xuan, with additional support from Francesco Chen (Su Jie), the paltry casting supports the overall minimalist nature of the film. Sun Jia, while sharing the majority of the movie with Song, is the film's standout as the woman playing multiple games in attempt to salvage a crumbling relationship. Her performance is brilliant, playing through levels of anger, despair, and coyness. It's Miao's duplicitous nature, seen up front in the film's first few minutes, that makes Jia's performance fascinating to watch; the question of if she'll manage to successfully navigate a potentially relationship-destroying weekend is the hook that keeps the viewer locked in. Also starring Harry Song as Mai Zi Xuan, the sly setup of the secrets Mai is keeping goes a long way to exemplifying the toxicity of a lack of open communication between the two. More on the backpedal throughout the film than Miao is, Mai's wish for a quiet getaway of connecting with nature and watching launching rockets unfortunately doesn't work out in his favor. Song plays Mai's frustrations, fears, and unwillingness to fully open himself to Miao wonderfully; thanks to the performance from the two leads the question can arguably be raised of whether or not these two are better off apart. Francesco Chen's Su Jie, the fly in the ointment between the two, is a delightfully greasy one-note antagonist with a singular goal in mind and will stop at nothing to achieve his wants. While in movie far less than the leads, with maybe 10 total minutes of screen time, Chen makes the best of it, delivering a character you love to hate.

Written and directed by Neysan Sobhani, his first feature length film, Guidance displays a filmmaker using the confidence of his previous short films parlayed into a solid initial outing. Running at a scant 93 minutes, the movie packs a lot into that short amount of time: expert setups, mystery, secrets, unexpected revelations, and a ton of dramatic irony. Sobhani's decision to place the couple in isolation reflects the isolation they feel from each other, hoping to reconnect and start fresh with the help of Guidance. The quasi love triangle interspersed within the weekend getaway is wonderfully edited, saving some of the juiciest bits for the third act and ensuring the audience stays on the hook throughout. The cinematography is gorgeous as well, director of photography Saba Mazloum takes full advantage of the natural light provided by the set design's open-window spaces; wall to floor glass panels gives the couple the illusion of transparency and Mazloum lets the sun do the majority of the lighting work. The outside shots are just as beautiful; the open serenity of nature conflicts with the invasive presence of technology in a way that suggests Sobhani may be gently rebuking the technological advances of the world: the further down this path we go, the more we lose our relationship with nature.

Overall, Guidance will be a slept-on piece of science fiction that will be overshadowed by bigger, flashier, larger budget films. That's unfortunate; the quiet character work, the solid direction from Sobhani, and the juxtaposition between the openness of the natural world and the closed off nature of the characters' relationship all combine to create a more than worthy addition to the genre. Free of an overabundance of visual effects, the focus on solid acting and solid storytelling are first and foremost. A quiet study on trust and how secrets can poison a relationship, Guidance is a must-see for fans of character-driven stories.

Other reviewers have a synopsis of the storyline so this is not a review of the movie in that sense. So, no spoilers here.

I can count the number of original and exciting movies I have seen in the past 20 years on the fingers of one hand. Hands down the acting, directing and storytelling in this film are top notch.

You will need to watch the movie at least a couple of times to get more out of it.

Slow burn and beautiful to watch - but the thing that kept me thinking for days was the dawning realization of the potential reality of this kind bio tech and now suddenly AI is blowing up in the news at the same time. So glad I caught this little gem on the plane. It was overly ambitious and that's not a bad thing in this case because it kept its identity and made sure to contain my expectations within the small universe created in the story. The actors I didn't recognise but then again I don't watch that many Chinese films but I thought they hit all cylinders. And the music was really gripping.

Guidance is an intriguing international science-fiction drama by Iranian director Neysan Sobhani shot in Mandarin with only four young actresses and actors. The film revolves around a young couple that retreats to a modern cottage in the mountains as they wait for their scheduled rocket trip to leave planet Earth. They decide to take a special type of pill known as Guidance that allows them step by step to discover everything they want to know about their partners. Soon, the young couple realizes that both partners have some hidden secrets and try to come to terms with the truth behind appearances.

This movie convinces on numerous levels. The science-fiction elements are carefully employed and never exaggerated. The film offers the backdrop of a disastrous war in the past, a recent terrorist attack, plans for evacuation from the planet and an interconnected society that slowly eliminates privacy and secrets. This movie subtly criticizes megalomaniac social media moguls, overambitious scientists and repressive governments without pointing fingers at any specific company, country or culture. This film is thought-provoking and worth to be discussed as its dystopian backdrop is terrifyingly realistic.

Another strength are the excellent acting performances. This movie essentially revolves around three characters that are supposed to carry this movie through its running time of ninety-three minutes. Despite a somewhat slow start, all three characters become more complex, intriguing and profound as the movie progresses. Another interesting element to notice is that all characters have significant flaws and strengths which make them credible and easy to empathize with.

The acting performances are also quite satisfactory. The performances are careful and slow but at the same time emotional and realistic. The dialogues have been established with great care. Since this movie tries to have a realistic vibe, the actresses and actors involved are enjoyably composed and never overact for the sake of attention.

The settings of this film have also been chosen with care. This movie has a constant vibe of isolation in the isolated cottage, the huge company building and the expensive bunker. Even though the decorations show a certain elegance, taste and wealth, they can't hide that all locations feel clinical, cold and void.

The soundtrack also blends in very well. It focuses on timeless classical music that underlines the movie's scenes decently without being overtly domineering. Just like the settings, the score seems intellectually intriguing at first contact but ends up sounding emotionally distant and even starts lacking identity. Settings and soundtrack complete each other splendidly.

The most notable downside of this film is its slow pace that takes some time to get used to. However, after a first third with a few lengths, the second third establishes the relationships between the different characters very well and the last third answers several important questions and even includes a creative twist that most viewers won't see coming.

At the end of the day, science-fiction drama Guidance deserves its excellent reviews and should benefit from much more attention. Iranian director Neysan Sobhani is a name contemporary cinephiles should remember. Let's hope that there are more full length features to come from this creative, subtle and talented artist.