'Til Madness Do Us Part

Wang Bing's documentary was shot in the male ward of a psychiatric institution in Yunnan province in China. The camera follows the daily lives of around fifty people who live there: some for having killed, some for an offence against an official, some because of a developmental disability. The film runs over four hours, and that duration is the method. Wang Bing offers no explanation, takes no interviews and gives no names. He follows men walking a corridor, and the viewer gradually learns who is who and whose habit belongs to whom. The institution is part of the account. The doors are locked, treatment is nearly absent and the length of stay is indefinite; some have been there for years. The film does not say this in the language of criticism, it simply shows and leaves it. Who it's for: viewers prepared for the observational documentary tradition and for Wang Bing's cinema. Who it's not for: viewers with no tolerance for great length and for hard conditions shown directly; the film softens no scene.