Nostalgia takes on a bittersweet cast in Chinese director Dong Zijian’s debut feature, My Friend An Delie, which had its world premiere on October 28 in the Competition section of the 37th Tokyo International Film Festival.
 
When the protagonist, Li Mo (Liu Haoran), flies to his hometown to attend his father’s funeral, he runs into his old junior high school friend, An Delie (played by the director himself), on the plane. But An Delie professes to not recognize him as Li Mo, thus setting his old friend to the task of interrogating his own memory to see what it actually contains. In the process, he realizes that what he believed was a true friendship may have been seen differently by An Delie, a person whose emotional rudder has always been difficult to control, owing to his contrary nature.
 
During the post-screening Q&A session, it was revealed that Liu, the actor, and Dong, the director, were close friends in real life. Liu was asked by an audience member if this friendship affected the way he approached his role, and how Dong differed from other directors he’d worked with. “I had limited understanding of what he was doing at first, but I’d have to say he is quite a serious director,” answered Liu. “Since we’re about the same age, I fully understood the script and his visual style. Older directors tend to have a different kind of visual style, so I felt closer to him while we worked on this film. It was like working with a neighbor.”
 
Dong mentioned that the movie is based on a novel that had been given to him by a producer, and he thought it would be appropriate for his first feature film. “I was very moved by the book,” he said. “It made me quite nostalgic, and showed how growing into a full human being can be painful.”
 
TIFF Programming Director Ichiyama Shozo pointed out that he first came across Dong as an actor in Jia Zhang-Ke’s 2015 movie Mountains May Depart, and was quite enthusiastic about bringing his debut to TIFF. “For a long time, I had wanted to direct a movie, ever since I entered the industry, in fact,” said Dong.
 
Ichiyama then asked Liu and actor Yin Tao, who plays Li Mo’s mother when he is a child, how they felt when they were offered these unusual roles. Liu said that because he and Dong were already friends, he felt bewildered by the offer, as if the director were trying to tell him something. But once he read the novel and got into the script he felt that it deepened his appreciation for what true friendship means. “I also understood the relationship between the mother and child as something that was lost.”
 
Yin confessed that she had never worked with such young actors before, referring to the boys who played Li Mo and An Delie as children, and who were in the audience during the Q&A. “As a mother figure, the role was very mysterious,” she said. “But I was very happy to be given the chance to do it.”
 
One viewer said that her takeaway from the film was that Li Mo had not properly addressed the loss of his friend. Dong clarified that he wanted the audience to work out these issues themselves. “I was nervous before I came to TIFF,” he admitted. “I really wanted to show it to a Japanese audience, and I appreciate all the comments. When I wrote the script, I was thinking of my own childhood, and I realized I didn’t have any contact with my friends from that time. Love costs something, and that’s what I wanted the audience to see.”
 
Q&A Session: Competition
My Friend An Delie
Guests: Dong Zijian (Director/Screenplay/Actor), Liu Haoran (Actor), Yin Tao (Actor)