ERMO Movie Review

An enchanting surprise. Ermo (Ailiya) is a noodle maker who lives in a rural Chinese area. She works like a dog to support her son and her lazy, goldbricking husband, but despite her scrimping and saving, she can't get over the fact that her neighbor—known as “fat woman” (Zhang Haiyan)—has the biggest color TV set that Ermo has ever seen. Desperate to outdo “the Jonses,” Ermo sets out on a new mission in life: to work so hard that she'll be able to afford a bigger TV than her neighbor. In this madly direct and poignantly hilarious microcosm of the new found spirit of capitalism colliding head-on with basic human nature, obsession blossoms like a rose. Ermo can't stay out of the store where the TV of her dreams awaits the swelling of her purse; she asks the store owner to turn it on so that she can see it, but then orders him to shut it off so as to not wear it out before she can afford it. Director Zhou Xiaowen makes sure that Ermo herself remains gloriously human throughout and refuses to reduce her to a cartoon for extra laughs; her three-dimensional vulnerability is why the film's final irony packs such a powerfully poignant punch, and why Ermo is such a find.

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1994 93m/C CH Alia, Liu Peiqi, Ge Zhijun, Zhang Haiyan; D: Zhou Xiaowen; W: Lang Yun; C: Lu Gengxin; M: Zhou Xiaowen. VHS EVE