Photo: Mubi
In the spring of 2013, more than 16,000 rotting pig corpses floated down the Huangpu River, the “Mother River” whose tributaries feed Shanghai’s water supply. Public outrage and an official investigation followed, eventually tracing the pigs to Zhejiang Province, about 60 miles outside the city. The animals had died of a disease called porcine circovirus that officials insisted was not contagious to humans, and a tangle of regulations amid a crackdown on black-market pork had led farmers to dump the remains rather than pay the government fees to dispose of them. The incident highlighted the contrast between Shanghai’s prosperous, ultramodern facade and forgotten rural communities devastated by pollution and neglect the subject of writer-director Cathy Yan’s debut feature,
12 Feb 2021
Last year, everybody wanted to know who Cathy Yan was. The DC Extended Universe had just been given a gutsy makeover with Harley Quinn’s solo outing
Birds Of Prey, and Yan was the director to thank. She had made just one feature before a fizzy social satire called
Dead Pigs. Those lucky enough to catch the film at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival where it premiered before being released in China wouldn’t have been surprised by the high-octane success of
Birds Of Prey. But for the rest of us? Watching
Dead Pigs in 2021, thanks to a belated streaming release, feels like travelling back to the future: this story is new, but we already know how good Yan’s own journey continues to be.