Love is a Secret Conspiracy

EXCERPTS of a Film Review by Han Song Luo - TRANSLATED from the original Chinese published on 11.16.2021

Science fiction is not merely spaceships, weapons, lightsabers and spice resources, but also the exploration of the consequences of science, the shadow that science and the future cast in human hearts and the exploration of human limits. Science fiction can be big or small, abstract, or very specific. I enjoy watching ‘big’ science fiction, but I also like to explore more nuanced problems via this genre and GUIDANCE does this well.

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Sobhani’s “GUIDANCE” uses a small story, three actors and simple beautiful photography to explore abstract truths. It accomplishes what a sci-fi film with a budget of $300 million and grandiose special effects often cannot accomplish.

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What happened ten years ago in GUIDANCE was an actual war, and what happens ten years later is still a war. It just changed to a quieter approach. But the damage isn’t any less. The aim of this new ‘war’ is not  physical territory and resources, but inner territory:  our loved one’s soul. What can be more devastating?

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The characters’ behavior is akin to totalitarian action in the name of love. It claims to be in the name of connection, understanding, and empathy. But in fact it is controlled and distorted. Guised as loyalty, this behavior means endlessly asking one’s love for authority to their inner world. But even that is not enough. You must also retain the right to interpret this authority, and by extension, to interpret the inner world of the other party.

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Searching for lies and pursuing truth, once it has been transformed into a need, cannot be put back in the bottle. Therefore, love may also be manipulated, and it can also become a secret collusion. If it succeeds with two people in one room, it can be extended to the world.

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GUIDANCE deftly navigates complex issues while touching on the philosophical pitfalls of lies, good and evil, hypocrisy and truth. In order to explain this series of issues, the story builds a tension, from the truth of the world war ten years prior, to the game between lovers, to the story of heroine. But at the end of the story, it is not the truth that sets you free, but a melancholic brutal destiny.