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Where do you go when you need to escape from the pressures of everyday life? For the five main characters of Ben Mullinkosson’s coming-of-age documentary The Last Year of Darkness, it’s Funky Town, a now defunct club hidden behind a construction site in China’s Chengu. From skateboarders to DJs and drag artists, young people on the fringes of society rave to the pulse of hedonism and, if only momentarily, drink away the strains of tradition and expectation.
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The project arose when a Russian DJ, who features throughout the film, invited Mullinkosson to a night out at Funky Town. There, the director met local 20-year-old Yihao who asked when the LA filmmaker was going to make a movie about him. Mullinkosson recalls that they started shooting the film at 10pm that night and ended the final scene of the film years later at 10am.
Shot over 125 days across five years from 500 of hours of footage, the documentary’s dynamic, fly-on-the wall hand held style was shot by friends. That may be the magic behind the piece as, from money to mental health, each character is so candid and honest about their personal struggles. “We didn’t want to call the film The Last Year of Darkness,” said director Mullinkosson at the UK premiere Q&A held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. Yihao got the title tattooed so they had to commit, he joked.
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Yihao is a drag artist by night, and by day, navigates being queer in China and later being diagnosed with HIV. Yihao’s journey of self-discovery is a central backbone to the film. The contrast between the traditionality of older generations and the progressiveness of youth features throughout the documentary. At the screening, Yihao noted that despite the inherent campness of certain aspects of Chinese culture, such as the opera, queerness is still misunderstood. When Yihao visited his family in the film, he was met with questions like when he was going to settle down, focus on earning money and getting a girlfriend. Yihao simply responded that he was in no rush, radically putting his own happiness ahead of family expectation. Now that Yihao has built a reputation for himself as a drag artist and has appeared in commercial campaigns, he laughed that his family sees his queerness as a job and are happy that he’s making money from it.
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The film’s self-assigned “drama queen” Kimberly is also central to the film’s spontaneous narrative. On the outside she is graceful and sophisticated, but appears to mask her pain and frustration in the shadows of the night, only truly seeming at peace when she is playing traditional Chinese music on stage. While she is complex, you likely already know a Kimberly in your own life. She simultaneously offers some of the deepest moments of the film and is a source of comic relief after heavier moments. Vulnerability is her shining strength.
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In a world where we’re constantly marketed the unattainable, seeing regular people highlighted on screen is refreshing. The cast have normal jobs, stumble home hungover, and mindlessly swipe on dating apps. Against the backdrop of the everyday, the film peers into the poetry of normalcy. You’ll be sure to walk away from it looking at your own life from a different angle.
The cinematography of The Last Year of Darkness is also spectacular and its patient pacing pulls you in. The filmmakers contrast the gentrification and urbanism of the area with the uninhibited freedom of a safe space like Funky Town. In comparison to cities like London where nightlife and venues are on the decline, The Last Year of Darkness is a stark reminder of the importance of having a Third Space for culture to thrive.
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‘The Last Year of Darkness’ will stream exclusively on MUBI in the UK & IE from 15 March 2024
photography. Courtesy of MUBI
words. Shama Nasinde
