A Gentle Night is a short film (14 minutes) from China, directed by Qiu Yang.
It centers on a worried mother named Cai Zhuo. Her daughter Ding Lin, 13 years old, never came home from school. Cai is frantic over the child she affectionately calls "Linlin". The police seem to think that Linlin is a runaway and Linlin's father, Cai's husband, doesn't seem all that worried. Left to her own devices, Cai searches for Linlin. She soon hears some terrifying news.
Tropes:
- The Determinator: Cai is determined to find out what happened to her daughter.
- Extremely Short Timespan: Only a couple of hours on the eve of Chinese New Year, as a mother fights indifference while looking for her missing daughter.
- Imagine Spot: A single shot of a scowling girl, whom Cai imagines to be sitting across from her at a diner, is all we see of Linlin.
- In Medias Res: The film begins with Cai and her husband at the police station, reporting Linlin's disappearance.
- It's All About Me: The husband doesn't seem to think his daughter's disappearance is a big deal. He grouses about her moving his stuff around, and goes to sleep with ease while Cai is unable to rest.
- Jerkass: The husband, who rudely tells Cai not to interrupt during the police interview, complains about her pushing him to look for Linlin, and easily goes to sleep when the two arrive home.
- Leave the Camera Running: Except for one shot where the camera follows Cai as she runs down a bridge, the camera hardly moves. The rest of the movie is a series of static takes, some lasting over two minutes. The scene where she knocks on the schoolteacher's door and tries to physically drag him out of the apartment is done as a 2:10 shot from a camera staged on the other side of the street.
- Left Hanging: What happened to Linlin? Is the corpse fished out of the river her? The film ends as Cai sits in the hallway, waiting to find out.
- My God, What Have I Done?: As her husband crassly reminds her, Linlin disappeared soon after an argument in which Cai hit her. Cai is quite plainly wracked with guilt.
- No Name Given: The husband is never named.
- New Year Has Come: Chinese New Year. Linlin disappears shortly before the New Year. The New Year strikes and people start shooting off fireworks as Cai desperately tries to get past a police barricade to find out if a body taken out of the river is her daughter.
- Reveal Shot: The first shot of the movie shows the father talking to a cop, but with the other side of the table hidden by a doorway. The first cut then shows Cai sitting on the other end of the table, revealing that the husband is not alone. The camera remains with Cai for the rest of the film.
