Alternate Best Actor 1994: Xia Yu in In The Heat of the Sun

Xia Yu did not receive an Oscar nomination, despite winning the Volpi Cup, for portraying Ma "Monkey" Xiaojun in In The Heat of the Sun. 

In The Heat of the Sun is an absolutely wonderful, and criminally under seen, coming of age (hidden gem to be sure), directorial debut film, by Jiang Wen. 

The film is said to be semi-autobiographical by actor turned director Jiang Wen, and that can easily be seen in the absolutely brilliant casting of Xia Yu, who bares more than a passing resemblance to Jiang Wen, who narrates the film as "himself". Xia's performance goes far beyond just deft casting however, as Xia is as confident onscreen in his debut as Jiang is in his directorial debut. This as we can sort of move right past the typical pitfalls of the young performer. One doesn't need to worry about any of that. Xia's absolutely just is the part here, as he is so incredibly natural onscreen you don't give it a second thought. Rather he seems instead this perfect representation of the boy that was Jiang Wen. Now because Xia is so confident we can also kind of move past the second potential accusation of my own feelings that this is only a director's film. Not at all. Now Jiang's vision is absolutely remarkable here, Xia is in no way overshadowed by that or the narration of some of the character's feelings. He lives on his own. This from the opening scenes of the film where we meet the seemingly almost orphan like Monkey as he passes his time breaking into homes to hang out and explore, while not actually stealing anything. 

Here's where you see an excellent performance that works within the vision, these being this absolutely fantastic scenes of nostalgic memory. Xia is not merely in them however but is essential in creating the tangible feeling in them. That is Xia expresses the youthful delight as he looks upon every little thing in the home, or the joy as he uses a "borrowed" spy glass to look upon the actions of a disliked school master. Xia's work grants the sense of discovery and the right sense of mischievousness. His portrayal doing more than just representing it, but truly evoking the emotion. Creating within the scene the needed empathy with Monkey, that you too feel the excitement of the game. This can be said of Xia's whole performance that is so very honest and lived in. This as again he simply is Monkey, and each experience we see him go through is all the more tangible through that. When he is hanging out with his friends, who play different games, or even get into little street fights, Xia is never just in a scene. His performance grants the sort of dogged determination one moment to bring "justice" to bullies or another in the rapturous joy of some random truce. His work not being overshadowed, by rather properly accentuating each scene so beautifully as he elevates his work far beyond that of a surrogate. 

What is so notable about his work beyond this though is how much Xia fleshes out who Monkey is. This particularly in representing this sort of cross roads time in the boy, soon to man's, life. Xia has this particularly exceptional way his face can be so many things all at once. This as we have those moments of hanging out with friends or sneaking around someone else's house where there is that mischievousness of youth. All the same though we have also the moments of quiet brokenness of youth that are equally palatable, where Xia almost looks like a different boy. This as we initially understand more of his home life just through an absolutely brilliant monologue by Xia where he speaks as his own father figure. Xia's delivery with the false sort of "older man" kid's voice, but also a real sense of heartbreak in his eyes as each word becomes more brutal in its discipline. This as the more we see of his real relationship with his parents the more dire it appears. In these moments Xia is so moving in just expressing in his reactions that of any boy being mistreated and also ignored by his parents. His eyes shattered in a quiet sort of sadness, and more than anything we see the sense of the escape in his mischievous fantasies away from that world. Xia showing very much the boy that defines Monkey, even as so much of his actions attempt to show a maturation.

Now the final portion of the film focuses closely on his relationship with one of the individuals whose house he broke into. This being a young woman Mi Lan (Ning Ling). This presented purposefully as kind of a broken set of memories as really this strained relationship that is one of nostalgic perfection and that of broken hearted memories. We start with the former in their early scenes together where Xia projects more so the boy in the innocent interactions. This with such playful warmth that he brings, that quietly at times projects a certain maturity as the two seem to speak regarding anything of substance. Xia is exceptional in the way he doesn't play the relationship a single way, rather finding the sense of the boyish crush and the complexity within that as it clashes with an attempt at something more. We see this as he brings her into his gang of all boys. Xia's initially fantastic in being so sweet in delivering the invitation with this quiet excitement as though he's got something great for show and tell. This though changing as she does show up and instantly all the boys are obviously quite interested. The sense of the personal connection being tested Xia excels in showing the sort of hidden frustration within Monkey's attempts at posturing in front of her. This as his "show off" moments Xia presents with a certain jealous desperation to keep her interested in only him, even as she strays. Xia's work gradually building this frustration where he also expresses more petulance in the boy almost interfering with the attempt at manhood. This culminating in two scenes. The first being a heartbreaking one where Xia unleashes such a pent up bitterness as he verbally attacks Mi Lan in a thoughtless exercise of jealousy. What I love is that Xia keeps it very much as the failure of Monkey to mature in the moment. This culminating further as he attempts to force himself upon her, and Xia showing a greater regression to that of a crying infant having lost any sense of personal growth. Now a masterstroke I feel is in Jiang's writing and direction that makes both scenes likely are falsehoods of frustrated memories, however Xia is essential in realizing this failure of the past as a broken boy in reflection. Xia work finding this balance in the joys of remembering a nostalgic youth, and also the pain of replaying the failures of the past that can never be rectified.