Survival and Obsessive Love at Forefront of Ash Is The Purest White

 

Qiao and Bin were the toast of China’s Jiangsu Underworld and madly in love…so Qiao thought.  After a rival gang attacks Bin, Qiao fires a gun to protect him and serves five years in prison.  When she’s released, she attempts to resume her life with Bin where they left off and is met with one disappointment after another.

Bin (Fan Liao) turns out to be a real jerk.  He refuses Qiao’s (Tao Zhao) phone calls, hides out when she does find him and only after she goes to police to report being raped does he finally show his face.

This is a quintessential story of two people that love each other, but their love is poisonous and destructive.  No matter how much they want to forget each other there is always some sort of emotional drive that never allows one to move on.   Qiao also learns that hustling is a way of life that she needs to survive and survive is exactly what she does by any means necessary.

Tao Zhao is a wonderfully gifted actress.  To take Qiao from a hardened gangster moll to a woman who now has nothing left to lose is fascinating to watch through her portrayal is nothing short of pure entertainment.  She’s tough, vulnerable, with a wicked sense of humor while breaking your heart all at the same time.

Fan Liao is equally as impressive as a man who had everything and now is reduced to half the man he use to be.

Director Jia Zhang-Ke fuses comedy and drama seamlessly to tell this complicated love story of survival and growth

Produced by the Cohen Media Group, Ash Is The Purest White was released on March 15th and is playing at the Arclight Cinemas in Hollywood and Laemmele.