The Donor

Yang Ba, a very modest and reserved man, leads a sober life with his wife and his eighteen-year-old university student son, Bao.

His wealthy cousin Li Dagun makes him an offer: donate a kidney in exchange for money to his much-loved sister, who is on dialysis and at risk of death.

Without informing his family, the man undergoes the operation, and after an initially successful outcome, the kidney is rejected, and the wealthy cousin's sister needs another compatible kidney.

The only possible donor this time could be another, but younger, member of the family.

The dialogues are minimal in this debut film by Zang; there is a lot of eating and noisy eating, as often and annoyingly happens in Chinese films.

Despite the requests, the wealthy cousin does not come across as hateful, but his social position makes him so.

There is always the dilemma of whose life matters more between the poor and the rich.

Buying it at the expense of others' health is possible; there is a price for everything if social classes are so drastically different, especially in countries where healthcare is paid for and the "right" to education is very expensive and extremely competitive.

The cultural difference between fathers and sons seems evident; money is the ultimate "value" in a capitalist society.

The father's face and the impossibility of accepting another immense compromise will lead to an inevitable outcome, highlighting the drama of a story analyzed through a lucid and uncompromising examination of a reality that revolves around money, greater than humanity itself.

Morality is destined to succumb, and the faces bear witness to this.

If the end justifies the means for the rich, the poor will find a way to defend themselves.

Performances, time stretched in a frantic society, lives, stories, transversal and homogenizing realities make this film a great work on the alienation of postmodernity built on the cultural logic of late capitalism.