Neysan Sobhani’s first full-length feature, released in the US by Good Deed entertainment, is an intimate speculative drama concerning a power couple, Mai Zi Xuan (Harry Song) and Han Miao (Jia Sun), who have both been unfaithful and dishonest in their relationship, who go on retreat to a glass house in the woods and take the prototype of a pill called Guidance. Guidance, developed by Han Miao’s boss (and one night stand partner) Su Jie (Francesco Chen), releases nanotech into a person’s body which allows them both to know when someone is lying and to share information with other people who have guidance. The technology is marketed as allowing couples to grow closer, as Su Jie tells the media, “our technology promotes human connection and self-awareness, and, above all, empathy.” Well, yeah, but it also makes it impossible to lie, deceive or even surprise – forget throwing a birthday party for your partner or telling kids Santa brought the presents.

Set ten years after the “Great War,” terrorist attacks interfere with the otherwise peaceful and prosperous 21^st century China, except we learn the one that launches the film (and Han Miao’s “mistake” with her boss) was staged in order to one, get Han Miao in bed, and two, get Guidance into Han Miao and Mai Zi Xuan, as Su Jie know relationships cannot survive infidelity when no secrets can be kept from one another. “Are you thinking of your ex?” Han Miao asks Mai Zi Xuan at one point. “No,” he says, and Guidance reveals that he is lying. So not only is he thinking of his ex, the hurt is compounded by the lie.  The very thing that was supposed to strengthen their relationship drives them apart. As Han Miao tells her partner, “Becoming a better person comes at a price.” The question is, does Guidance, and by extension all this honesty, actually make them better people? (Not to mention the terrifying implications of the technology in interrogation – “You cannot lie, even to save a life,” Mai Zi Xuan states at one point.)

The film is not so straightforward itself (oh the irony!) and through flashbacks the audience is shown that not everything is as it was first presented. As mentioned, Su Jie stages a terror attack. Han Miao actually took guidance three months before the start of the film, and may have learned how to “massage” the truth parameters that allows her to lie convincingly to Guidance.

Beautifully shot, with nuanced performances from Jia Sun and Harry Song that captivate and draw the viewer into their drama, with visual metaphors throughout the narrative, Guidance offers a masterclass in terror found in implication and in its depiction of this relationship being tortured by knowledge. Fascinating in its depiction and indictment of both a corrupt Chinese entrepreneur and a system that enforces and demands total, transparent honesty, this film is both profound and beautiful. No slashers here, but a great film that will stay with you long after,

9 out of 10