A new documentary titled WHAM! 10 Days in China was quietly released worldwide on 28 July, including selected cinemas in the UK.

★★★★☆ 4/5

WHAM! 10 Days in China is precisely what a documentary should be – a singular snapshot of a monumental turning point in history that is unlikely to ever repeat itself. This is made more entrancing by the film’s setting in communist China, a much-pondered but little-documented period of cultural tumult and upheaval. The never-before-seen archival footage of Chinese youth in Beijing and Guangzhou is seductively pure, emblematic of a bubbling hunger for music, for connection with the West, for melodic release. We are privy to an entire world overshadowed by the Party, from queueing for days at a time for the chance to buy one ticket, to listening to a prized cassette in crowded electronics shop while aunties and uncles look on disapprovingly.

I was personally moved by the powerful desires and tensions at play in Mike Christie’s film, as the child of a parent who would have been 23 years old at the time of Wham!’s tour. I’ve often been told music wasn’t listened to when my mother was a young student in Beijing, it wasn’t available, it was frowned upon or seen as an unhealthy vice propagated by Western devils. Indeed, Wham!’s audience is awkward, even bumbling at times as they try to negotiate the consuming feeling that hearing new music can have on our sensitive minds and bodies. It is for this reason that I found the film to be so honest: we are with the audience, learning how to adapt to a new world of possibility and emotion through music, with all the challenges this begets (from clapping offbeat to being told to calm down by the police, who were worried about a riot post-concert).

The film manifests a certain nostalgia, cradling it amidst its humour, hope, and melancholy. We are invited to experience an entire world being overturned, complete with interviews of Chinese musicians who attended the concert and later pursued a career in music. We are also given intimate access to the iconic English pop duo, a George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley barely in their 20s, on the cusp of tremendous fame and innocently unaware of the breakup that lay in their future. The pair are clearly overwhelmed by the sheer extent of media attention but their devotion to their art remains at the core of the film, making for a beautifully honest picture of their time in China. A particular scene comes to mind, of George Michael being interviewed naked during a massage, buttocks barely covered, baring his soul in the way only the young and impassioned can.

Originally directed by British new wave filmmaker Lindsay Anderson, this footage has been archived until now. Due to Anderson’s different view in the film with the band and its management, his cut was never released. But what a transformative and delightful gift to documentary cinema today, 40 years after the fact.

The UK theatrical distribution was handled by Trafalgar Square releasing. 

The film is now available for streaming on BBC iPlayer.