ACF 1248: Two Chinese films to close-out IN FOCUS: FORTISSIMO FILMS at MoMA

In Focus: Fortissimo Films will conclude tomorrow with these two screenings at the Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, NYC.

 Beijing Bastards / Beijing Zazhong

Directed by Zhang Yuan

With Cui Jian, Li Wei, Bian Jing, Wu Lala

China/Hong Kong, 1992, 95 minutes
When: Monday, November 21, 2011, 4:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2

In Mandarin; English subtitles

Synopsis: Beijing Bastards, regarded as China’s first independent film, has been officially banned, widely boycotted, and constantly hunted down. Zhang Yuan, a leading figure of China’s so-called Sixth Generation Filmmakers, bravely took on the taboo subject of Beijing’s disaffected youth, brilliantly combining reality and fantasy in the tale of a rock idol who attempts to organize a concert and is prevented from doing so, and a young woman whose failed suicide attempt brings her into contact with different cultures within and on the edges of the city and society. Courtesy Fortissimo Films.

 Springtime in a Small Town / Xiao Cheng Zhi Chun

Directed by Tian Zhuangzhuang

With Hu Jing Fan, Wu Jun, Xin Bai Qing

China, 2002, 112 minutes
When: Monday, November 21, 2011, 7:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2

In Mandarin; English subtitles

Synopsis: In a small southern Chinese town in 1946, an unexpected visitor stirs up feelings of lust and passion within the serene walls of the Dai family’s traditional courtyard home. The young but sickly head of the household, his devoted, beautiful wife, and everyone else in the house soon begin to question the meaning of friendship, honor, and trust—all with decidedly unexpected results. Courtesy Palm Pictures.

ACF 1243: SHOWER at MoMA

Da Ming, Master Liu, and Er Ming

 Shower / Xizhao

Directed by Zhang Yang

With Zhu Xu, Pu Cun Xin, Jiang Wu

China, 1999, 92 minutes
When: Friday, November 18, 2011, 7:00 p.m.
Where: MoMA, 11 West 53rd Street, NYC

 This evening the Museum of Modern Art will again present this wonderful drama with comic touches as part of the series In Focus: Fortissimo Films.

Da Ming (Pu Cun Xin), a businessman in Shenzhen in southern China,  returns north to his home in Beijing because he believes that his widowed father has died. But Master Liu (Zhu Xu) is very much alive, running his traditional bathhouse with his younger son Er Ming (Jiang Wu), who has mental retardation but functions at a relatively high level. Da Ming had misinterpreted a card his brother had sent, a crayon drawing showing him standing next to their father who is laid out flat in bed. When asked about why he drew the picture that way, Er Ming explains that their father is asleep in bed and that he sent the card because he missed his brother.

Da Ming in a high-tech shower prior to his trip to Beijing

Since both his father and brother are well, Da Ming, who clearly has not visited in quite some time, intends to make it a short visit and to fly back to his wife and job. But situations arise that repeatedly delay his departure. In the course of the film, Da Ming, whose life centers on making money in China's changing and booming economy comes to realize the value and importance of family and social traditions, both of which tend to be forgotten in the quest for wealth.

The three lead actors are all excellent in their roles, particularly Wu Jiang. The film also boasts fine  performances in supporting roles. These include two elderly regulars at the bathhouse who engage in cricket fighting, and a husband and wife who have been fighting with each other since an unusual incident two years earlier.

Er Ming listens to 'O Sole Mio

But the most important supporting character is a young man who sings 'O sole mio while standing under the shower. Whenever he does, Er Ming comes over, sits down, and listens to his singing with rapt attention. This connection between them plays an important role in two scenes. One is late in the film at the Neighborhood Culture Party, where the young man freezes with stage fright in front of the audience until Er Ming comes to his aide with a hilarious ploy. The other is the final scene in the film involving Er Ming at the bathhouse.

It would have been easy for this film to wallow in cloying melodrama. But Zhang Yang displays a deft hand directing a fine script about an all too human situation. Rather than being manipulative in typically all-too-obvious ways, the film takes hold of your heart and gently squeezes, genuinely earning every bit of the viewers emotional involvement and response.

ACF Rating: 3.5 out of 4 stars. Very highly recommended.

ACF 1239: DEVILS ON THE DOORSTEP and THE EYE at MOMA

After a one day hiatus, the film series In Focus: Fortissimo Films will return to New York's Museum of Modern Art tomorrow with two fine Asian films.

Devils on the Doorstep / Guizi lai le

Directed by Jiang Wen

Screenplay by You Fengwei, Shi Jianquan, Shu Ping, Jiang Wen.

With Jiang Wen, Jiang Hongbo, Kagawa Teruyuki, Yuan Ding

China, 2000, 140 minutes

In Mandarin, Japanese; English subtitles

Wednesday, November 16, 2011, 4:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2

Synopsis: To the average Chinese peasant, foreigners have long been “devils”—potentially dangerous outsiders who arrive with dubious motives and nefarious intent. That was especially true of the Japanese soldiers who invaded China in the 1930s. Despite having to give a percentage of the grain harvest to the Japanese, Ma Dasan and his neighbors in a small northern Chinese village coexist with them peacefully—until the night two prisoners are dumped on Ma Dasan’s doorstep, one a Japanese soldier, the other a Chinese collaborator. Director Jiang Wen, the most famous actor of his generation thanks to the TV series A Beijinger in New York, brings great emotional weight to the role of Ma Dasan. Courtesy Fortissimo Films.

ACF Comments: At the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, Devils on the Doorstep won the Grand Prize of the Jury (though not the Palme d'Or for which it was nominated. It has been banned in China, for which various explanations have been offered.  In any case, it's a truly great film with spot on performances and exquisite black-and-white cinematography.

ACF Rating: 3.5 out of 4 stars; highly recommended

For those unable to make this, the second and final screening at this film series, Devils on the Doorstep is available with some nice extras on DVD from Home Vision, which became part of  Entertainment/Image Entertainment in 2005.

The Eye / Jian Gui

Directed by Oxide Pang, Danny Pang
Written by Oxide Pang, Danny Pang, Jo Jo Hui, Yuet Chun

With Lee Sin-jie, Lawrence Chow, So Yut Lai.

Hong Kong/Thailand, 2001, 98 minutes

In Cantonese, Mandarin, Thai, English; English subtitles

Wednesday, November 16, 2011, 7:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2 

Synopsis: A cornea transplant restores a young musician’s vision, but a series of inexplicable events leads her to believe that her restored sight involves “more than meets the eye.” Her new eyes foresee disasters that only she can stop, but will she have the courage to change the future? The American remake, starring Jessica Alba, was a dud, but the original shook audiences around the world and spawned a string of successful sequels from the Pang Brothers. Courtesy Palm Pictures.

ACF Comments: As has been the case (usually unfortunately) with numerous recent Asian horror films, The Eye was remade by Hollywood. The 2008 U.S. version stars Jessica Alba and was directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud. Definitely stick with the original Pang brothers film.

ACF 1237: Chinese comedy SHOWER showing at MoMA tomorrow

 Shower / Xizhao

Directed by Zhang Yang

With Zhu Xu, Pu Cun Xin, Jiang Wu

China, 1999, 92 minutes

In Mandarin; English subtitles

Monday, November 14, 2011, 4:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2 

Shower will be the next film showing in the series In Focus: Fortissimo Films at MoMA, in midtown Manhattan at 11 West Fifty-third Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues. It will also screen on Friday, November 18, 2011, 7:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2.

Synopsis: Evoking the sharp contrasts of China’s rapid transition from traditional living to ultra-modernization, Shower opens with a wondrous fantasy of a high-tech automated shower, which then slams into a vision of a traditional bathhouse—a couple thousand years old and a culture unto itself. Mistakenly believing that his father has passed away, a man returns to Beijing from the Shenzhen region, where he had been looking to be part of China’s economic boom. His father, meanwhile, has remained behind to raise a develop-mentally challenged son and manage a run-down bathhouse in dire need of upkeep. Courtesy Sony Pictures Classics.

ACF 1202: BEIJING BESIEGED BY WASTE at Asia Society NY

Beijing Besieged by Waste (2011). (dGenerate Films)

 Beijing Besieged by Waste

Directed by WANG Jiuliang

China, 2011, 72 minutes, Digibeta, English Subtitles

When: Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 3:00 PM

Where: Asian Society

725 Park Avenue

New York, NY 10021

Asia Society NY's Visions of a New China documentary film series concludes this coming Saturday afternoon with this recently and timely look at the impact of waste on Beijing's environments.



Synopsis: With a population of about 20 million, the growing city of Beijing produces 30,000 tons of waste each day. Photographer/filmmaker Wang Jiuliang traveled around the city and visited 460 legal and illegal landfills from 2008 to 2010 to document the collection of garbage and excrement, the environmental calamity and the life cycles around these landfills, which include scavengers building a precarious livelihood, green spaces forming on top of waste, and livestock being fed trash. An informative and alarming portrait of urban ecology, the film has earned keen Chinese media coverage and the attention of government officials.

Interview with director WANG Jiuliang:

WANG Jiuliang was born in Anqiu, Shandong Province in 1976. He is a graduate of the Cinema-Television School at Communication University of China. Wang is also a photographer. Beijing Besieged by Waste accompanies a larger photography project.

Tickets here.

The Visions of a New China film series was curated by La Frances Hui and is supported in part by a grant from the Open Society Foundations. Additional support is provided by the Center on U.S.-China Relations and New York State Council on the Arts.

ACF 1195: FLOATING at Asia Society NY this Friday, October 21st

Floating

Directed by HUANG Weikai

China, 2005, 93 minutes, DVCAM, English Subtitles

When: Friday, October 21, 2011 at 6:45 PM

Where: Asian Society

725 Park Avenue

New York, NY 10021

Asia Society NY's Visions of a New China documentary film series continues this coming Friday evening with HUANG Weikai's Floating.

Synopsis: A 30-year-old rural-born singer brings his guitar to Guangzhou to eke out a living by performing in public spaces. Like many migrant workers who don’t possess residence permits to stay in this southern metropolis, he is constantly dodging the authorities. The camera closely follows the singer’s daily life as he performs in pedestrian underpasses and lives out his tumultuous romantic life, which involves suicide, abortion and a bad break-up. As the film progresses, we find the filmmaker, who also made the much-praised Disorder (2009), getting intimately involved with his subject’s precarious existence. Floating offers a humanist portrayal of those who drift on the fringes of society.

Black Pottery Prize and Audience Award, Yunnan Multi Culture Visual Festival, China (2005)
New Filmmaker Award, Reel China Documentary Biennial, New York, Shanghai (2006)
Hong Kong International Film Festival (2006)
The International Umbria Film Festival, Italy (2007)

Director HUANG Weikai was born in 1972 in Guangdong Province, China. He studied Chinese painting for 15 years and graduated from the Chinese Art Department of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. He used to work as a cinema promoter, art editor, graphic designer, movie script writer and cameraman. Since 2002, he has been directing independent films. His 2009 found-footage documentary, Disorder, has been acclaimed as "One of the most mesmerizing films I’ve seen in ages" by Hua Hsu in The Atlantic for its unflinching look at the absurdity and anarchy of urban life in contemporary China

Tickets for Floating here.

The Visions of a New China film series is supported in part by a grant from the Open Society Foundations. Additional support is provided by the Center on U.S.-China Relations and New York State Council on the Arts.

ACF 1191: CHILDREN OF THE CHINESE CIRCUS at Asia Society

 Children of the Chinese Circus
Directed by GUO Jing and KE Dingding
China/UK., 2007, 58 min. Digibeta.
When: Sunday, October 16, 2011, 3:00 pm 

Where: Asia Society 

725 Park Avenue 

New  York, NY 10021 

"Recalling the finestnonfiction achievements of Frederick Wiseman…. Fiercely intelligent." —Robert Koehler, Variety 

Visions of a New China, the nine film documentary series presented by Asia Society (NY) continues this afternoon with this fascinating and revealing movie. It's about the rigorous training to which young and teenage children are subjected in order to acquire the skills to become circus performers. In terms of who is being depicted, the film's English title would more accurately be "Children of the Shanghai Circus School," but this is not a significant matter.

Synopsis: Take a behind-the-scenes look at thetraining of some of the world’s best acrobats and circus performers. In thisShanghai circus school, a highly disciplined environment, small children endureexcruciating and dangerous training regimes. Mostly from poor families, thesechildren are sent to the school by their parents in the hope that the specialtytraining will secure them a future. While small children sustain agonizingdaily practice, the teachers are also under tremendous pressure to produceaward-winning stunts. A faculty meeting turns into a Cultural Revolution-styledcriticizing session. This film is set to change your perception of acrobaticperformances forever. 

ACF Review: The film focuses on three acts. One is a young boy who performs solo acrobatics, such as one-armed handstands. He is prone to overeating and gaining too much weight when he visits his parents, who are both mute. (He is shown practicing a headstand in the top image.)

The Threesome Handstand Group at practice

Second is the Threesome Handstand Group, which as its name suggest is a trio of acrobats. The older male does a handstand on the ground, forming the base for the performance. One girl does a handstand on his feet, then another girl does the same on the first girl's feet. We watch them and their female coach as they struggle to find the proper balance points in order to free themselves of the need for safety harnesses.

Two members of the Flying Trapeze troupe during a performance.

Lastly, there is the large group of male and female Flying Trapeze artists. They too go through a long period of struggle; in their case the problem is missed catches of the girls by the males on the trapeze swings.

The coaches are generally harsh and at times brutal with their students. Though they can also be the same with one another, as shown in an intense self-criticism session that the female coach of the handstand group undergoes. On the other hand, at times the coaches do give positive pep talks to their students, and when one young girl in the trapeze act suffers an injury, the care and concern of the coaches is clearly genuine, and even borders on tenderness.

One of the things that occurred to me while watching this film was that Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, and Yuen Biao must have undergone much the same type of training at the China Drama Academy, the Peking Opera school they attended.

ACF Rating: 3.5 out of 4 stars; highly recommended.

 Children of the Chinese Circus will be shown in a double bill with Brave Father, a film about a peasant father who sacrifices for his son's college education. Brave Father will screen at 4:10 pm

ACF 1178: THE BIGGEST CHINESE RESTAURANT IN THE WORLD

The Biggest Chinese Restaurant in the World (2008). (Amber Entertainment)

The Biggest Chinese Restaurant in the World

Directed by CHEN Weijun

China/UK/Netherlands/Denmark, 2008, 80 minutes

When: Saturday, October 8th, 2011, at 3:00 PM

Where: Asia Society

725 Park Avenue

New  York, NY 10021

Asia Society NY's  documentary film series Visions of a New China continues this afternoon at 3:00 with another terrific offering, The Biggest Chinese Restaurant in the World, the massive West Lake Restaurant.

Synopsis: Situated in Changsha, Hunan is theworld’s biggest Chinese restaurant, which seats up to 5,000 diners and employs1,000 staff. A sprawling complex containing pavilions in the style oftraditional Chinese architecture, the restaurant is owned by Qin Linzi, amiddle-aged female self-starter who used to earn 30 RMB a month. Documentingthe restaurant’s day-to-day operation, the film shows routine slogan-chantingsessions intended to boost morale among the staff. A perceptive portrait ofChinese society, this engaging documentary provides a window into traditionalChinese customs that often revolve around banquets.



ACF Review:  There are many fascinating aspects to the story of West Lake Restaurant, not the least of which is that of its founder, owner and guiding force, Ms. Qin Linzi. When we first meet her, she talks about being a member of the Communist Party, explaining that someone in her position has to be. Obviously, to stay on the good side of those in power, it helps to be one of them. And the corollary of course is true as well: it always helps to be well-connected with those having power and influence. Sound familiar? Well, one of the points the film makes, at least to me, is that entrepreneurial capitalism in China isn't all that different from what it is in the United States. It's pretty much the same except that there's only one political party to deal with in China rather than the basic two in the U.S.

Mrs. Qin is a middle-aged woman with one daughter, apparently in her twenties, from her first marriage. She borrowed money from about thirty friends and family members and opened her first restaurant in 2000 in the city of Liuyang. By the end of its first year in business, she had paid back all the loans, and things just took off from there. Construction of the vast new facility in Changsha took over a year and the restaurant complex, which has five kitchens, opened in October 2004. Mrs. Qin's second husband is her former chauffeur, to whom she basically proposed. She says that she told him that since they spent so much time together, people would talk, so they might as well get married. Some years younger than her, he must be one of the most fortunate former drivers in China, if not the world.

The film does not stint on covering the day-to-day operations of West Lake, its staff, nor its food. The camera takes us to pep talks to keep up employee morale as well as meetings of managers where issues such as employee turnover are discussed and addressed. We also gain insight into the lives of some of the employees. I found the story of one young woman to be particularly touching. With her father unable to truly work, she has come to West Lake to support her family, and has thus given up her chance to go to college so that her older sister and only sibling can.

Final mention must be made about the food. One almost gets a sense of the aroma of the dishes as they are prepared and then set forth for the customers. Though truth be told, I found some items to be less than to me liking. Segments of snake that are still writhing on the serving plate is one example. Another is a dish prepared in a chef's competition for the third anniversary of the opening of the complex. Fried Live Fish is prepared by the chef holding the fishes head and dipping the tail and body into frying oil. The fish is sliced along its side and then served. For the competition, if the fish's mouth is not still moving, the dish is disqualified! I'm not sure I could handle the sight of such a preparation, let alone eat it. But maybe that's just me.

The Biggest Chinese Restaurant in the World is terrific on several levels: as an example of entrepreneurial capitalism in present day Communist China, a sociological study of a large and varied workforce, and as a gastronomical insight.

ACF Rating: 3.5 out of 4 stars; very highly recommended. 

For information about the Visions of a New China documentary films series, including descriptions of each film, the full schedule, and ordering tickets, click here.

ACF 1143: Nationwide theatrical release of Tsui Hark's "Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame" begins today!

                                                                                             Indomina Releasing

The nationwide theatrical release of Tsui Hark's Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, a huge hit at this summer's New York Asian Film Festival, begins today, courtesy of Indomina Releasing. (Read what the good folks of Subway Cinema, presenters of the annual New York Asian Film Festival, had to say about Tsui Hark and Detective Dee here.)

The schedule of when Detective Dee will begin playing in various U.S. cities over the course of September is:

September 2
New York
   - Regal E- Walk
   - Angelika Film Center
Los Angeles - The Landmark

September 16
San Francisco - Landmark Embarcadero Center Cinema
San Francisco (East Bay) - Landmark Shattuck
San Francisco (Peninsula) - Landmark Aquarius

September 23
Chicago - Landmark Century Centre Cinema
Washington DC - Landmark Bethesda Row Cinema
Seattle - Landmark Varsity Theatre
Boston - Landmark Kendall Square Cinema
Honolulu - Consolidated Pearlridge
Dallas - Landmark Inwood Theatre
Philadelphia - Landmark Ritz 5
Minneapolis - Landmark Uptown Theatre
Denver - Landmark Mayan Theatre
Detroit - Landmark Maple Art Theatre
Toronto - Scotiabank Theatre
Toronto - Eglinton Town Centre
Vancouver - International Village Cinemas

September 30
Phoenix - Harkins Camelview
Austin - Alamo South Lamar

For more information at Indomina Releasing's Detective Dee website, click here.

ACF 1052: The High Life to screen at MoMA

The High Life
Directed by Zhao Dayong
Written by Dayong, Li Qing
With Qui Hong, Liu Yanfei, Dian Qui
China, 2010, 96 minutes
When: June 20th through June 26, 2011
(Complete schedule at end of this post)
Where: The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street, NYC
In Chinese, with English subtitles

Starting June 2oth, The High Life will screen for seven days at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It is the latest film to be shown in MoMA's ContemporAsian film series.

In the slum district of Guangzhou, Jian Ming, the proprietor of a disreputable employment agency, becomes acquainted with 18-year-old Xiao Ya when he places her in a seedy hair salon. Dian Qui, a middle-aged guard (and aspiring poet) in a Guangzhou prison who forces his detainees to read his poems aloud, shows his softer side through his affection for a young woman who is convicted for working in a nightclub to support her family.

Though these two narrative strains hardly intersect, they inform and echo each other in their explorations of power and imprisonment. Dayong, director of the acclaimed documentary Ghost Town, uses his extraordinary skills of observation to fashion a bleak and tender portrait of a town with many faces. In Chinese; English subtitles.

Screening Schedule:
Monday, June 20, 2011, 7:00 p.m.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011, 4:00 p.m.
Thursday, June 23, 2011, 7:00 p.m.
Friday, June 24, 2011, 4:00 p.m.
Saturday, June 25, 2011, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, June 26, 2011, 2:00 p.m.

All screenings will be in Theater 2 (The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2), T2.

ACF 780: VIZ Cinema presents Chinese Underground Film Festival in San Francisco

VIZ CINEMA SPOTLIGHTS NEW CHINESE FILM MOVEMENT
IN CHINA UNDERGROUND OPENING IN DECEMBER

7 Films Over 3 Days Offer a View of China as Never Seen Before

VIZ Cinema and NEW PEOPLE, in association with dGenerate Films, are proud to present a fascinating series focusing on a new vanguard of Chinese independent filmmakers, whose innovative uses of digital filmmaking deliver provocative insights into the world’s largest nation. The China Underground film series opens Friday, December 3rd and runs through Sunday, December 5th. Tickets and complete details are available at: www.vizcinema.com.

All of the documentary films to be shown at the festival were made outside the official Chinese film system – unauthorized, uncensored, and totally independent. These groundbreaking films introduce a new generation of filmmakers who represent the future of Chinese cinema, using new technology to present a vision of China as never seen before. A wide variety of controversial topics and issues like homosexuality, the role of women in society, the forced relocation of citizens which preceded the 2008 Beijing Olympics, drug use, and the inner workings of Chinese law enforcement, are examined in unflinching detail in these seven films.

China Underground opens Friday December 3rd with the premiere of Queer China, "Comrade" China at 7:00pm. The screening will include a Q&A session with several guest speakers and an after-party that will immediately follow. The remaining films will be screened throughout the weekend.

“These brave filmmakers often risk arrest, imprisonment, censure, or worse in order to have their work seen and message heard,” says Manami Iiboshi, programming director of VIZ Cinema. “San Francisco is a bastion of socially conscious and progressive ideas and it’s an honor to give a platform uncensored looks at a variety of important issues going on within Chinese society that are usually kept hidden from the West.”

“We’re thrilled to showcase seven of our titles at VIZ Cinema in China Underground, the first film series of its kind,” says Karin Chien, president of dGenerate Films. “Independent documentaries are the only free media existing in mainland China today. There is a new generation of filmmakers, artists, and activists wielding digital cameras and laptop edit systems, creating some of the most daring cinema in the world today. These films will have a special relevance and resonance with the diverse communities of the Bay Area.”

Queer China, ‘Comrade’ China, Friday, 12/3 at 7:00pm
(Directed by Cui Zi’en, China, 2008, 60min, Mandarin with English subtitles)

China’s most prolific queer filmmaker presents a comprehensive historical account of the queer movement in modern China. Unlike any before, this film explores the historical milestones and ongoing advocacy efforts of the Chinese LGBT community. Preceded by a screening of Digital Underground in the People’s Republic (18 mins, Dir: Rachel Tejada), a look at the Chinese independent film scene as documented firsthand by dGenerate Films. Tickets are $15.00.

Super, Girls! Saturday, 12/4 at 1:00pm
(Directed by Jian Yi, China, 2007, Documentary, 73min. Mandarin with English subtitles)

SUPER, GIRLS! follows ten teenagers on their quest to become superstars on China’s biggest tv show. Through candid interviews and footage of nail-biting auditions, SUPER, GIRLS! offers a fascinating look inside what the Chinese media have dubbed “the Lost Generation.”
Tickets are $10.00.

Meishi Street, Saturday, 12/4 at 2:45pm
(Directed by Ou Ning, China, 2006, Documentary, 85min, Mandarin with English subtitles)

MEISHI STREET shows ordinary citizens taking a stand against the planned destruction of their homes for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Acclaimed at over two dozen museums and galleries around the world, Meishi Street, by renowned visual artist Ou Ning, works as both art and activism, calling worldwide attention to lives being demolished in the name of progress.
Tickets are $10.00.

Using, Saturday, 12/4 at 4:45pm
(Directed by Zhou Hao, China, 2008, Documentary, 105min, Mandarin with English subtitles)

A twisted relationship develops between an urban Chinese couple struggling with heroin and a filmmaker chronicling their addiction, in this provocative documentary on drug abuse, filmmaking and friendship. Zhou’s unflinching depiction of his friends’ repeated attempts to quit blurs the line between filmmaker and subject, and raises provocative questions about the ways in which each uses the other. Tickets are $10.00.

Ghost Town, Saturday, 12/4 at 7:15pm
(Directed by Zhao Dayong, China, 2008, Documentary, 169min, Mandarin, Nu, & Lisu dialects with English subtitles)

Zhiziluo is a town barely clinging to life. Tucked away in a rugged corner of Southwest China, the village is haunted by traces of China’s cultural past while its residents piece together a day-by-day existence. “Directed with scrupulous attention to detail” (Manohla Dargis, New York Times), Ghost Town, which debuted at the New York Film Festival, “is one of the most important films to have emerged from the booming (but still unexplored) field of Chinese independent documentaries (Dennis Lim, Moving Image Source).Tickets are $10.00.

1428, Sunday, 12/5 at 1:00pm
(Directed by Du Haibin, China, 2009, Documentary, 117min. Mandarin and Sichuan dialects w/ English subtitles)

Du Haibin’s award-winning documentary of the earthquake that devastated China’s Sichuan province in 2008 explores how victims, citizens and government respond to a national tragedy. Du depicts a world in chaos, both material and moral. “Without judgment but with a deep compassion for their subjects, the filmmakers of 1428 bring us a myriad of individual stories of absurdity, confusion and grief.”(Cherise Fong, CNN). Tickets are $10.00.

Crime and Punishment, Sunday, 12/5 at 3:30pm
(Directed by Zhao Liang, China, 2007, Documentary, 122min, Mandarin with English subtitles)

“Zhao’s artistry is instantly apparent.” (Robert Koehler, Variety)
A prime example of how independent documentaries are on the vanguard of Chinese cinema, Crime and Punishment is an unprecedented look at the everyday workings of law enforcement in the world’s largest authoritarian society. With penetrating camerawork, Zhao Liang (Petition, 2009 Cannes Film Festival) patiently reveals the methods police use to interrogate and coerce suspects to confess crimes – and the consequences when such techniques backfire. Tickets are $10.00.

Before the Flood, Sunday, 12/5 at 5:45pm
(Directed by Li Yifan and Yan Yu, China, 2005, Documentary, 147min. Mandarin and Sichuan dialects with English subtitles)

A landmark documentary following the residents of the historic city of Fengjie as they clash with officials forcing them to evacuate their homes to make way for the world’s largest dam. Shot over two years, Before the Flood is a breathtaking achievement in verité-style documentary filmmaking. This profound film shows the human effects of one of history’s grandest social engineering projects, reflecting on the loss of both home and heritage. Tickets are $10.00.

VIZ Cinema is the nation’s only movie theatre devoted exclusively to Japanese film and anime. The 143-seat subterranean theatre is located in the basement of the NEW PEOPLE building and features plush seating, digital as well as 35mm projection, and a THX®-certified sound system.

About NEW PEOPLE
NEW PEOPLE offers the latest films, art, fashion and retail brands from Japan and is the creative vision of the J-Pop Center Project and VIZ Pictures, a distributor and producer of Japanese live action film. Located at 1746 Post Street, the 20,000 square foot structure features a striking 3-floor transparent glass façade that frames a fun and exotic new environment to engage the imagination into the 21st Century. A dedicated web site is also now available at: http://www.NewPeopleWorld.com/.

About dGenerate Films
dGenerate Films brings uncensored, unprecedented and visionary content from deep inside mainland China’s independent, and underground, film scene to North America and beyond. dGenerate Films recognizes that unauthorized films by China’s post-Sixth Generation are the only true independent media in China today. We remain deeply committed to providing audiences with an unmediated look at life, as it’s truly lived, inside the world’s next superpower. To learn more, visit http://dgeneratefilms.com.

ACF 596: Sophie's Revenge - a NYAFF 2010 Preview Review

Sophie's Revenge
Directed by: Eva Jin
Starring: Zhang Ziyi, Fan Bingbing, So Ji-Sub
China, 2009, 108 minutes
In Mandarin with English subtitles
New York Premiere

At the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater:
- Tuesday, June 29th at 4:00 PM
- Saturday, July 3rd at 9:45 PM

Sophie's Revenge is a delightful romantic comedy that stars Zhang Ziyi as Sophie, a cartoonist who was engaged to marry Jeff (Korean actor So Ji-Sub) an absurdly handsome young doctor. Trouble is Jeff abandons Sophie shortly before the nuptials because he's fallen for Joanna (Fan Bingbing) a ravishing actress .

Pressured by her mother, who's already made extensive preparations for the marriage ceremony, and assisted by two female friends and a male photographer she meets, Sophie embarks on o series of attempts to win Jeff back. Not surprisingly, these tend to backfire regardless of the tactic employed.

I found Zhang Ziyi almost unrecognizable throughout most of the film. Partially it's because her face is a bit fuller than in the past. (Did she put on a few pounds for the role, or is it just that she's not the super slender young ingenue she used to be?) But I think the most credit must go to those involved with her hair, make-up and costumes. I paused my screener DVD a number of times and almost always saw little of the Z.Z. I'm used to seeing.

Th's is also the first comic role I can recall seeing her in, and I've got to say she really pulls it off well for the most part, both emotionally and physically. My only slight problem was with her somewhat excessively repeated tendency to fall down. That ploy tended to get a bit old after awhile.

Still, Sophie's Revenge turned out to be a wonderfully funny surprise. Zhang Ziyi is a great comedienne. Who knew?! I highly recommend that you check this film out.

ACF 275: Recent Independent Chinese Films To Screen at Lincoln Center

Image from The Other Half / Ling yi ban

The Film Society of Lincoln Center will present a series of seven recent independent films from China next weekend, starting Friday, April 24th, 2009. Here's complete info about the series:

The Film Society of Lincoln Center will feature the best in Chinese contemporary cinema with On the Edge: New Independent Cinema from China 2009, at the Walter Reade Theater from Friday, April 24 through Sunday, April 26, (Three Days). A weekend series of seven films, with directors in person at many screenings, this short but thoughtful compendium opens with Zhang Lü’s Chongqing, a panoramic, multi-generational portrait of the titular city and Ying Liang’s The Other Half, a highlight of the 2007 New Directors/New Films. This series follows up the 2007 edition which hosted auteurs Jia Zhang-ke introducing The World and Li Yang with Blind Shaft, amongst others.

Although privately financed cinema has been allowed in China since the mid-1990s, the nation’s films and filmmakers continue to face both strained relations with the government and limited opportunities to be shown at home. On the Edge offers direct, often controversial looks at a society undergoing an unprecedented transformation, taking international viewers to parts of the country that are almost never seen by foreigners. Though little known in China itself, these unique works have made an impressive mark on the international state, winning major festival awards.

Other highlights in the series include Peng Tao’s Little Moth (Sat, April 25), which, in the words of Robert Koehler of Variety, “melds the anger and storytelling scope of Dickens [and] the documentary-influenced immediacy and sensitive gaze of the Dardenne brothers”; Zhang Lü’s Iri, a companion to Chongqing (the two were originally to be a single feature) about the Korean city Iksan (known as Iri before a destructive 1977 train station explosion); and Ying Liang’s newest, Good Cats (both playing Sun, April 26).

Directors Zhang Lu, Ying Liang and Yang Lin (Er Dong) will all appear in person. See below for schedule.

In conjunction with this series, a panel discussion on new Chinese cinema will be held at Dodge Hall, Columbia University on Sunday, April 26. Speakers will include Richard Peña, The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Program Director and co-curator of the series; Lydia Liu, Columbia Professor in the Humanities; and Zhang Zhen, Associate Professor of Cinema Studies at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

This series has been selected by Bao Weihong in association with Richard Peña. It is made possible through the support of The Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University, The Arts Initiative at Columbia University, The Columbia University Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, The Film Studies Program at Columbia University.

SCREENING SCHEDULE

Friday, April 24
6:45 Chongqing
9:00 The Other Half

Saturday, April 25
1:30 Er Dong
4:30 Ma Wu Jia
6:45 Little Moth

Sunday, April 26
6:20 Good Cats
8:45 Iri


FILM DESCRIPTIONS
Chongqing
Zhang Lü, South Korea/Japan, 2008; 95m HD Panoramic

Chinese-Korean director Zhang Lü’s specialty is stories that deal with China’s intercultural or cross-border issues. Chongqing, originally meant to be a prologue within Iri, was born from the plentiful footage he shot in the eponymous Chinese city, the country’s most populated urban conglomerate. Weaving together several separate episodes, Zhang provides a panoramic, multi-generational portrait of those left out of the Chinese miracle. He depicts the city as a restless, ever-expanding creature, ready to devour any inhabitant that falls out of line.
Fri Apr 24: 6:45pm

Er Dong
Yang Jin, China, 2008; 150m Digibeta

Yang Jin’s second feature is a documentary-flavored portrait spanning several years in the life of simple country boy Er Dong (“winter child”). He lives in a small village with his mother, who, frustrated with his misbehavior, takes him to a Christian school to find God and a new direction in life. Instead, he finds a girlfriend, Chang’e. When they are expelled from school, they must face up to the tough economic reality of contemporary China, as well as the demons of Er Dong's past.
Sat Apr 25: 1:30pm

Good Cats / Hao mao
Ying Liang, China, 2008; 103m DVCAM

Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping famously maintained that a cat’s color doesn’t matter, so long as it catches mice. Director Ying Liang’s newest film Good Cats takes Deng’s dictum to heart, following a chauffeur for a dubious real estate magnate who has plans to move into the economic driver’s seat regardless the means. Set in the rapidly urbanizing Sichuan, Ying's provocative vision frames everyday life within a series of inescapable paradoxes infused with surreal events that play out on the border between reality, absurdity, and hallucination.
Sun Apr 26: 6:20pm

Iri
Zhang Lü, South Korea, 2008; 108m HD Panoramic

Zhang Lü’s beautifully acted Korean film is set in the industrial city of Iksan, formerly Iri, which suffered a devastating and still unexplained train station explosion in 1977. The 30th anniversary of the tragedy launches this glimpse at a society still struggling with its aftermath. Jin-seo (Yoon Jin-seo), born shortly after the disaster, has the mental capabilities of a child. She is easy prey for the men in town, and her quiet suffering soon takes its toll on her brother Tae-woong (Eum Tae-woong).
Sun Apr 26: 8:45pm

Little Moth / Xue chan
Peng Tao, China, 2007; 99m Digibeta

“Little Moth…melds the anger and storytelling scope of Dickens, the documentary-influenced immediacy and sensitive gaze of the Dardenne brothers, and the best tendencies of recent Chinese cinema.”—Robert Koehler, Variety
An impoverished country couple adopts a young girl who suffers from a crippling blood disease to work with them as a beggar on the city streets. Falling victim themselves to local extortionists, they move into the territory of the unsavory Mr. Wang, whose one-armed boy seems to have been acquired for a similar purpose. But this tale of the poor exploiting the destitute takes a poignant and unexpected turn when the children befriend each other.
Sat Apr 25: 6:45pm

Ma Wu Jia
Zhao Ye, China, 2007; 95m DVCAM

Animator Zhao Ye makes his feature-film debut with this challenging contemporary fable about the wages of personal sacrifice. Ah Jia lives in a small town in Guangxi. Always in trouble with the authorities and neighbors, he is nevertheless obsessed with helping his ailing brother. But how long will it be before family duty clashes with his own desires? Persuasively acted by a non-professional cast, Ma Wu Jia offers a poignant counterpoint between serene, small-town beauty and the gripping drama that envelops Ah Jia and his family.
Sat Apr 25: 4:30pm

The Other Half / Ling yi ban
Ying Liang, China, 2006; 111m

“Xiaofen lives in one of the dynamically growing cities in Southwestern China, but her work for a law firm…is merely routine. When not at work, she must deal with her down-and-out boyfriend Deng Geng…Life is also hard for her girlfriends and her mother, and Xiaofen is increasingly distressed by what she witnesses around her. In his second feature film, Ying Liang playfully pits youth culture against more traditional ways and interrelates one woman's reality to the changing economic and social structures in contemporary China.”—New Directors/New Films 2007
Fri Apr 24: 9:00pm

Single screening tickets for On the Edge: New Independent Cinema from China 2009 are $11; $7 for Film Society members, students and children (6-12, accompanied by an adult); and $8 for seniors (62+). They are available at both the Walter Reade Theater box office and online at filmlinc.com. For more information, call (212) 875-5601.