The Chinese title她杀 is She Killed, a wordplay on murder 他杀 , killed by a third-person , but with a female instead of a male pronoun)
355 isn’t the only film where Fan Bingbing is ready to kill. The actress finished up filming her crime thriller The Perfect Blue 她杀 this past week. The film stars Fan Bingbing, Li Qin, Xin Zhilei, and Wang Ziwen as four women, at least three of whom are suspected of a crime committed ten years ago. Huang Xuan stars once more as the only male character in major film. The film is a loose sequel to director Cao Baoping’s acclaimed (and highly recommended by me) The Dead End.
Who did it? All of them? None of them? Or one of them?
Fan Bingbing plays the question and the answer, whatever that means.
Wang Ziwen plays a tragic small-town girl seeking her place in the big city.
Xin Zhilei plays a victim of love.
Li Qin plays the seemingly perfect college student whose time will remain at the peak of her youth. (it sounds like she might die).
This and the recently reported Zhou Xun movie are 2 of the more interesting upcoming films in recent news. The Dead End was a great movie. It was a lot nicer to watch than Youth aka Fang Hua, Legend of Demon Cat, Looming Storm, Cock and Bull (good enough movie but the characters’ lives can be dreary), and a string of Tsui Hark movies from the last few years.
Cao Baoping is a meticulous director. Some directors have loose plots with unclear final direction.
“I’m Not Madame Bovary” is intriguing. Amusing at times but it’s not too fun a subject. Alec Su’s Devotion of Suspect X was pretty well-made and a nice enough watch. There are a number of other watchable ones but the subjects and stories are not particularly gripping.
Which movies from recent years do you find memorable?
I saw Xin Zhilei in a 2012 C drama with Yu Xiaowei, Han Xue. I wonder how some actresses like Xin Zhilei manage to do a comeback via movies like Brotherhood of Blades II while others just disappear altogether. Jiang Shuying also had a string of inactive years before having a career revival.
I never finished that 2012 Han Xue drama. XZL had one of those ubiquitous overbearing father character. And there was a rich spoiled young man played by 宫正楠 who was irritating. XZL’s suitor.
Not Chinese, but the most memorable non-Hollywood/UK film I saw last year was Bad Genius. The directing and editing was phenomenal. It was just cheating, but every scene felt so intense. I feel like the director could be huge if he’s given an Oceans 11 type of budget and cast.
On the Chinese side, Forever Young, A Better Tomorrow 2018 and Chinatown Detective 2 were all very well made from this year.
Thank you for the recommendations.
I’ll take note of these and try to watch them.
Are you aware of sino-cinema.com? FilmBizAsia’s website was quicker to navigate before it went defunct. FBA allowed users to select entries by Review Score, so you could look through the title with score 8. I find sino-cinema more time-consuming to use, as I don’t see score filter there.
BTW, I think you meant Li Dongxue and not Li Xuedong in your HSDS post. Mr Li’s pic was airbrushed or artfully shadowed to the point that I can’t be sure if it’s the same actor anymore. There are so many actors and movie/drama titles that are similar. It’s so easy to get confused. Having the names in Pinyin and English is straining everyone’s memory power.
+1 for the Dead End!
Love what the women are wearing here…. except Xin Zhilei’s grey and white coat-skirt thingy..