Gong Li plays a Republican Era diva who doubles as a spy in the Lou Ye-directed Saturday Fiction 兰心大剧院. The film, making its debut today at the Venice Film Festival, released its first full trailer today. It’s also going to be screening at TIFF if you’re in the area.
Random posters, stills, and photos that caught my eye lately. Any that caught yours?
Director Qingyi Lu brings her acclaimed documentary “Four Springs”, which had a budget of 1500 RMB but has a douban score of 8.9 with sixty thousand votes.
With a focus on Chinese art-house films, the inaugural CineCina Film Festival will take place from April 5th to 19th in 2019. Twenty-two films, including a series of films by director Lou Ye ( Suzhou River, Blind Massage) and recent favorites like Four Springs 四个春天 will be aired with many directors present for Q&A.
See the scheduled screenings here. I haven’t even heard of any of the films other than Four Springs and the Lou Ye ones, so I have no recommendations. Many of them sound super interesting, though.
Four Springs theme song by Chen Chusheng:
Director Lou Ye (Suzhou River, Blind Massage), best known for making films focusing on contemporary social issues that are often politically sensitive, is returning to cinema with upcoming crime thriller The Shadow Play 风中有朵雨做的云.
Ge You and Jiang Wen as show masters in the upcoming movie, Gone With the Bullets.
The year is almost a quarter over (I know!), but 2014 is a really exciting year for Chinese film and it would be a waste not to take a look at all the great stuff that’s going to be released soon. This year, as some have noted, will be the year of big director comebacks, from Red Cliff’s John Woo to Zhang Yimou and many others. (Thanks to Mookie for everything about this post, I’m just here to spread the word.)
(Also, you’ll soon realize that Huang Xiao Ming does not rest… I believe he has at least 4 films this year alone, excluding dramas!!)
This list is in no way exhaustive. Continue reading