Year of the Dragon: Chinese Film in the New Year
The Film Society of Minneapolis St. Paul presents three films representing the diversity of contemporary Chinese cinema in honor of the Chinese New Year. The program is co-curated by Tom Rose, Professor of Art at the University of Minnesota. “What I find interesting [with White Gardenia] ... are the visible links to the past enhanced with stunningly beautiful contemporary cinematography. Wang Hong Hai’s beautiful My Dream is also stylized and mannered in that it highlights the Chinese love of spectacle.” Let the Bullets Fly combines both elements, with an added comic slant, to make for one wild cinematic ride.
Let the Bullets Fly
Director: Jiang Wen
Run Time / Year: 132 min | 2010
Language: Mandarin with English subtitles
Showtime: Sat, 1/21 @ 6:30
One of the highest grossing domestic Chinese films in history, director/screenwriter/actor Jiang Wen’s Let the Bullets Fly propels the audience through an unpredictable world of gunslingers, bandits, physical comedy, bloody combat, and surprising plot twists. Set during the Warlord Era of the 1920s, Jiang’s character “Pockey” Zhang embarks on a Robin Hood like escapade to benefit poor townspeople. Malevolent mobster Master Huang (Chow Yun-Fat) opposes Zhang’s efforts, highlighting both actors’ comedic abilities as well as Jiang’s directorial talent for fast-paced action.
My Dream
Director: Wang Hong Hai
Run Time / Year: 90 min | 2007
Language: Mandarin with English subtitles
Showtimes: Sun, 1/22 @ 4:30 & Mon, 1/23 @ 7:00
In My Dream, director Wang Hong Hai pays tribute to the stunning works in dance and music performed internationally by the 84 members of the China Handicapped Performers' Troupe. During a one-year period, Wang and his production staff lived together with the members of the troupe, recording their daily lives, practice sessions and efforts the performers made to train their bodies. The troupe was founded in Beijing in 1987 by a group of 30 artists and includes performers who have hearing or sight impairments. My Dream is a combination of documentary and visual poetry that transcends the limits of language and geography. –China Insight
White Gardenia
Director: Jiang Lifen
Run Time / Year: 85 min | 2005
Language: Mandarin with English subtitles
Showtimes: Sun, 1/22 @ 7:00 & Mon, 1/23 @ 4:30
Directed, acted and penned by Jiang Lifen, one of China’s up-and-coming women filmmakers, White Gardenia has keen insight into the lives of women and shows that insight with great conviction, depicting how women in crisis struggle with decisions that will affect their lives and future happiness. White Gardenia tells a traditional story of romance set against wartime China. With a nod to Madame Bovary and tales of women who choose family but long for the spotlight, Jiang herself portrays the main character, Yang Liuqing. Yang’s outwardly contented life as a mother and wife begins to crack as events cause her past to resurface – memories of her career as a famous Yue Opera singer in Shanghai, a life that ended with the Japanese attack in 1937. The plot is simple and archetypal, the characters compelling and real.