Dragons and Tigers
  Shanghai Dreams
Qinghong
[SHANG]  

China, 2005, 119 min, 35mm

Directed By: Wang Xiaoshuai
PRODS: Pi Li, Qin Hong, Yang Lin
SCR: Lao Ni
CAM: Wu Di
ED: Yang Hongyu
MUS: Liu Chen, Teresa Teng, Boney M
CAST: Gao Yuanyuan, Li Bin, Yan Anlian, Tang Yang, Wang Xueyang, Qin Hao
  
 Film Resources 
  Wang Xiaoshuai’s Cannes prizewinner is rooted in first-hand memories. In the late 1960s, when China feared attack by the USSR, armament factories and other "front-line" industries were relocated from cities on the eastern seaboard to remote inland areas, and idealistic young adults were persuaded to resettle in dirt-towns like Guiyang to staff them. Less than 15 years later, many were desperate to move back to the urban sophistication of such cities as Shanghai, disillusioned by life in the sticks and eager to taste the new freedoms of the 1980s.

The Wu family is a case in point. The tough-love patriarch Zemin has never forgiven his wife for moving them to Guiyang and he’s determined that their two children should put down no local roots; this means, amongst other things, sabotaging his daughter Qinghong’s burgeoning romance with local factory worker Honggen. But Qinghong was born in Guiyang and knows no other home; talk of Shanghai makes her nervous and her father’s intransigence brings out a sullen, rebellious streak. This is more or less the director’s own life story, and he films it with absolute candour. Gao Yuanyuan and Li Bin (both from Beijing Bicycle) are affecting young leads, and Yan Anlian contributes a portrait of awesome belligerence as the father.

The Days (93), Frozen (96), So Close to Paradise (98), Beijing Bicycle (01), Drifters (03)

Sponsored By Shaw Multicultural
 
Screening Schedule
 Date Time Venue Tickets 
 Thu, Sep 29 6:40 pm Granville 7 Theatre 7 $9.50   
 Tue, Oct 11 11:30 am Granville 7 Theatre 3 $7.50   
   
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