The latest from husband-and-wife directing team Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka is a look at consumerism in China that will make your blood run cold. Lynn (Yao Honggui) is nearing the end of her post-secondary education and looking forward to a career as a flight attendant. She has a pushy, patriarchal boyfriend and a mother deep in debt; things get even worse when she finds herself pregnant. Not interested in motherhood at this point in her life, Lynn decides to carry out the pregnancy and sell the child to her mom’s debtors.
Stonewalling unfolds in a series of long takes, each of them framed with a precision that underscores the cold, polished design of contemporary urban China. That sheen of slickness is shown to conceal desperation and ruthlessness; Lynn’s situation is just the foremost example in the film. It would be hard to imagine a more capitalistic environment than the one depicted here, and the filmmakers imbue the milieu with a powerful malaise.
Media Partner
Yao Honggui, Liu Long, Xiao Zilong, Huang Xiaoxiong, Liu Gang
Japan
2022
In Hunanese with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Nutcracker at Wethersfield
Back in the long, dark Covid winter of 2020, there was no way the New York City Ballet could mount their traditional Christmas production of Tchaikovsky's fairytale. But choreographer Troy Schumacher had a dream to save the show -- reimagining a classic.
Pictures of Ghosts
A companion piece to Mendonça Filho's The Secret Agent, Pictures of Ghosts is a lovely, relaxed, ruminative riff on movies, memory, the imaginative space conferred by that place we call Cinema, seasoned with love and boundless anecdotes.
North of Ourselves
In the depths of winter, two adventurers set out to cross Quebec from one end to the other on bike and skis, exploring its staggering geography and meeting its inhabitants (human and otherwise) along the way.
The Secret Agent
Having run afoul of an influential bureaucrat in Brazil’s military dictatorship circa 1977, Marcelo decamps to Recife to live under an assumed name — but he’ll soon come to understand precisely how rampant the country’s corruption has become.
Cutting Through Rocks
Winner of Sundance's World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize, Cutting Through Rocks follows Sara Shahverdi — motorcyclist, midwife, and first-ever councilwoman elected in her Iranian village. A vérité triumph by Sara Khaki & Mohammadreza Eyni.
Credits
Producer
Otsuka Ryuji
Screenwriter
Otsuka Ryuji, Huang Ji
Cinematography
Otsuka Ryuji
Editor
Liao Ching-sung, Otsuka Ryuji, Du Men
Production Design
Otsuka Ryuji, Huang Ji
Original Music
Ng Chor Guan
Directors
Huang Ji
Huang Ji was born in Hunan in 1984 and studied screenwriting at the Beijing Film Academy. Since her first short film, The Warmth of Orange Peel (2009), she has been focusing on exploring the secrets of women’s inner emotions. Egg and Stone (2012), her debut feature, won the Tiger Award at International Film Festival Rotterdam, while her sophomore feature, The Foolish Bird (2017), was awarded the Special Mention of the Generation 14+ International Jury at Berlinale. She is also the founder of Around You Film Workshop.
Filmography: Egg and Stone (2012); Trace (2013); The Foolish Bird (2017)
Otsuka Ryuji
Born in Tokyo, Japan in 1972, Ryuji Otsuka relocated to China in 2005 to work in independent filmmaking, and has since been serving as the cinematographer and producer for all the films directed by Huang Ji. In 2013, he made his first documentary, Beijing Ants, as a solo director. His co-directed feature, The Foolish Bird (2017), won him the Best Artistic Originality Award (DoP) in FIRST International Film Festival. His recent cinematography work includes A Family Tour (2018) and Damp Season (2020).