Are You Lonesome Tonight? [热带往事] (2021)

The makers of Are You Lonesome Tonight? (shown recently at Cannes) have worked out the formula to get a film into the European film festival circuit - if nothing else. The film is set mainly in 1997 (for no obvious reason) in southern China (Guangdong province). Repair man Wang Xueming [Peng Yuayan aka Eddie Peng],…

Three short movies by Sha Mo

Sha Mo (born 1990 and graduate of the Beijing Film Academy), who has recently directed the successful romance Love will Tear us Apart, previously directed a handful of shorts (and co-directed a TV series) before getting his chance to make a feature film. Indeed this is rather typical career path for Chinese directors. This post…

Love will Tear us Apart [我要我们在一起] (2021)

At first glance, this looks like just another boy-meets-girl romance. Actually it is another boy-meets-girl romance but it has a lightness of touch more reminiscent of a Taiwanese movie (and unlike the usual heavy-handed mainland approach). The film tells the story of the ten year romance between Ling Yiyao (aka Yaoyao) [Zhang Jingyi] and her…

Only You Alone [花这样红] (2020)

The director Zhou Zhou and star Chi Yun of the interesting Meili follow up that film with Only You Alone which they co-wrote. Compared to Meili, this is a more low-key drama though it again focuses on the challenges facing a young woman. Chi Li [Chi] is a woman with epilepsy who works in a…

Beijing International Short Film Festival

This post discusses a number of short films shown at recent editions of the BISFF. Abduction 2: Public Domain [拐人2：公有领域] (2018) is an experimental (not to mention bizarre) short from director Xiongzaixia who has directed a series of short films since 2015. Director Xiongzaixia claims to be deeply influenced by Fumiki Watanabe, Masao Adachi, Koji…

Xinpianchang shorts 8 – young women and girls

In Still Home [离城] (2017) (set in Zengcheng, Guangdong and written and directed by Grace Hsia (BFA)), we get an insight into the life of 18 year-old Xiuru [Li Yinghong] through the information recorded on her mobile phone. Her phone is stolen by an (unnamed) middle-aged woman [Xin Er] who has herself gone to work…

Xinpianchang shorts 7 – family

In Silent Lake [父亲那样的人] (2017), teacher Yu Can learns that his estranged father Yu Liang has died in an apparent accident on a lake. He has not seen his father since his parents divorced 10 years earlier. Yu goes to live in his father's house on the lake and starts to learn about his life…

Break through the Darkness [扫黑·决战] (2021)

Films about public and private corruption are a staple part of cinema in most countries. But China is rather different in this regard. The recent iQiyi TV series The Long Night showed the potential in this area scoring over 9 on Douban. Even if it toned down (to some extent) the level of corruption from…

Xinpianchang shorts 6 – crime

Howling Wind [冬风吹拂} (2020) is a good longish short (44 minutes) which deserves to be more widely seen. Two policemen, Officer Qu [Zha Xioalei] and his colleague, are investigating the bloody murder of a man whose dismembered body has been found in his Beijing apartment. Qu identifies a possible link with the murder of a…

Xinpiangchang shorts 5 – rural

Short films set (at least in part) in rural China on xinpianchang.com The Last Way [我最好朋友的婚礼] (2021) is an absurdist comedy a genre which has been quite popular in China. Set in chapters, the cast of characters includes a man in a car bringing his friend's ashes home. He also, for reasons we later (sort…