The 21st Shanghai International Film Festival is to showcase about 500 films. Among them, there are outstanding film works from a wide range of countries and regions, as well as movie legacy presented in thematic panorama, of which about 80 are Chinese-language films.
In addition to the competition for Golden Goblet Awards and the Asian New Talent Award, the Shanghai International Film Festival also provides more opportunities for the new Chinese-language works to meet with international guests and local audiences.
With open selection mechanism and evaluation criteria, the panorama unit has chosen several excellent films with unique features and huge potentials from nearly 200 entries, and has recommended them to the wider festival-exhibition network and distribution market.
Last year, Shanghai International Film Festival took the lead in the releasing of small and medium-cost films including LEAVING WITH LOVE by PENG Tao, COUCH BOY by LONG Fei, HOLIDAY by CHEN Zhihai, and THE GOOD SAMARITAN by FANG Gangliang in the program of Chinese New Productions; while the Focus Taipei exhibition in the Global Village unit introduced a number of cutting-edge films from Taiwan to Mainland Chinese audiences, such as Ching-lin CHAN’s THE RIVER THAT ALL FLOW BY, Ying-ting TSENG’s THE CAT IN THE CLOSET, and Hsien-che CHU’s WHITE ANT.
In June of this year, the Refreshing Chinese Cinema program of the Shanghai International Film Festival will continue to introduce new works and new talents to the industry, audiences, guests and creators, and present the works and achievements of Chinese filmmakers deserving to be seen and appreciated.
Today, the first 10 films are unveiled:
SEN SEN & RIVER\'S EDGE
The young Taiwanese director, Bon AN, invited Hee Ching PAW, winner of Best Actress of Hong Kong Film Awards to talk about kinship and reflection on life and death in the urban city following the live broadcast plan of the last hundred days of life. The Chinese sixth-generation director WANG Chao put a frustrated young man and a middle-aged man who just lost his son in the countryside; what he gives the song of Bob Dylan is the elusive answer to life.
WANGDRAK\'S RAIN BOOTS & YUN JIE
The young director Lhapal Gyal expressed his homesickness through a childhood fetish past, revealing both the innocence of children and the desire of adults to the rainy season. Established documentary director JIANG Nengjie embodied emotions in the life of a left-behind child and exposed the brutal poetry in the growth of the young girl crossing the silent suburb to the broken factory.
WINTER IN MY HEART & WHEN SUN MEETS MOON
YE Tian, son of the writer YE Xin inherited the creation motif of his father, revisiting the days of group living with profound affection. Following FIND MY MIND OF YOU, Wai-Hang LAU, once a radio host, continued to tell a Hong Kong love story in the 1990s – a relationship between “sun and moon” separated by the immigration tide. Freshness and romance remain the same.
THE WHITE GIRL & ONE NIGHT ON THE WHARF
The noted cinematographer Christopher DOYLE and the female director Jenny SUEN gathered the Hong Kong girl Angela YUEN and Japanese actor Jô ODAGIRI, fabling the increasingly complex modern life in an adventure by sea. The poet HAN Dong adapted and directed a novel written by himself, which was shortlisted for SIFF Project in 2016; the film turns the pier into a stage and mixes poetry with the crowd in a hot night, surprisingly restoring the ambiguity and bizarre flavor of literature.
AN IMPOSSIBLY SMALL OBJECT & GHOST IN THE MOUNTAINS
The Dutch director David VERBEEK worked with the prestigious performer Lisa LU to continue to capture Taipei, a place where modernity and convention co-exist: a photographer takes a photo of a little girl on the nightly streets of Taipei, which opens the door to his memory; a surreal test, more mysterious and charming than the previous work HOW TO DESCRIBE A CLOUD. The director YANG Heng from west Hunan, portrayed a man drifting into a ghost town and getting caught up in its corruption, set against the backdrop of the Hunan Province landscape; another work that managed to create a solidified atmosphere and grief with a hidden circular structure after LAKE AUGUST.
Unbounded Images, Unrestrained New Talents, Unmissable New Works
2018 Refreshing Chinese Cinema
More Films to Come
Screening list:
SEN SEN
(Premiere in Mainland China)
Directed by: Bon AN
Starring: Hee Ching PAW/ Zhi-Xuan WU/ Yi-Wen YEN/ Hsuan-yen TSAI
RIVER\'S EDGE
(Premiere in Asia)
Directed by: WANG Chao
Starring: LI Wake/ YI Ziqi
WINTER IN MY HEART
(World Premiere)
Directed by: YE Tian
Starring: ZHAO Jing/ WANG Yong/ LIU Lei/ PAN Xingyuan
AN IMPOSSIBLY SMALL OBJECT
(Premiere in Mainland China)
Directed by: David VERBEEK
Starring: Lucia HSIEH/ Lisa LU/ David VERBEEK
WHEN SUN MEETS MOON
Directed by: Wai-Hang LAU
Starring: Daichi HARASHIMA/ Yee TONG/ Hedwig TAM/ Aimee CHAN/ Lawrence CHENG
GHOST IN THE MOUNTAINS
Directed by: YANG Heng
Starring: TANG Shenggang/ LIANG Yu/ SHANG Meitong
WANGDRAK\'S RAIN BOOTS
Directed by: Lhapal Gyal
Starring: Druklha Dorje/ Jinpa/ Pakmo Yangdrom
YUN JIE
Directed by: JIANG Nengjie
Starring: JIANG Yunjie/ JIANG Chongxiu/ YUN Fang/ FAN Fengjiao/ JIANG Meilin
THE WHITE GIRL
(Premiere in Mainland China)
Directed by: Christopher DOYLE/ Jenny SUEN
Starring: Angela YUEN/ Jô ODAGIRI/ Jeff YIU/ Tony Tsz-Tung WU
ONE NIGHT ON THE WHARF
(SIFF PROJECT 2016)
Directed by: HAN Dong
Starring: CHAI Chenggang/ LIANG Jingdong/ GAO Bo/ HAN Sanming
Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism
