LIGHT AND SHADOWS – 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF REFORM AND OPENING-UP

Screening List：

UNDER THE BRIDGE

IN LOVE

YEAR OF FATE

BEYOND THE HORIZONS

SHANGHAI FEVER

FINAL DECISION

BIG SHOT'S FUNERAL

LIFE SHOW

THE WORLD

THE END OF YEAR

AMERICAN DREAMS IN CHINA

EVERYBODY'S FINE

Under the bridge (1984)

Director: Bai Chen

Screenwriter: Bai Chen / Ling Qiwei / Zhu Dian / Zheng Binghui / Le Yun

Starring: Gong Xue / Zhang Tielin / Wang Pin

Synopsis: 

By the side of picturesque Suzhou River, bicycle repairman Gao Zhihua falls in love with little tailor Qin Nan. Gao’s mother is also satisfied with Qin’s gentleness and kindness and supports her son and Qin. However, Gao and his mother never think that Qin even had a son at a young age and takes him with her. For a time, pieces of gossip are going around. At the moment, the attitude of Gao’s mother changes dramatically...

In Love (1989)

Director: Lu Xiaoya

Screenwriter: Lu Xiaoya

Starring: Li Kechun / Lv Xiaohe

Synopsis: 

After graduating from university, Wen Jiefei comes to the special economic zone Hainan with great hopes to start a new life. By chance, she meets a constructor Fan Jiyuan born in a peasant family. Fan pursues her relentlessly and she marries him. After their marriage, the cultural differences between them cause Wen’s psychological imbalance. The gap of thoughts and feelings is difficult to make up for with rich material life. She feels lost and confused as never before.

Year Of Fate (1990)

Director: Xie Fei

Screenwriter: Liu Heng

Starring: Cai Hongxiang / Cheng Lin / Jiang Wen / Li Geng / Li Nan  

Synopsis: 

The unemployed youth Li Huiquan hurts someone for his buddies and is sentenced to jail. His mother has died when he gets out of prison, leaving him an empty home. His warm-hearted neighbor Aunt Luo and police Xiao Li help Li Huiquan get an individual business license. He begins to stand on his own feet.

Li met Zhao Yaqiu, a cabaret singer, and becomes her escort. However, when he decides to start a new life, he is caught in an unexpected dilemma.

Beyond the horizons (1992)

Director: Yu Benzheng

Screenwriter: Lu Tianming

Starring: Zhang Tieyuan / Gao Qiang / Xiao Rongsheng / Fang Wenying

Synopsis: 

In the late 1970s, the peasants of Yaogou Brigade are living in poverty. The men in the village leave their homes to make a living. The women, children and the elderly can only stay at their poor homes. Qu Houcheng, the former party secretary of the village, cannot bear to see the villagers leave their homes. He and the party members secretly reclaim several acres of uncultivated land and prepared to use the harvested grain to help the villagers. However, the district party secretary Qu Manman confiscates these grains on the charge of “black grain”. The new village party secretary Qin Jianjiu pleads desperately for clearing Qu Houcheng’s name but failed. In the face of the continuous outflow of villagers, Qin Jianjiu decides to take the measure of “fixing of farm output quotas for each household”.

Shanghai Fever (1994)

Director: Li Guoli

Screenwriter: Jia Hongyuan / Wu Jingwen

Starring: Pan Hong / Sean Andy / Wang Rugang / Wang Huaying / Crystal Kwok

Synopsis: 

Final Decision (2000)

Director: Yu Benzheng

Screenwriter: Song Jigao / Zhang Ping / He Zizhuang

Starring: Wang Qingxiang / Liao Jingsheng / Zuo Ling / Wang Zhenrong / Lei Ming 

Synopsis:

Mayor Li Gaocheng comes back after studying in Party School of the Central Committee and faces complicated situations and sharp conflicts. Zhongyang Textile Factory, where Li worked as the director six years ago, is now on the verge of bankruptcy and thousands of textile workers are preparing to petition the municipal government. Through in-depth investigations and visits, he learns that there is serious corruption within the current leadership of Zhongyang Group and his wife and little brother are also involved. Between the interests of the party and the country and his family affection, he makes the final decision after hard thinking for a long time.

Big Shot's Funeral (2001)

Director: Feng Xiaogang

Screenwriter: Shi Kang / Feng Xiaogang / Li Xiaoming

Starring: Ge You / Rosamund Kwan / Ying Da / Paul Mazursky / Donald Sutherland

Synopsis: 

The world renowned director Taylor is very ill when he is filming in China. Seeing that the big shot is dying, the people around him decide to arrange a decent funeral for him. Then Youyou, a laid-off photographer from the film studio, and Louis Wang, a pedantic businessman, take on the job. For a time, the big shot’s funeral becomes the focus of the media, and no one is willing to miss a great business opportunity. Just as preparations for the funeral are in full swing, something incredible happens...

Life Show (2002)

Director: Huo Jianqi

Screenwriter: Si Wu

Starring: Tao Hong / Tao Zeru / Pan Yueming

Synopsis: 

The beautiful single woman Lai Shuangyang runs “Jiujiu Restaurant” in Jiqing Street and the specialty Touwei Duck Neck attracts many diners to linger over. Some people not only love the duck necks, they are also attracted by Lai’s charm. Lai’s life seems wonderful, but she has her own troubles: Mother died in her early years and Father remarried; she became the first self-employed person in Jiqing Street to bring up her little brother and sister; her marriage failed and is single; her little brother is an addict and entered the addiction treatment center; and her big brother and his wife are coveting the old house of their family. All these troubles make her exhausted and struggling all the time.

The World (2004)

Director: Jia Zhangke

Screenwriter: Jia Zhangke

Starring: Zhao Tao / Cheng Taishen / Huang Yiqun / Wang Hongwei / Liang Jingdong

Synopsis: 

As a dancer of Beijing World Park Folk Village, Zhao Xiaotao is eager to fly with her boyfriend Cheng Taisheng to see the outside world. The visit of her ex-boyfriend reminds Zhao of her unforgettable first encounter with Cheng and their boring days at present. She understands that her old dreams have already been broken and the sudden departure of the Russian girl Anna she just gets acquainted with but feels like an old friend makes her perplexed.

The End Of Year (2008)

Director: Wang Jing

Screenwriter: Xie Xiaodong / Wu Nan

Starring: Chen Gang / Wang Chang’e / Zhang Tong / Feng Dinghong / Zeng Yunzhen 

Synopsis: 

As the Spring Festival approaches, the contractor Zhang Guodong, who has been struggling in Beijing for many years, is preparing to halt one year of hard work and take his girlfriend home for the New Year. A small accident makes him meet Teacher Bai, the vice principal of a senior high school, who is worrying that no one can decorate his new home. Zhang takes on the decoration of Bai’s home. On the other hand, Li Jialiang, a chief physician of internal medicine, is preparing to bring his family back to their hometown in Hunan. Not only is it difficult to buy tickets, but his wife, who is determined to get her son admitted to key high schools, is firmly opposed to returning hometown for fear of delaying their son’s study. Zhang makes a mistake in the decoration. Bai gets sick from his anxiety to entertain his children in the new home and is sent to the hospital where Li works. A drama about going home to visit relatives begins to unfold.

American Dreams in China (2013)

Director: Peter Chan

Screenwriter: Zhou Zhiyong / Zhang Ji / Lin Aihua

Starring: Huang Xiaoming / Deng Chao / Tong Dawei / Du Juan

Synopsis: 

In the 1980s, three young people with enthusiasm and dreams meet on the campus of Yenching university. Meng Xiaojun, born in an intellectual family, is eager to go to the United States to realize his ideals. Wang yang, romantic and free, fully enjoys the vigorous youth atmosphere in the early days of reform and opening up. Cheng Dongqing, a rural youth, who have twice failed in the college entrance examination, studies hard. Following their success, their friendship is facing tough tests.

Everybody’s Fine (2016)

Director: Zhang Meng

Screenwriter: Liu Ya / Song Xiao

Starring: Zhang Guoli / Yao Chen / Shawn Dou / Ye Yiyun/ Chen He 

Synopsis: 

Guan Qing is all-powerful in the workplace, but she has insoluble marital problems. Guan Chu is in a foreign country and has a beautiful dream of ballet, but the reality is cruel and she can only make a living as a waitress in a restaurant. Guan Quan has devoted all efforts to start a business, but fails to get the desired result. Guan Hao, a freelance photographer, is also lost in his life. Although the Guans’ four siblings have the same blood, they live in different places and gather rarely. As their father, Guan Zhiguo, who is not good at words, decides to take the initiative and begins his journey of visiting his four children.