SIFF World Express | Wild Swords selected for San Diego Asian Film Festival

Recommended by the Shanghai International Film Festival, Wild Swords, which was selected in the “Chinese New style” unit of this year's 23rd Shanghai International Film Festival, was screened online at the 21st San Diego Asian Film Festival, USA, from October 21 to 31, local time. This is also the second time that the film has been shown at overseas film festivals after its debut at the Adelaide Film Festival in Australia this year.

Poster of Wild Swords

The San Diego Asian Film Festival is one of the largest Asian film displays and exchange platforms in the western United States. Affected by the epidemic this year, the festival was held online for the first time, showing a total of 125 films from 23 countries. On board SIFF World Express, Wild Swords successfully went abroad, representing the new style of Chinese films. The film is a new work by film critic Li Yunbo, which tells the story of the feud between the Tang family and the unknown door during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. The film pursues the minimalist style, takes Chinese classical literature as the starting point, borrows the outer shell of Japanese action film, and expounds a literary reasoning story of “Rashōmon” style under the concise martial arts scene.

During the screening of the San Diego Asian Film Festival, Wild Swords received positive comments from the local audience. Overseas fans left messages on the social platform saying that compared with the intense of some traditional martial arts films, Wild Swords is more relaxing and interesting, with distinctive Chinese characteristics. Visual effects and action choreography are also satisfactory. Director Li Yunbo creatively presents epic heroism, showing a triangle of intimacy and revenge.

Cast of Wild Swords at 23rd Shanghai International Film Festival

SIFF World Express is a cultural “going out” project launched at the Shanghai International Film Festival in 2015. Relying on the platform advantages of one of the 15 non-specialized competitive international film festivals recognized by the International Film producers Association, the Shanghai International Film Festival selects excellent works from shortlisted competitions and screening units every year and sends excellent Chinese films to more international film festivals and regions and promotes their overseas distribution. At the same time, SIFF strongly supports the potential works shortlisted for “SIFF Project” to enter the international film market, and further promote their co-production negotiations and overseas pre-sales.

Since its opening five years ago, SIFF World Express has been promoted to Japan, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands and other countries, pushing more than 50 excellent Chinese films or projects overseas. Film festival organizations all over the world have also promoted excellent new films to Chinese audiences through the “SIFF Express” project.