December 08, 2003
Chinese Film Festival
kinoKULTURE in conjunction with the Red Mansion Foundation presents two days of film in celebration of the Chinese New Year Of The Monkey, including three films by China's answer to Ken Loach, the acclaimed independent director Jia Zhangke, and a world premiere of Yang Maoyuan 's stunning artist's film 'Midway Law'.
Saturday 24th January
Doors 7.30pm
"Platform" (Zhantai) by Jia Zhangke ( 2000 ) 154 min
"Unknown Pleasures" by Jia Zhangke ( China, 2002 ) 113 min
Sunday 25th January
Doors 7.30pm
"Midway Law" by Yang Maoyuan ( China, 2002 ) 40 min
"Xiao Wu" by Jia Zhangke ( China, 1997 ) 105 min
Saturday 24th January
Doors 7.30pm
Tickets £7 / £5
"Platform" (Zhantai) by Jia Zhangke ( 2000 ) 154 min
"Unknown Pleasures" by Jia Zhangke ( China, 2002 ) 113 min
Jia Zhangke is a leading figure of what is known as the "Sixth Generation" of film directors in the People's Republic of China, following the "Fifth Generation," whose members include Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige. The Fifth Generation directors occupy themselves mostly with spectacle-driven mythic histories laden with pointed social criticisms that jeopardize their standing with the government censors. In contrast, the Sixth Generation filmmakers largely produce their gritty, contemporary realist films well outside of the state system, relying instead on personal or private funding, often through sources outside China.
Set in Fenyang, Shanxi Province, Platform focuses on a group of amateur theatre troupe performers whose fate mirrors that of the general population in China as massive socio-economic changes sweep across the mainland. The film charts the span of a decade in which the adolescent members of the state-sponsored Peasant Culture Group of Fenyang face the immense economic and cultural reforms of the 1980s, leading to their privatization and reincarnation as the All-Star Rock n' Breakdance Electronic Band.
"Unknown Pleasures" by Jia Zhangke ( China, 2002 ) 113 min
A Chinese 'Ken Park', Unknown Pleasures depicts two unemployed slackers, neither with job prospects nor motivation, hang out in a nightmarish contemporary post-industrial wasteland sheltered town in China trying to make sense of their aimless and uncertain futures by playing video games, singing karaoke and watching TV.
Sunday 25th January
Doors 7.30pm
Tickets £7 / £5
"Midway Law" by Yang Maoyuan ( China, 2002 ) 40 min
"Xiao Wu" by Jia Zhangke ( China, 1997 ) 105 min
A single, forty minute tracking shot taken from a windscreen of the journey by car through the mountains north of Beiijing, passing the burial places of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty. A wry and punk commentary upon tourism, the eternity of car journeys and the viewer's desire for narrative, Midway Law is a world premiere by hugely acclaimed artist Yang Maoyuan.
"Xiao Wu" by Jia Zhangke ( China, 1997 ) 105 min
"This is a film about our worries and our uneasiness. Having to cope with a dysfunctional society, we take refuge in solitude which is a substitute for dignity… It is finally a film about my native town and about contemporary China." - Jia Zhangke
Reminiscent of the works of Robert Bresson, Jean-Luc Godard and Robert Altman in its use of non-professional actors, environmental sound, and hand held camera, Xiao Wu is "one of the best films of the 90s." ( IMDB ).
Focussing on the life of pickpocket Wu and his struggle to negotiate leaving the streets for a more stable life, Xiao Wu discusses the act (and the art) of stealing and the transient possession of identity (personal, cultural or aesthetic). The story shifts in tone and story, from a terse Bressonian study of pickpockets to a more character-driven story of broken honor-among-thieves, to a romantic interlude reminiscent of Godard's Breathless (1959), to a rustic family drama whose staid observations on farm life recall a Frederick Wiseman documentary. Through this series of unpredictable episodes, Xiao Wu's manifold personality is reflected in a rich variety of social contexts and personal relationships: pickpocket/craftsman, organizer/bully/exploiter of juvenile thieves, lonely schoolboy romantic, rebellious son.
The Red Mansion Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation, which promotes artistic exchange between China and the UK through exhibitions, exchange programmes, publications and the Red Mansion Art Prize.
For further information and visuals please contact us at The Red Mansion Foundation:
The Red Mansion Foundation
4th Floor
12 Great Portland St
London W1W 8QN
Tel: 0207 323 3700
Fax: 0207 323 0788
Info: ic@redmansionfoundation.org
Web: www.redmansionfoundation.org
posted by James on December 8, 2003 12:29 PM