Xingfu Shiguang
China,
2001, 95 min
Shown in 2002
CREDITS
- dir
-
Zhang Yimou
- prod
-
Zhang Weiping, Yang Qinglong, Zhao Yu
- scr
-
Gui Zi
- cam
-
Hou Yong
- editor
-
Zhai Ru
- mus
-
San Bao
- cast
-
Zhao Benshan, Dong Jie, Li Xuejian, Gong Jinghua
- source
-
Sony Pictures Classics, 550 Madison Ave., 8th Floor, New York, NY 10022. FAX: 212-833-8844.
- premiere
-
North American Premiere
-
COMMENTS
Zhang Yimou and Dong Jie in person.
OTHER
Legendary Chinese director Zhang Yimou shifts focus from epic red lantern exotica to cheerful urban naturalism with this intricate, low-key comedy that, like the films of the Czech New Wave, finds its charm in ordinary people making the best of a limited world. Middle-aged and laid off, Zhao (well-known comedian Zhao Benshan) becomes lovestruck with a heavyset divorcee who thinks he’s a rich hotel owner. Scheming to raise money for their wedding, he converts an abandoned bus into a “love motel.” Unfortunately, Zhao’s ingrained conservatism (he makes sex-craved guests leave their room doors open) delivers more problems than solutions, as does his soft spot for his betrothed’s blind daughter, whom he nevertheless cons into believing that she’s employed as the hotel masseuse by constructing a fake massage center in a warehouse. As the lies fly by and the twists turn tighter, Zhao, his friends and the young woman unite to form a sense of community, building it themselves out of the rubble of a bewildered society. Shooting with a hidden camera in the frenetic port city of Dalian, Zhang refashions his considerable cinematic eye towards a more human, humane scale, ably helped by a lovingly realized script (based on a story by Mo Yan, author of Red Sorghum) and the poker-faced comedic talents of his cast.
FACTOID #173
Though he starred in an Opening Night film (1967’s How I Won the War), lent his image and songs to 1968’s Festival entry Yellow Submarine and was scheduled to appear at the 1971 Festival with wife Yoko for an evening of their short films, John Lennon never attended the SFIFF.
