Cinema China ‘07: Festival of Chinese Film on Tour

Throughout April, Arnolfini and Watershed host Cinema China ‘07 on tour, the UK’s biggest festival of Chinese film to date. Spanning eight decades of cinematic history, the programme explores cinema from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. The festival examines the rich history of Chinese cinema with screenings ranging from exciting action features and soaring melodramas to musicals more flamboyant than Bollywood, as well as masterpieces of psychology and social realism.

Compiled by Mark Cousins, former director of the Edinburgh Film Festival, and Dr Dorota Ostrowska (Edinburgh University), the programme uncovers a long neglected area of international cinema. Cousins and Ostrowska described their vision for the festival:

Our aim from the start has been to pay tribute to the greatest film directors who have worked in the Chinese language. Despite being buffeted by history and politics, they used the medium innovatively, and portrayed themselves and their country in their work. Our unbridled enthusiasm for these innovative films is tinged with rage that many are not better known.

Programme highlights at Watershed include two double-bills; the first screens on Sun 1 April, with Yellow Earth, a striking drama from the director of Farewell My Concubine, and credited with reintroducing Chinese film to the world in the mid 1980s, followed by Zhang Yimou’s Ju Dou, a fabulous tale of sexual passion set in a village dye house in the 1920’s.

Hero screening at Watershed

On Sun 22 April the second double-bill includes the period epic Hero, the first Chinese film to hit number one at the US box office, and In the Mood for Love a beautifully tailored period drama which follows the burgeoning relationship of a man and woman drawn together when they discover that their spouses are being unfaithful. Both films will be introduced by Dr Maurizio Marinelli from the University of Bristol.

Other highlights at Watershed include a rare screening of The Goddess (Sun 8 April), a moving story about a struggling mother who is driven to prostitution, screened here with a newly commissioned score from Hong Kong/Scottish artist Kim-Ho Ip. There’s also a special Cinema China Cinékids event on Sat 21 April, with a screening of The King of Masks, a delightful tale of a master mask-maker and his apprentice, followed by a mask-making workshop. And finally, from the director of Hero and Ju Dou comes Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, which screens on Sun 29 April, a sad, slyly comic tale of lost time and stubborn pride in which an aging father attempts to heal a longstanding rift with his dying son.

One Armed Swordsman screening at Arnolfini

Programme highlights at Arnolfini include The One Armed Swordsman on Mon 23 April, an excellent example of China’s adventurous and action packed Wuxia style. With extravagant swordplay, wild soundtrack and heavy bloodletting, the film is a visual feast and a must-see for fans of contemporary Asian cinema.

Also screening at Arnolfini is a Taiwanese double-bill on Tue 24 April of HHH: A Portrait of Hou Hsiao-Hsien, a documentary on the acclaimed filmmaker by French cult director Olivier Assayas. This is followed by Hsiao-Hsien’s political drama City of Sadness, winner of the 1989 Golden Lion Award in Venice. Then finally there is an opportunity to see Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet, a warm-hearted comedy about a gay man in New York staging a marriage of convenience to appease his family that marked his transition from Chinese cinema to America.

Cinema China ‘07 continues Arnolfini and Watershed’s progamming partnership, and forms part of an ongoing commitment to making Bristol Harbourside a national centre for cultural film.

Notes:

• For full details of Watershed's Cinema China '07 programme please visit Cinema China '07 at Watershed.
• For further information on Arnolfini's Cinema China '07 programme please visit Cinema China '07 at Arnolfini or Call Box Office on 0117 917 2300/01.
• Also screening from Fri 13 – Thu 26 April at Watershed is director Zhang Yimou’s Curse of the Golden Flower , an epic tale of lust and power set in the latter days of the Tang Dynasty in 10th Century China.