News

The latest film from the director of ‘Farewell My Concubine’ will be released in China in late September.

Fortissimo Films has secured international rights to Chinese war epic The Volunteers: To The War by Chen Kaige, the acclaimed director of Farewell My Concubine and The Battle At Lake Changjin.

The Amsterdam and Beijing-based sales company will launch sales on the feature at the Asian Contents and Film Market in Busan next month, following its release in China on September 28. The international sales agreement excludes North America, Australia and New Zealand.

The film, previously known as The Great War, is the...

Prince Edward To Present New Production Guild of Great Britain Talent Prize

Prince Edward, who is the royal Patron of the Production Guild of Great Britain (Pggb), will present the body’s new film and TV industry award that has been created in his name as part of its inaugural Talent Showcase, presented in association with Disney Studios Content and supported by Entertainment Partners. Four industry organizations have been shortlisted for The Earl of Wessex Award, created to recognise professionals working in the UK film and TV industry who have created “a successful way of inspiring local talent or skills, widening access or being more inclusive.” The nominees are youth-led production company Fully Focused; media charity Mama Youth Project; social change enablers Resource Productions and mental health and wellbeing nonprofit 6ft From the Spotlight. He will present the prize at the first Pggb Talent Showcase on January 24. The Earl of...

Sentimental local drama film “Lighting Up the Stars” topped the mainland China cinema box office for a second weekend. Its haul was nearly 40 bigger than in its debut session.

The film grossed RMB296 million (44 million) between Friday and Sunday, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway, far ahead of second placed “Jurassic World: Dominion” which took RMB65.2 million (9.7 million). After four weeks in Chinese cinemas “Jurassic World” has accumulated an impressive 4132 million.

“Lighting up the Stars” tells the tale of an ex-con funeral director who has a chance meeting with an orphaned girl. The encounter changes both of their lives. Produced by Lian Ray Pictures, it is directed by Liu Jiangjiang and stars Zhu Yilong as the man and Yang Enyou as the girl.

In its opening weekend, it earned 31.8 million (RMB213 million). After ten days in cinemas (plus previews) it has a cumulative of RMB795 million (119 million).

“Ode to...

“This used to be our playground. This was our playground. Does anyone know the difference between was and used to be?” An adult Chen Nian (Zhou Dongyu) quizzes her students, who can’t quite answer. It’s a distinction many native English speakers might find hard to articulate, except to say that the surprisingly poetic solution Chen Nian supplies feels right: used to be “carries with it a sense of loss.”

The young English teacher looks wistful as she says this, but in Derek Kwok Cheung Tsang’s gripping, superbly performed melodrama — a deeply moving if occasionally overwrought exposé of bullying in the acutely competitive academic pressure cooker of a Chinese high school — it’s hard to imagine she can be nostalgic for her own school days. After this brief flash forward, we’re plunged back into the past with her, beginning the day a bullied classmate jumps to her...

The harsh critique towards the increasingly materialistic Chinese society and the consequences of a country that seems to move forward with almost no regard for its citizens has been a recurring one in the local independent cinema. Li Ruijun tackles this subject with an approach that lingers quite close to the mainstream.

Walking Past the Future screened at Helsinki Cine Aasia Film Festival 2018

Yaoting works in a factory assembling motherboards and spends most of her time chatting on her phone with a guy she met online. Her parents were peasants who left their hometown of Gansu to work in Shenzhen, but after her father suffers an injury that indicates that he is not physically capable of working in the same rhythm, he is laid off immediately, and soon after, the same happens to his wife. Having no alternative, the family returns back to Ganshu only to find that very little has remained the same,...