Hawaii International Film Festival
HONOLULU -- Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yang continues in the humanist vein of his features Sunflower and Shower with Getting Home, an amiably satirical road comedy that also turns a comical eye on a variety of social issues facing China today.
Given the film's universally resonant, gentle humor and Zhang's successful track record, Getting Home seems destined for a specialty pickup after an award-winning festival run.
When middle-age construction laborer Liu (Hong Qiwen) unexpectedly dies in Shenzhen from overwork and excessive drinking, his friend and co-worker Zhao Zhao Benshan) vows to fulfill his pledge to transport the corpse thousands of miles back to Liu's hometown of Chongqing for a decent burial. Problem is, Zhao doesn't have much money or many options for transportation. When he can't get a bus or hitch a ride, he trudges along carrying Liu's short, slight body on his back or else finds more inventive means of transportation such as a farmer's cart or rolling Liu along inside a massive tractor tire.
Zhao inevitably meets a steady stream of memorable characters on his semi-absurd road trip. A heartbroken truck driver (Hu Jun) heading north toward the Three Gorges region finds Zhao a sympathetic ear for his story of woe. A run-in with a wealthy, lonely man (Wu Ma) rehearsing his own funeral reminds Zhao of the value of friends and family. His encounter with a woman (Song Dandan) who sells her blood to help put her son through college reawakens the possibility of romance.
Each encounter enriches Zhao's journey, even if Zhang's premise might require a suspension of disbelief concerning the advancing state of Liu's corpse. As he progresses toward fulfilling his commitment to Liu, Zhao serves as the catalyst for an increasingly familiar clash of values between tradition and modernity, selfishness and loyalty, urban and rural that's sweeping through contemporary China.
Although some of the situations barely skirt predictability, popular stage comic Zhao's lead performance anchors the narrative with sympathetic humor, despite the script's occasional tendency toward sentimentality. Zhang's brisk direction leavens Getting Home with plenty of physical comedy, distinctively lensed by cinematographers Yu Lik-wai and Lai Yiu-fai.
GETTING HOME
Filmko Pictures
Credits:
Director: Zhang Yang
Screenwriters: Zhang Yang, Wang Yao
Producers: Stanley Tong, Er Yong, Zhang Yang, Harvey Wong, Liu Qiang
Directors of photography: Yu Lik-wai, Lai Yiu-fai
Production designer: An Bin
Music: Dou Peng
Costume designer: He Chongnan
Editor: Yang Hongyu
Cast:
Zhao: Zhao Benshan
Liu: Hong Qiwen
Lovelorn Trucker: Hu Jun
Lonely Rich Man: Wu Ma
Scavenger Woman: Song Dandan
Running time -- 97 minutes
No MPAA rating...
HONOLULU -- Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yang continues in the humanist vein of his features Sunflower and Shower with Getting Home, an amiably satirical road comedy that also turns a comical eye on a variety of social issues facing China today.
Given the film's universally resonant, gentle humor and Zhang's successful track record, Getting Home seems destined for a specialty pickup after an award-winning festival run.
When middle-age construction laborer Liu (Hong Qiwen) unexpectedly dies in Shenzhen from overwork and excessive drinking, his friend and co-worker Zhao Zhao Benshan) vows to fulfill his pledge to transport the corpse thousands of miles back to Liu's hometown of Chongqing for a decent burial. Problem is, Zhao doesn't have much money or many options for transportation. When he can't get a bus or hitch a ride, he trudges along carrying Liu's short, slight body on his back or else finds more inventive means of transportation such as a farmer's cart or rolling Liu along inside a massive tractor tire.
Zhao inevitably meets a steady stream of memorable characters on his semi-absurd road trip. A heartbroken truck driver (Hu Jun) heading north toward the Three Gorges region finds Zhao a sympathetic ear for his story of woe. A run-in with a wealthy, lonely man (Wu Ma) rehearsing his own funeral reminds Zhao of the value of friends and family. His encounter with a woman (Song Dandan) who sells her blood to help put her son through college reawakens the possibility of romance.
Each encounter enriches Zhao's journey, even if Zhang's premise might require a suspension of disbelief concerning the advancing state of Liu's corpse. As he progresses toward fulfilling his commitment to Liu, Zhao serves as the catalyst for an increasingly familiar clash of values between tradition and modernity, selfishness and loyalty, urban and rural that's sweeping through contemporary China.
Although some of the situations barely skirt predictability, popular stage comic Zhao's lead performance anchors the narrative with sympathetic humor, despite the script's occasional tendency toward sentimentality. Zhang's brisk direction leavens Getting Home with plenty of physical comedy, distinctively lensed by cinematographers Yu Lik-wai and Lai Yiu-fai.
GETTING HOME
Filmko Pictures
Credits:
Director: Zhang Yang
Screenwriters: Zhang Yang, Wang Yao
Producers: Stanley Tong, Er Yong, Zhang Yang, Harvey Wong, Liu Qiang
Directors of photography: Yu Lik-wai, Lai Yiu-fai
Production designer: An Bin
Music: Dou Peng
Costume designer: He Chongnan
Editor: Yang Hongyu
Cast:
Zhao: Zhao Benshan
Liu: Hong Qiwen
Lovelorn Trucker: Hu Jun
Lonely Rich Man: Wu Ma
Scavenger Woman: Song Dandan
Running time -- 97 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 12/13/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
New Yorker Films/Seville Pictures
NEW YORK -- Sunflower, the decade-spanning soap opera of Zhang Yang (Quitting, Shower), concerns the troubled relationship between a man and his son, but the film's true interest comes not from the plot but rather the evocative visual portrait of an evolving Beijing.
Skillfully conveying the physical changes in the city from the mid-'70s to the end of the century, Sunflower is best appreciated from a sociological perspective. The film is currently playing an exclusive theatrical engagement at New York's Lincoln Plaza Cinemas.
The central characters are Gengnian (Sun Haiying), an artist who has just been released from a six-year incarceration in a brutal labor camp when the film opens in 1976, and his young son Xiangyang (first played by Fan Zhang). The 9-year-old has led a carefree life up to that point, but his father has big ideas for the boy, wanting him to pursue the artistic life that he himself was unable to follow.
The resulting tensions between them are long-lasting, as we see in the film's proceeding sections, each taking place after roughly a decade. Xiangyang (later played by Gao Ge and then Haidi Wang) indeed becomes an artist, but personal issues continue to keep the father and son at odds, much to the frustration of Gengnian's loving mother (a deglamorized and highly effective Joan Chen).
Meanwhile, the physical landscape that the characters inhabit changes greatly over the years, with the small, alley-strewn neighborhoods making way for massively scaled high-rise housing projects, and the legions of bicycles getting replaced by pollution causing, road-clogging automobiles.
Although filled with a plethora of dramatic events, including earthquakes and floods, the film never achieves real dramatic momentum, due in large part to its needlessly sluggish pacing. While individual moments are quite moving, Sunflower conveys the passage of its history-changing years in what seems like real time.
NEW YORK -- Sunflower, the decade-spanning soap opera of Zhang Yang (Quitting, Shower), concerns the troubled relationship between a man and his son, but the film's true interest comes not from the plot but rather the evocative visual portrait of an evolving Beijing.
Skillfully conveying the physical changes in the city from the mid-'70s to the end of the century, Sunflower is best appreciated from a sociological perspective. The film is currently playing an exclusive theatrical engagement at New York's Lincoln Plaza Cinemas.
The central characters are Gengnian (Sun Haiying), an artist who has just been released from a six-year incarceration in a brutal labor camp when the film opens in 1976, and his young son Xiangyang (first played by Fan Zhang). The 9-year-old has led a carefree life up to that point, but his father has big ideas for the boy, wanting him to pursue the artistic life that he himself was unable to follow.
The resulting tensions between them are long-lasting, as we see in the film's proceeding sections, each taking place after roughly a decade. Xiangyang (later played by Gao Ge and then Haidi Wang) indeed becomes an artist, but personal issues continue to keep the father and son at odds, much to the frustration of Gengnian's loving mother (a deglamorized and highly effective Joan Chen).
Meanwhile, the physical landscape that the characters inhabit changes greatly over the years, with the small, alley-strewn neighborhoods making way for massively scaled high-rise housing projects, and the legions of bicycles getting replaced by pollution causing, road-clogging automobiles.
Although filled with a plethora of dramatic events, including earthquakes and floods, the film never achieves real dramatic momentum, due in large part to its needlessly sluggish pacing. While individual moments are quite moving, Sunflower conveys the passage of its history-changing years in what seems like real time.
- 8/29/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
MADRID -- Terry Gilliam, Michael Winterbottom, Zhang Yang and Andreas Dresen will debut their latest films at the 53rd annual San Sebastian International Film Festival, organizers said. In all, 13 films have been tapped to compete in the festival's Official Section competition. The competition's slate, announced Friday, weaves together veteran directors -- such as Gilliam and Winterbottom, each the subject of past retrospectives at San Sebastian -- with new filmmakers, all vying for the Golden Shell award. One noticeable difference from recent years is a heavier emphasis on European titles, with Zhang's Chinese Sunflower -- depicting a family's life from the Cultural Revolution to the economic boom of today -- and Hur Jin-ho's South Korean April Snow the only two representatives from Asia.
- 8/12/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.