Country: China, Hong Kong
Year: 1992
Duration: 97'
Han was once a guard at the Peking Opera. Now he is leading his life as a retiree feeling useless. He is a little cantankerous, but has a good heart. He decides to start up a Peking Opera club, a place where old people like him can sing, recite, and enjoy themselves. However, the first problems come up to the surface pretty soon, and arguments flurry across the members of the group, often beginning with some excuse for a fight. The decline and break up of the club becomes basically inevitable and the protagonist, Han, finds himself alone again.
"It seems to me that in modem Chinese society it is not so important to examine problems categorized as the problems of women, of the elderly, of the youth, and so on. Instead, the fundamental question is that of ones own identity. Ways of living that have lasted for thousands of years that have resisted Manchu domination, civil wars, the Japanese invasion, and the extremists of the cultural revolution are now about to be cancelled out and invalidated within the period of the next few years by a culture modeled on the mass media and consumerism. The loss of people's roots and traditions is a tragedy that is already over in the Western countries and that is being repeated in thirdworld countries. Zhao Le tries to be a fresco of individuality. It bells the story of emotions, a way of living, a psychology, a story that can arise only in this society of today, in this context of traditional life. I am interested in these moments of the present time that are fated to disappear." (Ning Ying)
Biography
film director
Ning Ying
Born in Beijing in 1959, Ning Ying entered the Beijing Film Academy in 1978. Later she passed a national examination to study abroad and in 1981 began studies in Italy, where she was admitted to the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. In 1987 she was assistant director on Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor and in 1992 she directed her first feature-length film.
FILMOGRAFIA
Zhao Le (Four Fun, 1992), Minjing Gushi (On the Beat, 1995).
Cast
& Credits
Director: Ning Ying.
Screenplay: Ning Dai, Ning Ying, da un romanzo di Chen Jiangong.
Director of photography: Xiao Feng, Wu Di.
Art director: Yang Xiaowen.
Editor: Zhou Meiping.
Music: Meng Weidong.
Sound: Chao Jun.
Cast and characters: Huang Zongluo (Han), Huang Wenjie (Qiao VVanyou), Han Shanxu (Dong Fugui), He Ming (Ho Ming).
Director of Production: Liu Weidong, Yang Hanping.
Production company: Beijing Film Studio, Hongkong Van Ho Film & TV Co. Ltd., Room 3179 Kankow Centre, Hankow Road, Kowloon, Kong Kong, tel. +86755-5516666, fax +867555531696.
Foreign sales agent: Fortissimo Film Sales, Droogbak 4C, 1013 GE Amsterdam, tel. +31206273215, fax +31206261155.
Screenplay: Ning Dai, Ning Ying, da un romanzo di Chen Jiangong.
Director of photography: Xiao Feng, Wu Di.
Art director: Yang Xiaowen.
Editor: Zhou Meiping.
Music: Meng Weidong.
Sound: Chao Jun.
Cast and characters: Huang Zongluo (Han), Huang Wenjie (Qiao VVanyou), Han Shanxu (Dong Fugui), He Ming (Ho Ming).
Director of Production: Liu Weidong, Yang Hanping.
Production company: Beijing Film Studio, Hongkong Van Ho Film & TV Co. Ltd., Room 3179 Kankow Centre, Hankow Road, Kowloon, Kong Kong, tel. +86755-5516666, fax +867555531696.
Foreign sales agent: Fortissimo Film Sales, Droogbak 4C, 1013 GE Amsterdam, tel. +31206273215, fax +31206261155.
