25° TORINO FILM FESTIVAL

A Thousand Years of Good Prayers

A Thousand Years of Good Prayers

Country: USA
Year: 2007
Duration: 83'


Mr Shi, a widower from Beijing, goes to visit his daughter Yilan in the USA. She has recently divorced and he intends to help her over the trauma. While Mr Shi is determined that Yilan will recover her marriage, his daughter starts avoiding him when he insists on knowing the reasons for her divorce. Confused, Mr Shi explores the town and meets the old Madam. They start a brief friendship. Facing revelations from Madam and the confrontation with Yilan, he finally accepts things as they are, and reaches a small understanding with Yilan.

“When I read the Yiyun Li’s short story, I was riveted by the idea of language as an agent in both the freeing and the trapping of one’s self-expression. In some ways I could identify with Yilan, the Midwestern divorcée whose husband returned to Beijing while she stayed in the US. Even if she’s been freed in the English-speaking culture, she can’t convey that freedom back to her father. She has closed off all options for her self-fulfillment by becoming too free in America.”

Biography

film director

Wayne Wang

(Hong Kong, 1949) graduated from Wah Yan Jesuit High School and moved to the United States, where he studied at the California College of Arts and Crafts. His first feature film was A Man, a Woman, a Killer (1975). He then directed Chan Is Missing (1982), Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart (1984), Slam Dance (1987) and The Joy Luck Club (1993). He gained international fame with Smoke (1995), which he wrote with Paul Auster and which won a Silver Bear in Berlin. He then alternates Hollywood films with more independent productions.

FILMOGRAFIA

A Man, a Woman, and a Killer (coregia/codirector Richard Schmidt, 1975), Chan Is Missing (1982), Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart (1985), Slam Dance (Slamdance - Il delitto di mezzanotte, 1987), Eat a Bowl of Tea (Mangia una tazza di tè, 1989), Life Is Cheap... But Toilet Paper Is Expensive (1989), The Joy Luck Club (Il circolo della fortuna e della felicità, 1993), Smoke (id., 1995), Blue in the Face (id., 1995), Chinese Box (id., 1997), Anywhere But Here (La mia adorabile amica, 1999), The Center of the World (id., 2001), Maid in Manhattan (Un amore a cinque stelle, 2002), Because of Winn-Dixie (Il mio amore a quattro zampe, 2005), Last Holiday (L’ultima vacanza, 2006), A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2007), The Princess of Nebraska (2007).

Cast

& Credits

regia/director Wayne Wang
soggetto, sceneggiatura/story, screenplay Yiyun Li
fotografia/director of photography Patrick Lindenmaier
scenografia/set design Vincent De Felice
montaggio/film editor Deirdre Slevin
musica/music Lesley Barber
suono/sound Lewis Goldstein
interpreti/cast Henry O (Shi), Faye Yu (Yilan), Vida Ghahremani (Madam), Pasha Lychnikoff
produttore/producer Yukie Kito, Rich Cowan, Wayne Wang
produzione/production North by Northwest
coproduzione/coproduction Entertainment Farm Inc.
distribuzione/distribution Mikado Film
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