An international movie star on screens both big (Bernardo Bertolucci’s Oscar-winning The Last Emperor) and small, Joan Chen’s film career went behind the camera with her feature directorial debut, Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl. Released in the United States on May 7th, 1999 (the day the U.S. and NATO “accidentally” bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade), Chen’s film was adapted from a novella by Geling Yan and tells the story of the title character, a young girl (Li Xiaolu) who lives with her family in Chengdu and is being forced into Mao’s Down to […]
The post “You Don’t Find Yaks in America”: Joan Chen on Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “You Don’t Find Yaks in America”: Joan Chen on Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 11/25/2022
- by Erik Luers
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
An international movie star on screens both big (Bernardo Bertolucci’s Oscar-winning The Last Emperor) and small, Joan Chen’s film career went behind the camera with her feature directorial debut, Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl. Released in the United States on May 7th, 1999 (the day the U.S. and NATO “accidentally” bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade), Chen’s film was adapted from a novella by Geling Yan and tells the story of the title character, a young girl (Li Xiaolu) who lives with her family in Chengdu and is being forced into Mao’s Down to […]
The post “You Don’t Find Yaks in America”: Joan Chen on Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “You Don’t Find Yaks in America”: Joan Chen on Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 11/25/2022
- by Erik Luers
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Exo Member Lay makes his big screen debut in the romantic sci-fi movie Oh My God directed by Zhang Ziyi.
Others cast alongside Lay are Cheney Chen (Chen Xudong), who trained under Cube Entertainment and starred in the movie Tiny Times, and actress Jacqueline Li (Li Xiaolu) from the recent movie Forbidden Kiss.
The film earned $6.27 million in its first three days when it was released last December
Plot
The film tells the story of a couple whose lives are completely changed when they are gifted with a child from the heavens.
Trailer
A few Images from The films Weibo
More images via Exo Turkey facebook group...
Others cast alongside Lay are Cheney Chen (Chen Xudong), who trained under Cube Entertainment and starred in the movie Tiny Times, and actress Jacqueline Li (Li Xiaolu) from the recent movie Forbidden Kiss.
The film earned $6.27 million in its first three days when it was released last December
Plot
The film tells the story of a couple whose lives are completely changed when they are gifted with a child from the heavens.
Trailer
A few Images from The films Weibo
More images via Exo Turkey facebook group...
- 1/17/2016
- by The Tiger
- AsianMoviePulse
Since rocketing to worldwide fame after starring in the highly-acclaimed “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” Zhang Ziyi has steadily filled her portfolio not only with multi-awarded acting roles–the most memorable perhaps being Mei (“House of Flying Daggers”) and Sakamoto Chiyo (“Memoirs of a Geisha”)–but also some magnificent producer credits.
Zhang Ziyi
Zhang’s first produced film, “Sophie’s Revenge,” may have gotten mixed reviews from critics but went on to bag a handful of awards, including Best New Director from China Film Media Awards and Next Generation Director Awards, Best Supporting Actress from China Hua Ding Film Awards, and Most Popular Actress from China Student Film Awards for Zhang herself.
This year, Zhang Ziyi continues to explore the cinematic field as a producer with the movie “The Baby from Universe.”
Juicy Details of the Much-Anticipated “The Baby from Universe”
Otherwise known as “Oh My God” (从天儿降/Cóng Tiān Er...
Zhang Ziyi
Zhang’s first produced film, “Sophie’s Revenge,” may have gotten mixed reviews from critics but went on to bag a handful of awards, including Best New Director from China Film Media Awards and Next Generation Director Awards, Best Supporting Actress from China Hua Ding Film Awards, and Most Popular Actress from China Student Film Awards for Zhang herself.
This year, Zhang Ziyi continues to explore the cinematic field as a producer with the movie “The Baby from Universe.”
Juicy Details of the Much-Anticipated “The Baby from Universe”
Otherwise known as “Oh My God” (从天儿降/Cóng Tiān Er...
- 4/16/2015
- by Mary Ann Simuangco
- AsianMoviePulse
“The Haunting Lover” sees popular Taiwanese boy band F4 member Vanness Wu taking his first stab at horror, again teaming with Ken Yip, who recently directed him in “Kung Fu Fighter” and “Kung Fu Chefs”. As suggested by the title, the film is a romantically themed supernatural affair about tragic loss, with Wu in a love triangle of sorts with Jacqueline Li (also in “Blood Brothers”) and former Japanese girl group Morning Musume member Kago Ai (who previously starred with him in “Kung Fu Chefs”). Adding a touch of genre respectability is the one and only Law Lan, instantly recognisable to Hong Kong horror fans for her countless appearances in creepy granny roles, as well as playing the immortal Mrs. Bud in pretty much all of the later instalments in the never ending “Troublesome Night” series. Set in Guangzhou back in the 1940s, the film sees Wu as Leung Kwong,...
- 9/16/2010
- by James Mudge
- Beyond Hollywood
This 26-image slideshow contains the official press images for “Push,” which was directed by Paul McGuigan and features Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning, Camilla Belle and Djimon Hounsou. The Summit Pictures release opens on Friday, February 6th, 2009.
Interestingly, Dakota Fanning has recently been the subject of rumors surrounding her audition for “New Moon,” another film produced by Summit, who had their biggest hit to date last year with “Twilight,” starring Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. Until then, there’s “Push”.
Synopsis: “A riveting action-thriller, Push burrows deep into the deadly world of psychic espionage where artificially enhanced paranormal operatives have the ability to move objects with their minds, see the future, create new realities and kill without ever touching their victims. Against this setting, a young man and a teenage girl take on a clandestine agency in a race against time that will determine the future of civilization.
The Division, a shadowy government agency,...
Interestingly, Dakota Fanning has recently been the subject of rumors surrounding her audition for “New Moon,” another film produced by Summit, who had their biggest hit to date last year with “Twilight,” starring Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. Until then, there’s “Push”.
Synopsis: “A riveting action-thriller, Push burrows deep into the deadly world of psychic espionage where artificially enhanced paranormal operatives have the ability to move objects with their minds, see the future, create new realities and kill without ever touching their victims. Against this setting, a young man and a teenage girl take on a clandestine agency in a race against time that will determine the future of civilization.
The Division, a shadowy government agency,...
- 1/29/2009
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
"Xiu Xiu" (The Sent-Down Girl), the directorial debut of Shanghai-born actress Joan Chen ("The Last Emperor") is clumsy but alluring. A melodrama about an innocent, naive girl who gets stuck out in the Chinese hinterland and desperately turns to prostitution to get back home, its best draw is that it gives the audience a rare glimpse at a bizarre life during the Cultural Revolution in China.
The film will be a hard sell, saddled as it is with all the cliches of foreign films: unpolished, a little odd, enigmatic. However, with the proper marketing it could achieve a modest specialty following.
Chen's direction is jumpy and badly edited, with too many unmotivated actions and superfluous scenes, and the ending is highly melodramatic. It is slow in the beginning and never picks up pace, but a certain fascination arises about midway, when it finally becomes clear what this girl's dilemma is.
Xiu Xiu (Lu Lu) is a young, pretty girl sent during the Cultural Revolution to the far countryside to be trained as a horse herder. Her only companion on the vast, empty steppes is a castrated, laconic herder named Lao Yin (Lopsang).
When the time comes for her to return home, however, she has been forgotten, and without valid papers she cannot get home. Desperately, she begins selling her body to passing farmers who promise her that they have influence with all the right authorities. Lao Yin looks helplessly on, and it is never clear whether he doesn't care about her plight, is overwhelmed by his own helplessness or is simply incompetent as the young girl's hero/savior.
There is also no interaction between them of the kind one might expect from an American film, in which Lao Yin would teach her the ways of horsemanship and the land and all this would heal her soul. There is no healing for her here. She simply wants to go home, and can't.
Their ambivalent and laconic relationship makes the film haunting to watch: two stranded characters trapped not by walls but by the empty vastness around them.
The less they talk, the less they do, the more obvious it becomes that they cannot escape. One feels that the wide open spaces have seeped into their souls.
The film will be a hard sell, saddled as it is with all the cliches of foreign films: unpolished, a little odd, enigmatic. However, with the proper marketing it could achieve a modest specialty following.
Chen's direction is jumpy and badly edited, with too many unmotivated actions and superfluous scenes, and the ending is highly melodramatic. It is slow in the beginning and never picks up pace, but a certain fascination arises about midway, when it finally becomes clear what this girl's dilemma is.
Xiu Xiu (Lu Lu) is a young, pretty girl sent during the Cultural Revolution to the far countryside to be trained as a horse herder. Her only companion on the vast, empty steppes is a castrated, laconic herder named Lao Yin (Lopsang).
When the time comes for her to return home, however, she has been forgotten, and without valid papers she cannot get home. Desperately, she begins selling her body to passing farmers who promise her that they have influence with all the right authorities. Lao Yin looks helplessly on, and it is never clear whether he doesn't care about her plight, is overwhelmed by his own helplessness or is simply incompetent as the young girl's hero/savior.
There is also no interaction between them of the kind one might expect from an American film, in which Lao Yin would teach her the ways of horsemanship and the land and all this would heal her soul. There is no healing for her here. She simply wants to go home, and can't.
Their ambivalent and laconic relationship makes the film haunting to watch: two stranded characters trapped not by walls but by the empty vastness around them.
The less they talk, the less they do, the more obvious it becomes that they cannot escape. One feels that the wide open spaces have seeped into their souls.
- 6/24/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
"Xiu Xiu" (The Sent-Down Girl), the directorial debut of Shanghai-born actress Joan Chen ("The Last Emperor") is clumsy but alluring. A melodrama about an innocent, naive girl who gets stuck out in the Chinese hinterland and desperately turns to prostitution to get back home, its best draw is that it gives the audience a rare glimpse at a bizarre life during the Cultural Revolution in China.
The film will be a hard sell, saddled as it is with all the cliches of foreign films: unpolished, a little odd, enigmatic. However, with the proper marketing it could achieve a modest specialty following.
Chen's direction is jumpy and badly edited, with too many unmotivated actions and superfluous scenes, and the ending is highly melodramatic. It is slow in the beginning and never picks up pace, but a certain fascination arises about midway, when it finally becomes clear what this girl's dilemma is.
Xiu Xiu (Lu Lu) is a young, pretty girl sent during the Cultural Revolution to the far countryside to be trained as a horse herder. Her only companion on the vast, empty steppes is a castrated, laconic herder named Lao Yin (Lopsang).
When the time comes for her to return home, however, she has been forgotten, and without valid papers she cannot get home. Desperately, she begins selling her body to passing farmers who promise her that they have influence with all the right authorities. Lao Yin looks helplessly on, and it is never clear whether he doesn't care about her plight, is overwhelmed by his own helplessness or is simply incompetent as the young girl's hero/savior.
There is also no interaction between them of the kind one might expect from an American film, in which Lao Yin would teach her the ways of horsemanship and the land and all this would heal her soul. There is no healing for her here. She simply wants to go home, and can't.
Their ambivalent and laconic relationship makes the film haunting to watch: two stranded characters trapped not by walls but by the empty vastness around them.
The less they talk, the less they do, the more obvious it becomes that they cannot escape. One feels that the wide open spaces have seeped into their souls.
XIU XIU
Good Machine
a Whispering Steppes L.P. production
of a Joan Chen film
Director: Joan Chen
Executive producers: Joan Chen,
Allison Liu, Cecile Shah Tsuei
Producers: Joan Chen, Alice Chan
Associate producer: Ruby Yang
Screenplay: Yan Geling, Joan Chen
Based on the story "Tian Yu" by Yan Geling
Production designer: Pan Lai
Director of photography: Lu Yue
Editor: Ruby Yang
Music: Johnny Chen
Color
Cast:
Xiu Xiu: Lu Lu
Lao Yin: Lopsang
Li Chuanbei: Qian Zheng
Mother: Gao Jie
Headquarters Chief: Li Zhizhen
Peddler: Gao Qiang
Motorcycle man: Qin Wenyuan
Three Toes: Cao Jiong
Running time -- 100 minutes...
The film will be a hard sell, saddled as it is with all the cliches of foreign films: unpolished, a little odd, enigmatic. However, with the proper marketing it could achieve a modest specialty following.
Chen's direction is jumpy and badly edited, with too many unmotivated actions and superfluous scenes, and the ending is highly melodramatic. It is slow in the beginning and never picks up pace, but a certain fascination arises about midway, when it finally becomes clear what this girl's dilemma is.
Xiu Xiu (Lu Lu) is a young, pretty girl sent during the Cultural Revolution to the far countryside to be trained as a horse herder. Her only companion on the vast, empty steppes is a castrated, laconic herder named Lao Yin (Lopsang).
When the time comes for her to return home, however, she has been forgotten, and without valid papers she cannot get home. Desperately, she begins selling her body to passing farmers who promise her that they have influence with all the right authorities. Lao Yin looks helplessly on, and it is never clear whether he doesn't care about her plight, is overwhelmed by his own helplessness or is simply incompetent as the young girl's hero/savior.
There is also no interaction between them of the kind one might expect from an American film, in which Lao Yin would teach her the ways of horsemanship and the land and all this would heal her soul. There is no healing for her here. She simply wants to go home, and can't.
Their ambivalent and laconic relationship makes the film haunting to watch: two stranded characters trapped not by walls but by the empty vastness around them.
The less they talk, the less they do, the more obvious it becomes that they cannot escape. One feels that the wide open spaces have seeped into their souls.
XIU XIU
Good Machine
a Whispering Steppes L.P. production
of a Joan Chen film
Director: Joan Chen
Executive producers: Joan Chen,
Allison Liu, Cecile Shah Tsuei
Producers: Joan Chen, Alice Chan
Associate producer: Ruby Yang
Screenplay: Yan Geling, Joan Chen
Based on the story "Tian Yu" by Yan Geling
Production designer: Pan Lai
Director of photography: Lu Yue
Editor: Ruby Yang
Music: Johnny Chen
Color
Cast:
Xiu Xiu: Lu Lu
Lao Yin: Lopsang
Li Chuanbei: Qian Zheng
Mother: Gao Jie
Headquarters Chief: Li Zhizhen
Peddler: Gao Qiang
Motorcycle man: Qin Wenyuan
Three Toes: Cao Jiong
Running time -- 100 minutes...
- 2/20/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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