Beijing-based moviegoers get a first look at the movies included in the North America Chinese Directors Short Film Tour. (Photo : www.best-masters.com)
The North America Chinese Directors Short Film Tour recently landed in Beijing, its first stop for a series of shows in the country.
Co-held by EnMase Pictures and Blueberry Pictures, the tour that features a group of six motion pictures were shown at the Beijing Normal University on Wednesday, March 18.
The films shown covered a variety of movie themes and genres such as suspense, science fiction, horror and family relationships. The movies included Bruce Li's "Caught," Wang Tianwei's "You Bet" and Chen Qiteng's "Lam the Ghost Hunter."
The short film tour in Beijing was well-received by the audience.
The film showing was followed by "The New Wave of Chinese Movies," a panel discussion entitled between veteran directors Dai Rui and Dayyan Eng and four young directors.
The focus of the discussion centered on the differences between the markets and education systems of China and the U.S.
Chinese filmmakers have long been seeking to witness something fresh and interesting for their audience. One of their hopes is to have hit films featuring Chinese stories that have been welcomed outside the country and shown locally.
In previous showings of such films, the themes that captured the taste of Chinese audience include rural issues, kung fu and the 1966 to 1976 Cultural Revolution.
"In my opinion, to a large degree, [foreign audiences] are not familiar with China as it currently is," Wang Tianwei remarked.
Wang added: "For us, I think our key task is to find the things that overseas and Chinese audiences have in common. To bring really interesting and meaningful things outside of China. However, something like that takes time."
"The most important thing is to tell a good story. Good stories are equally well-received by both the East and the West," Dai Rui enthused, lauding the success of the Hong Kong film "Internal Affairs," which was bought by a U.S. film company then remade an English edition.
The North America Chinese Directors Short Film Tour was established by the New York-based film production and distribution firm EnMase Pictures.
The company first began to gather shot films helmed by Chinese directors who studied in over 30 film institutes in the U.S. From over 90 films, 21 were selected to partake in a U.S. and China-wide tour.
