Two Beijing opera actors playing soldiers of the Monkey King as featured in the black-and-white 1957 documentary film, “Inside Red China,” by New Zealander Rudall and Ramai Hayward. (Photo : radicalfilms/YouTube)
As the merry month of May comes to a close, New Zealanders get the chance to see some bits and pieces of Chinese history, culture and humor through a batch of movies.
Theaters in New Zealand have started screening six Chinese films--“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny,” “Go Away Mr. Tumor,” “Monster Hunt,” “The Mermaid,” “The Monkey King 2” and “Xuan Zang”--since last week, reported China Daily.
Organizers of the 2016 New Zealand China Film Week announced their screenings during the opening of the said film festival at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in the capital city of Wellington on May 24.
Some prominent Chinese political figures and entertainment personalities graced the event, including Liu Qibao, the head of Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee; Wang Lutong, the Chinese ambassador to New Zealand; actor-director-producer Stephen Chow; and actor-singer Deng Chao.
The New Zealand embassy in Beijing screened “Inside Red China” this month before the start of the film fest. The movie provides a preview of Chinese life during the 1950s.
China and New Zealand hope to fortify a mutual interest in cultural exchange.
The country’s recent efforts come in the form of films.
The sequel to Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000) and based from the novel, “Iron Knight, Silver Vase” by Wang Dulu, Yuen Woo-ping’s American-Chinese martial arts movie, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny” (2016) displays yet again the superb fighting skills of a legendary warrior (Michelle Yeoh reprising her role) as well as those of Meng Sizhao aka Silent Wolf (Donnie Yen).
Han Yan’s comedy, “Go Away Mr. Tumor” (2015), the country’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at this year’s 88th Academy Awards and based from online cartoonist Xiong Dun’s comic series, shows how a cancer-stricken patient (Bai Baihe) spends her remaining days, including those funny moments with her doctor (Daniel Wu), whom she fancies.
A monster hunter (Bai Baihe) and a village mayor (Jing Boran) team up to protect a monster baby in Raman Hui’s 3D action-fantasy, “Monster Hunt” (2015).
Stephen Chow’s sci-fi rom-com, “The Mermaid” (2016) tells the intricate love story between a businessman (Deng Chao) and a mermaid (Jelly Lin).
Based from Wu Cheng’en’s 16th-century novel, “Journey to the West,” one of the country’s Four Great Classical Novels, Cheang Pou-soi’s sci-fi action, “The Monkey King 2” (2016) narrates how the Monkey King (Aaron Kwok) and a Buddhist monk (Feng Shaofeng) battle against an immortality-seeking demon (Gong Li).
Huo Jianqi’s historical adventure, “Xuan Zang” (2016), a Sino-India co-production, relates the journey of real-life Chinese monk Xuan Zang (Huang Xiaoming) to India during the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618–907).
At the press conference at the six-storey national museum and art gallery, Chow, seated beside his mermaid Lin, said through an interpreter that it was an honor to have his recent movie screened in New Zealand and that he was interested to make the country the location of a future film, according to China.org.
