Venice International Film Festival (Photo : YouTube)
A Chinese movie, “Breathing” or “Ni zai na (Where are you?)” premiered at the ongoing 73rd Venice International Film Festival. The movie has caught the attention of film festival guests because of its focus on child trafficking and domestic violence – global issues that have popular interest and riding on the crime film trend in Chinese cinema.
While most crime films tell the movie from a male perspective, “Breathing” does it from a "woman's point of view," particularly from one who went through domestic violence and at the same time deal with the kidnapping of her son. Much time of the movie is spent following the efforts she spares to retrieve her abducted child.
Set with small towns in China as backdrop, Fan Haolun, director of the movie, used handheld cameras to capture the area’s unique atmosphere, reported China Entertainment News. He explained that Chinese movies should not just follow blindly Hollywood film formats to compete in the international arena, or the movie risks gradually losing “the dignity that films should possess.”
Another Chinese film to premiere the Venice Film Festival is "The Road to Mandalay," directed by Taiwan director Midi Z. It is about two illegal immigrants from Myanmar who escaped to Thailand, but end up working in a local factory and finding love and companionship in each other. It stars Kai Ko and Wu Ke-xi.
Outside Venice, other Chinese films have also been noticed at other international film festivals.
For instance, “Night Peacock,” a Chinese-French co-production, got the first prize at the Special Chinese Film Festival at the ongoing 40th Montreal Film Festival. The movie stars Liu Ye and Crystal Liu, a best actress nominee for the first time at the festival.
Another movie, “Knife in the Clear Water,” is about Muslims who live at Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Directed by Wang Xuebo, the movie was picked for the New Currents program at the 21st Busan International Film Festival to be held Oct 6-15.
