Wednesday, March 14, 2007

THE POSTMODERN LIFE OF MY AUNT (Yima de Houxiandai Shenghuo)

The Shanghai International Film Club
Chinese films with English subtitles
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THE POSTMODERN LIFE OF MY AUNT (Yima de Houxiandai Shenghuo)
directed by Ann Hui
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Friday, 16 March 2007, 8:00 pm
Kodak Super Cinema World (details below)
70 RMB
No RSVP necessary - just come and enjoy!
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[Excerpted from the catalogue of the Toronto International Film Festival
2006.]

In “The Postmodern Life of My Aunt,” renowned director Ann Hui blends
her humanist cinema with the spirit of Chinese opera. She has created
both a humorous look at China today and a new genre of filmmaking: the
post-Cultural Revolution satirical melodrama. Cool and articulate, the
film has a generous heart, a sensitive soul and a clever mind.

Featuring a first-class cast of China's great actors - Siqin Gaowa, Chow
Yun-fat, Vicky Zhao Wei and legendary Lisa Lu – “The Postmodern Life of
My Aunt” tells the story of old-fashioned Ye Rutang (Gaowa), a single
woman in her sixties who struggles to maintain a dignified life amid the
dangers of Shanghai, a city that seems to have become the receptacle for
all kinds of con men. The first to pull a scam on Ye is her
twelve-year-old nephew, Kuan-kuan (Guan Wenshuo). He moves to her
old-fashioned apartment after breaking a leg in an accident, but when he
can't bear her stinginess, he runs away and pretends to have been
kidnapped in order to get the ransom money. Then comes Pan Zhichang
(Chow), an amateur opera singer, who tricks Ye into a relationship and
steals most of her savings with a complicated swindle involving
speculation in the price of cemetery plots.

Focusing the film on the experience of women in her home country and
around the world, Hui sketches a fine portrait of changing values. She
situates her story in a precise cultural moment - a time where the past
seems to carry meaning only in the stubborn memories of individuals.
This charming social tale takes an original approach to issues including
the atrophy of mores in a society that is no longer egalitarian; its
freshness rests in its ironic yet compassionate look at its curious
protagonists.

Beautifully penned by Li Qiang, one of China's greatest scriptwriting
talents, “The Postmodern Life of My Aunt” is endowed with an engaging
refinement. Its bold commentary on contemporary China is as sharp as a
razor blade.


Please join us!
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Kodak Super Cinema World
Metro City, 5th Floor (tell the taxi driver "Mei Luo Cheng")
1111 Zhao Jia Bang Lu (in Xu Jia Hui, across from the Gateway
Shopping Center)
For additional information, call Connie Gao at 1370-191-5733.
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