Tonight - "White Gardenia" at the St. Anthony Main Theater
Sunday, January 22, 2012 at 7:00AM
Director: Jiang Lifen
Run Time / Year: 85 min | 2005
Language: Mandarin with English subtitles
Showtimes: Sun, 1/22 @ 7:00 & Mon, 1/23 @ 4:30
Directed, acted and penned by Jiang Lifen, one of China’s up-and-coming women filmmakers, White Gardenia has keen insight into the lives of women and shows that insight with great conviction, depicting how women in crisis struggle with decisions that will affect their lives and future happiness. White Gardenia tells a traditional story of romance set against wartime China. With a nod to Madame Bovary and tales of women who choose family but long for the spotlight, Jiang herself portrays the main character, Yang Liuqing. Yang’s outwardly contented life as a mother and wife begins to crack as events cause her past to resurface – memories of her career as a famous Yue Opera singer in Shanghai, a life that ended with the Japanese attack in 1937. The plot is simple and archetypal, the characters compelling and real.
--------------------------------------------------------
The Film Society of Minneapolis St. Paul presents three films representing the diversity of contemporary Chinese cinema in honor of the Chinese New Year. The program is co-curated by Tom Rose, Professor of Art at the University of Minnesota. “What I find interesting [with White Gardenia] ... are the visible links to the past enhanced with stunningly beautiful contemporary cinematography. Wang Hong Hai’s beautiful My Dream is also stylized and mannered in that it highlights the Chinese love of spectacle.” Let the Bullets Fly combines both elements, with an added comic slant, to make for one wild cinematic ride.
Reader Comments