The Sun Also Rises (film)

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The Sun Also Rises

Movie poster for The Sun Also Rises
Directed by Jiang Wen
Produced by Jiang Wen
Albert Lee
Written by Jiang Wen
Shu Ping
Guo Shixing
Ye Mi (novel)
Starring Jaycee Chan
Joan Chen
Jiang Wen
Anthony Wong
Zhou Yun
Music by Joe Hisaishi
Cinematography Pin Bing Lee
Yang Tao
Zhao Fei
Editing by Zhang Yifan
Release date(s) Venice:
3 September 2007
China:
21 September 2007
Language Mandarin
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese: 太阳照常升起
Traditional Chinese: 太陽照常升起
Pinyin: tài yáng zhào cháng shēng qǐ

The Sun Also Rises (Simplified Chinese: 太阳照常升起; pinyin: tài yáng zhào cháng shēng qǐ) is a 2007 film directed by Chinese director Jiang Wen starring Joan Chen, Anthony Wong, Jaycee Chan, and Jiang Wen himself. This movie is the polyptych of interconnected stories in different time-zones, shifting between a Yunnan village, a campus, and the Gobi Desert. This movie was screened in competition at the Venice International Film Festival and nominated for Golden Lion but lost to Ang Lee's historical thriller Lust, Caution.[1] This film is also premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival on September 9.[2]

Contents

[edit] Plot

The movie details four interconnected stories.

In the first story, madness and mischief as a single mother (Zhuo Yun) drives her devoted son (Jaycee Chan) to distraction with her daredevil antics in pursuit of tranquility. The agile mom climbs tall trees and stands perilously astride a small earthen raft on the river. She treasures a beautiful pair of slippers that she is forever losing, and the son fears that, one day, the footwear will remain while his mother disappears.

In the second story, on a college campus, two old friends find their friendship tested by rivalry over a woman. Doctor Lin (Joan Chen) is the mistress of Old Tang (Jiang Wen), but she finds herself drawn to teacher Liang (Anthony Wong), who is catnip to beautiful women. When Liang is accused of groping women at a campus gathering, Lin offers her rear end behind a curtain to determine whose was the guilty hand.

Old Tang, who is a hunter, has a young wife (Kong Wei) who begins a relationship with the madwoman's son. One day, Tang overhears their noises of passion and his wife whispering that her husband says her belly is like velvet. He determines to shoot the young man but is given pause when the boy asks him, "What is velvet?"

The final episode involves all the characters in a dreamlike sequence that brings their lives full circle. Three cinematographers -- Zhao Fei, Mark Ping-bin Lee and Yang Tao -- worked on the project, and they make the most of some gorgeous scenery, the lush production design of Cao Jiuping and Zhang Jianqun and Xu Jianshu's lovely costumes. [3]

[edit] Cast

[edit] Reviews

So far, the film has received positive reviews from critics and Toronto Review states that "a new aesthetic of magical realism, Jiang deftly defies the gravity of linear storytelling to produce sheer visual poetry. This gallery of lavishly composed frames may seem to follow an irrational logic but, in the end, the imagery is as rare and precious as velvet was scarce in the isolated China the film so vividly depicts."[2] The Hollywood Reporter wrote "Fluid motion and glorious colors provide a visual treat in Jiang Wen's sumptuous romantic fantasy... besides being wonderful to look at, The Sun Also Rises is great fun, with sure-handed performances."[4] Moreover, this film was rumored to be China's official entries to the 2008 Oscars bidding with Lust, Caution and The Warlords.[5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Sun Also Rises. "Sun Also Rises" an eye-catching China fantasy. Retrieved on 5 September 2007.
  2. ^ a b TIFF. "Sun Also Rises" at TIFF. Retrieved on 2 September 2007.
  3. ^ IMDB. The Sun Also Rises. Retrieved on 23 September 2007.
  4. ^ The Sun Also Rises (Taiyang zhaocheng shengqi). The Hollywood Reporter (2007-09-05).
  5. ^ China' Oscar Entry. 3 Chinese films set to vie for Oscars. Retrieved on 14 September 2007.

[edit] External links

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