A scene in the film "White Deer Plain" [Photo: Mtime.com]
For Chinese film director Wang Quanan, Berlin has again proved to be a lucky place: His latest work, the historical epic White Deer Plain (Bai Lu Yuan), which has been long anticipated by domestic moviegoers, has successfully made the cut for this year's Berlin International Film Festival (BIFF).
Wang has taken home a Golden Bear Award for his drama Tuya's Wedding in 2006 and a Silver Bear Award for the screenplay of the movie Apart Together in 2010. This year, his new movie is to compete with 17 other films at the 62nd BIFF, which is scheduled to kick off Thursday.
Chinese entertainment media has been set abuzz in speculation over the announcement, which is widely regarded as a pleasant surprise for Chinese film industry. Two blockbusters, Zhang Yimou's The Flowers of War and Tsui Hark's Flying Swords of Dragon Gate were both turned down for entrance in the competition, following devastating letdowns at the Golden Globes and the Oscars.
Unlike the rather pessimistic tone found in articles speculating whether Flowers and Flying Swords would snag awards in the international film festival circuit, domestic film critics are quite positive this time, with many saying that it is highly possible for Wang to earn another Golden Bear.
Wang himself had said that compared to Tuya's Wedding and Apart Together, he would like to call White Deer Plain a "real big movie" of his, and was "very excited" with the epic.
"White Deer Plain is a rare Chinese film with excellent quality, which would be the highlight in both the film festival circuit and the 2012 Chinese Culture Year in Germany," Dieter Kosslick, president of the film festival, was widely quoted as saying in Chinese media.
Director Wang Quanan [Photo: douban.com]
The entrance was announced at the 11th hour, partly because the film had just gotten permission to try its hand at the festival after unexpectedly long deliberations by censors over a sexual scene in the novel from which the film was adapted. After seven months of consideration, authorities finally gave their approval after the Spring Festival.
Starring Zhang Fengyi, and Kitty Zhang, whom he married earlier last year, the film is adapted from Chinese writer Chen Zhongshi's 1992 novel of the same title. The over 500,000-word novel has already been adapted as a stage play and Shaanxi folk art Qin Opera.
The story is set in White Deer Plain in Shaanxi Province, and follows three generations of two local influential families, surnamed Bai and Lu, recounting the lives and hardships of Shaanxi peasants for nearly half a century and mirroring the radical changes that took place in the Chinese countryside during the 20th century.
The novel's largely bold, explicit descriptions of sex are the exact reason why the film was thoroughly examined for such a long time, leaving audiences to only guess at how Wang approached such sensitive subject matter.
The book, however, has received high honors in China. Chen, one of the most famous contemporary writers out of Shaanxi Province, won the 1996 Mao Dun Literary Prize for this novel, a prestigious Chinese literary prize.
The film will have its world premiere in the festival's competition section, and is said to be ready for nationwide premiere in April. There is still no information on how the director has coped with the more controversial aspects of Chen's story. Whether domestic audiences will see the lengthy original, running three and a half hours, is still unknown.
Born in Shaanxi Province, Wang said the stories, history and local customs portrayed in the film were very familiar to him. Before him, several other directors including Zhang Yimou were slated to make the film, and the cast and production crew had been changed several times.
Wang and his team haven't made any comment on the film since its inclusion in the film festival. But, a few days after the announcement from BIFF, they released a collection of promotional stills in the run-up to the festival events.
Audiences have been able to view the trailer, clocking in at two and a half minutes, which was first released online last August. It starts with an air attack from the Japanese and finishes with the stirring folk melody Qin Opera. For now, Chinese moviegoers must wait patiently until the film's domestic release in April to discover all what lies behind these scenes from the trailer. News from BIFF will no doubt offer some much appreciated insights in the meantime.
The 62nd Berlin International Film Festival will be held on February 9-19 in Berlin, Germany. Results will be announced on February 14.