Director: He Jianjun
Producer: Fanhall Studio, Zhu Ri Kun
Screenplay: He Jianjun, Cui Zi'en
Cinematography: Yuan Deqiang
Art Director: N/A
Editor: Gao Bojie
Sound: Liu Shenshen
Music: Baolu, Su Fang
Costumes: N/A
Makeup: N/A
Executive Producer: N/A
Cast: Yu Bo, Zi Qi, Hu Xiaoguang, Wan Chang, Zhan Guogang

China, 2004, 90 min., video, color, in Mandarin with English subtitles

This is the leading character- pirated DVD seller

I watched this movie back in April when I was still in Singapore. The movie, to my knowledge, hasn't been shown in cinemas. There are certain things in this movie that might be of interest to teachers because there was this character who bought pirated DVDs to use them in literature classrooms. It portrayed the low-class Chinese people's lives- the street peddlers, pirated DVD sellers and prostitutes. I was upset because this movie is about China and it definitely shows to the outside world the dark sides of the Chinese society. Some Singaporeans were laughing at some of the conversations (some of them relied on the English subtitles) in the movie and I sat there and I just couldn't take it that well.

All over China, in the city and the countryside, you can find illegal DVDs and video cassettes of well-known Western feature films. People acquire their knowledge of films from these pirate versions and so far there hasn't been a single feature film to focus on this phenomenon. He Jianjun, best known for his unusual narrative technique and calm, atmospherically lit feature films about contemporary Chinese life, here skilfully uses the DV camera. The stories are set during a cold v!inter :n Beijing. The people selling illegal DVDs are everywhere: in shopping centres, on viaducts, around the bars and at the university.

The film follows a variety of characters related to their favourite films. After leaving university, Shen Ming lives on a menu of DVDs. He meets the pretty yet indifferent Mei Xiaojing, who wants to throw all her inhibitions overboard a la Almodovar. We see a drummer who lives alone and became HIV positive after a medical error. Seeing A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT makes him move to the infinity and peace of the coast. An unemployed couple uses violent films (such as PULP FICTION) to express their frustrations. But when they set out with fake guns to commit a robbery, they are disenchanted. The illegal DVDs, it becomes apparent, open up a road to a new and unknown world for the characters, one tnat is even able to change their lives.

About the Director

He Jianjun, Director

He Jianjun (b. 1960, Beijing) worked on three films by Chen Kaige before. In 1988, he embarked on a directing course at the film academy in Beijing. He graduated in 1990 and was then assistant director to Zhang Yimou and Tian Zhuangzhuang. He is now one of the most important representatives of the so-called Sixth Generation. His films include: Impressions of Paintings, A Certain Experience, Self-Portrait, Xuan lian/Red Beads (1993), Youchai/Postman (1994), Butterfly Smile (2001), Man yan/Spreading (2004).

This is how the Singapore Film Festival advertised the film:

Set during a cold winter in Beijing, He Jian-jun’s film is about that ubiquitous phenomenon no one has actually managed to structure a film around – the selling of pirated DVDs and video cassettes. These street salesmen are everywhere in shopping centres, viaducts and bars or universities servicing the appetites of film lovers across the city. Shen Ming meets the attractive Mei Xiaojing who wants to throw inhibitions aside in the vein of Almodovar. A solitary musician recently diagnosed HIV-positive watched A River Runs Through It and its cascade of calm compels him to move to the coast. An unemployed couple uses the violence of some films like Pulp Fiction to cathartically vent their frustrations about life in the city.

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