HIFF 2014: A Focus on Chinese Cinema

The history of mainland Chinese cinema is as deep and diverse as the country itself, from the glorious silent melodramas to the visually exquisite films of Fifth Generation filmmakers to today’s crop of big-budget spectacles and provocative independent films. This year, we’re thrilled to highlight the best in contemporary mainland cinema with our Focus on Chinese Cinema sidebar.

Be sure to join us for the US Premiere of Coming Home, directed by master filmmaker Zhang Yimou (Hero, Raise the Red Lantern) and starring his long-time muse Gong Li (Memoirs of a Geisha, Miami Vice). Following the screening stay for the special panel on the changing cinematic climate in China with Jeff Sharp, President/CEO of Story Mining & Supply Co., Jonathan Landreth, media and entertainment reporter for The New York TimesThe Wall Street Journal, and more; Anne Chaisson, Executive Director of Hamptons International Film Festival, and La Frances Hui, curator at Asia Society New York.

Coming-Home-650COMING HOME

U.S. Premiere
Director: Zhang Yimou

Lu Yanshi (Chen Daoming) and Feng Wanyu (Gong Li) are a devoted couple forced to separate when Lu is arrested and sent to a labor camp as a political prisoner, just as his wife is injured in an accident. Released during the last days of the Cultural Revolution, he finally returns home only to find that his beloved wife has amnesia and remembers little of her past. Unable to recognize Lu, she patiently waits for her husband’s return. A stranger alone in the heart of his broken family, Lu Yanshi determines to resurrect their past together and reawaken his wife’s memory.

Fantasia-650FANTASIA

U.S. Premiere
Director: Wang Chao

A reconstructed family in an industrial Chinese city. When the father’s hospitalizations become increasingly frequent and expensive, the entire family is turned upside down. The mother piles on odd jobs and struggles to make ends meet, the older sister decides to work in a bar in secret and Lin, the little brother, stigmatized by his father’s illness and rejected by his classmates escapes into a dream world, a world of fantasy.

Red-Amnesia-650RED AMNESIA

U.S. Premiere
Director: Wang Xiaoshuai

Deng is a stubborn retired widow who spends her days caring about her two grown up sons and her elderly mother, despite her family efforts to stop her. But her daily routine starts derailing when she keeps receiving anonymous calls. What’s happening to her? Who could have anything against her? Even her husband’s ghost doesn’t seem to know…

Butter-Lamp-650BUTTER LAMP

Director: Hu Wei
In this short film, a photographer weaves unique links among nomadic families creating a rich tapestry of the past, present and future.


The-Way-Home-650THE WAY HOME

New York Premiere
Director: Ting Song
In this short film, a good son in rural China attempts to help his father who suffers from Alzheimer’s.