The 73rd Venice Film Festival runs from Aug 31 to Sept 10 this year. Here we have listed Chinese films that have won the Golden Lion award, one of the most prestigious awards in the film industry.
A Story of Qiu Ju (1992)
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A Story of Qiu Ju (1992)
Director: Zhang Yimou
Qiu Ju, a woman of humble origins, lives in a rural area in China. When her husband is kicked in the groin by the village head, Qiu Ju (played by actress Gong Li), despite being heavily pregnant, travels the distance to a nearby town, then to a big city to fight against all obstacles in order to seek justice.
A Story of Qiu Ju won director Zhang Yimou his first Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1992. It was selected as China's entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 65th Academy Awards, but did not make it to the shortlist.
Vive L'Amour (1994)
Director: Tsai Ming-liang
Taipei's night hums with the vitality of a metropolis. Hsiao-Kang purchases a bottle of water from a convenience store, returns to his apartment and ponders about his life in an empty room. At a food court in a department store, Mei-ling and Ah-jung meet for the first time and become romantically involved, all the while sipping their fruit juices and glancing at each other from time to time.
The slow-paced film with little dialogue is about urban alienation, telling the story of three young people who unknowingly share an apartment in Taipei.
The film won a Golden Lion award in 1994.
Not One Less (1999)
Director: Zhang Yimou
The film centers on a 13-year-old substitute teacher, Wei Minzhi, in the countryside during the 1990s. Wei was called to substitute for one month and was tasked with not losing any students during that period. When one of the young boys departs for the city to find work, Wei embarks on a journey to look for him.
Educational reform, the urban-rural gap and challenges to bureaucracy and authority are all addressed in the film. Non-professional actors were cast in the film, playing characters with the same names and occupations as in real life, thus blurring the line between art and reality.
Not One Less won Zhang his second Golden Lion award.
Still Life (2006)
Director: Jia Zhangke
Coal-miner Han Sanming and nurse Shen Hong travel to Fengjie, a small town on the Yangtze River, in search of their spouses. Han looks for his ex-wife, whom he separated from 16 years ago and Shen, her husband, who she left two years ago.
Still Life premiered at the 2006 Venice Film Festival where it won the festival's top prize, the Golden Lion Award.
Lust, Caution (2007)
Director: Ang Lee
Lust, Caution, directed by world-renowned director Ang Lee, is based on the namesake novel written by Chinese author Eileen Chang in 1979. The story is set in Hong Kong in 1938 and Shanghai in 1942 when China was under Japanese occupation. A group of Chinese university students from Lingnan University plot to assassinate a high-ranking special agent (played by Tony Leung) of the puppet government through using an attractive young woman (played by Tang Wei) to seduce and trap him. Things get complicated when the two start develop feelings for each other all the while fully knowing their true identities.
Lust, Caution shot actress Tang Wei to fame, and won Ang Lee a second Golden Lion award, after his first one for Brokeback Mountain in 2005.
Source: China Daily