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I Watched a Movie at the Shanghai International Film Festival

2017-06-20 ShanghaiWOWeng


The 20th Shanghai International Film Festival is well underway. The festival includes screenings, awards, forums and markets, and will run from June 17th to the 26th. So whats all the buzz was about? Should you check it out? What should you do?

 


First of all yes, you should check it out if possible. Unfortunately at this point a lot of the movie screenings are sold out (in the photo above you’ll see a little red character next to sold out shows). I somehow finagled my way into one (media pass, yayyyy). I got a ticket to see North by Northwest, a 1959 Hitchcock thriller starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint. I’d never seen it before and it was pretty cool.

 

 

A New York ad man is on the run from bad guys who think he’s a secret agent (he’s not). While on the run he meets up with and eventually bangs a gorgeous blond woman, who it turns out IS ACTUALLY a secret agent. A lot of other stuff happens, but that’s the gist. The Chinese crowd seemed to love it.

 

My ticket was for the SFC (Shanghai Film Art Center) on Xinhua Lu, although there are numerous theatres around the city where SIFF screenings are taking place. SFC seems to be one of the more done-up venues. The entire space was covered in promo material, along with cool displays and exhibitions inside. There were even ticket scalpers out front..

 

 

I didn’t think a 1959 Hitchcock movie would be anywhere near full but it was, every seat taken in the enormous 4K theatre. The film played with no introduction by a SIFF representative or any sort of explanation as to why it was chosen. It was in English with Chinese subtitles.

 


I was worried about a packed theatre and I was right to be, numerous people were using their phones during the film, chatting, eating loudly, I even heard someone fart audibly behind me several times (I’m not making that up for dramatic effect, it really happened).

 


The only real nitpick I had was that info in English seemed scant, and their website wasn’t very helpful. Just for one example, when I looked on their website to find out what events to expect, it just said ‘coming soon.’ Some of the events it did list were from Jackie Chan action week 2016 so… might want to do some updates on that front.

 


Overall I thought it was a pleasant experience, the event was surprisingly busy and everyone seemed enthusiastic about the celebration of film. Cool.

 


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