Watch one of Mainland China's best films for free this weekend
Time Out Shanghai shows one of the greatest Chinese films of all time at Glam, M on the Bund, with complimentary gourmet popcorn and specially tailored drinks. This month we bring you The Sun Also Rises (2007), directed by Jiang Wen.
Of all Jiang Wen’s films, The Sun Also Rises is one of his most challenging, with high-octane visuals and labyrinthine plots overlaid by fractured narration. The storytelling is not at odds with the turbulent nature of the times: we start in 1976 at the tailwind of the Cultural Revolution. The film’s four narratives (in order: ‘Madness’, ‘Love’, ‘Rifle’ and ‘Dream’) begin with a young widow in a Yunnanese village driven to the brink, while her problematic son questions his paternity.
In the second segment we meet the characters that populate the rest of the film at a campus in eastern China, where teacher Liang falls for a doctor, Lin, the mistress of his friend Tang. In the third vignette Tang is ‘sent down to the countryside’ to the Yunnanese village, while the final act fills in the gaps in a dream-like sequence of characters in earlier times. The threads hang loose, the visuals are both sumptuous and distracting, but the film casts a wry yet not too harsh eye on Puritan principles and the mob justice of the period.
Entry is free, but you need to reserve a seat. Send ‘Film’ to our WeChat ('timeoutshanghaieng' or extract the QR below) to book your spot.
Glam Seventh Floor, Five on the Bund, 20 Guangdong Lu, near Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu. Sun 29. 4.15pm. Free.