Father (2000 film)

Father
Traditional 冤家父子
Simplified 冤家父子
Mandarin Yuānjiā Fùzǐ
Directed by Wang Shuo
Produced by Han Sanping
Wang Weijing
Written by Feng Xiaogang
Wang Shuo
Novel:
Wang Shuo
Starring Feng Xiaogang
Hu Xiaopei
Xu Fan
Qin Yan
Wang Weining
Music by Shi Wanchun
Cinematography Yang Xiaoxiong
Edited by Zhou Ying
Release dates
  • August 11, 2000 (2000-08-11) (Locarno)
Running time
96 minutes
Country China
Language Mandarin

Father (Chinese: 冤家父子; pinyin: Yuānjiā Fùzǐ; literally: "Feuding father and son") is a 2000 Chinese film directed by the writer Wang Shuo. To date, it is Wang's first and only directorial effort. The film is based on Wang's own novel, Wo Shi Ni Baba (English: I Am Your Father). Despite being partially backed by the state-run Beijing Film Studio, Father suffered from years of bureaucratic red tape. Made in 1996, the film was not screened until 2000, when it surreptitiously premiered at the 2000 Locarno International Film Festival.

The films stars the director Feng Xiaogang, who also helped adapt Wang's novel for the screen.

Plot

Father documents the tumultuous relationship between a widowed father, Ma Lisheng, and his school-age son, Ma Che. Though he works as a low-level party functionary during the day, he finds his greatest challenges in the raising of a son on his own. Alternating between trying to bond with his son (even getting drunk with him), and verbally accosting him, Ma is at a loss. One day the son decides that the best way for his father to stop harassing him, will be to find him a new wife, which he finds in the form of the mother of a school friend, Qing Huaiyuan.

Cast

Reception

Never officially released in China, Father was not screened in the west until four years after its completion in February 1996.[1] The film was smuggled into Switzerland for the Locarno International Film Festival by the festival director Marco Muller, and would go on to win that festival's top prize, the Golden Leopard.[2] The festival's jury chairman, Naum Klejman described Wang Shuo's film as "not only a very important film in the context of new cinema, in China and all over the world, it's also a film which gives a very human explanation of developing the societies in the world, it's universal."[2]

Many critics, however, gave only measured praise. Derek Elley of Variety wrote that the film's two-part structure (the drama of the father-son relationship versus the broader comedy of the romance between Ma Lingyuan and Qi Huaiyuan) left the film a "little uneven in tone...," ultimately "los[ing] its focus in the final reels."[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Elley, Derek (2000-08-15). "Father Review". Variety. Retrieved 2008-05-24.
  2. 1 2 "Award for banned Chinese film". BBC News. 2000-08-13. Retrieved 2008-05-23.

External links

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