Home>News Center>Life
         
 

Love story with a twist inspires actress-director
(China Daily)
Updated: 2005-02-14 09:34

Young director Xu Jinglei has offered her new film "Letter from an Unknown Woman" as a Valentine's Day gift to the nation's lovers.


Xu Jinglei's new film "Letter from an Unknown Woman" stars veteran actor/director Jiang Wen and herself. [China Daily]

The movie hit cinema screens across China yesterday and runs until early next month.

Unlike the fare normally offered up to the nation's cinemagoers, this is no cheesy comedy or regular romance. Rather, it deals with an unforgettable, heart-breaking story and may offer the viewers much food for thought about love - love cared for, love ignored and love forgotten, critics say.

Adapting a masterpiece

After her directorial debut in 2003 with "My Father and I," Xu decided to adapt renowned Austrian writer Stefan Zweig's short story "Letter from an Unknown Woman."

"Every time I read the story, I am moved to tears. But as time goes by, I read it very differently," said Xu.

"When I was a freshman at Beijing Film Academy in 1994, I read it as a love story about a love-crazed woman and a heartless man. But when I read it time and again in later years, I have come to see it as a story about pure love. It is a story about a respectable woman who leads a passionate, meaningful life and whose last letter shatters the heartless man's false sense of superiority towards women and love," she said.

Xu knows that there already exists a splendid adaptation of Austrian author Zweig's masterpiece by Max Ophuls in 1948.

Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) published the story in 1936.

But Xu insists that her interpretation will be very different.

"I am not trying to moralize or to educate the viewers with my film. What I am trying to do is to depict the story with passion and bring to life a moving tale," Xu told China Daily.

"As I see it, today's women in love care only about their own feelings. My film tells a story that caters to the tastes of contemporary audiences. It portrays a woman who loves with dignity, who takes control and achieves her independence in love," Xu explained, quoting Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's famous line "If I love you, what business is it of yours?"

Xu Jinglei says the film is really fused with her own experience and understanding of love.

Depicting pure love

A Poly Asian Union Film and Media production, "Letter from an Unknown Woman" cost 20 million yuan (US$2.4 million) to make.

Starring Xu and veteran actor/director Jiang Wen, Xu's film is set in Beijing of the late 1940s.

On a bleak winter night, a man rides through the war-torn city and returns home. He finds a letter awaiting him. It is the last letter written by a woman before her death.

In the letter, she reveals to him for the first and last time the story of her life-long passion for him that has not diminished over time, but one that he has never known. Shaken by the letter, the man searches his memory for the nameless woman.

Superb camerawork by veteran cinematographer Pin Bing Lee from Taiwan, music by Kubota Osamu and Lin Hai, and vivid revival of old Beijing by production designer Cao Jiuping add to the inner strength of Xu's well-crafted script.

However, from the very beginning, Xu knows that it is a challenging job to adapt Zweig's work into a good film.

"The big problem was how to translate the meticulously described inner feelings of the heroine from words into visual sequences," Xu recalled.

The film story turned out to be moving experience, at least for audiences at the 52nd Donostia-San Sebastian International Film Festival held in Spain last September and to a handful of Chinese viewers who attended closed-door test screenings in Beijing and Nanjing in recent months.

At the festival, Xu took home the coveted Altadis-Best New Director Silver Shell award.

Actress-turned director

"Winning the award and accolades from industry insiders gives me a great deal of encouragement. But I am also looking forward to receiving confirmation from Chinese audiences who go to watch it during the Spring Festival holiday," said the actress-director.

Born in Beijing and trained as an actress at Beijing Film Academy, Xu has been one of the hottest pop idols for TV and big screen fans for years on the Chinese mainland. Upon graduation in 1997, she shot to stardom for her roles in several TV drama serials.

In 1999, she won the prestigious Chinese Filmmakers Association's Best Performance Award for her first major film role in "Spicy Love Soup" (Aiqing Malatang).

Her recent films include "Far from Home" (Wode Meili Xiangchou) (Golden Rooster "Best Supporting Actress" award in 2001), "Dazzling" (Huayan), and "Spring Subway" (Kaiwang Chuntian De Ditie) ("Most Popular Actress" award at the Beijing University Students Film Festival in 2002, ), "I Love You" (Wo Ai Ni) (Golden Rooster "Best Actress Award" in 2002).

In 2003, Xu pushed her career in a different direction by writing, directing and producing her first feature film, "My Father and I" starring Ye Daying and herself.

The film won her a Golden Rooster and a Hundred Flowers "Best Directing Debut Award" in her homeland. The film also attracted international attention at major international film festivals including ones held in Toronto and Tokyo.

"Letter from an Unknown Woman" is her second feature as a director and screenwriter.

Now a teacher at the Performing Department of Beijing Film Academy, this up-and-coming director is busy making new plans for more films.

"Film directing is fresh and exciting for me at this stage of my life. But that does not mean I will easily give up acting. I have no set plans for my future life. You see, I am also interested in photography. Maybe some day, I will work as a photographer travelling worldwide," she said with a smile.



Julia Roberts releases photos of twins
Valentine's Day falls today
Zhang Ziyi appears at British Academy Film Awards
  Today's Top News     Top Life News
 

Shi'ite bloc wins Iraqi election

 

   
 

China will push for N.Korea 6-party talks

 

   
 

Japan action violation of Chinese sovereignty

 

   
 

President visits villagers in minority region

 

   
 

Palestinian militants adhere to truce

 

   
 

Firecrackers boom in spite of ban

 

   
  Love story with a twist inspires actress-director
   
  Valentine's Day fails to pull heart strings
   
  Hectic Spring Festival leaves many breathless
   
  More Beijingers donate blood during holiday
   
  Singer Christina Aguilera gets engaged
   
  Julia Roberts releases photos of twins
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  Related Stories  
   
Valentine's Day fails to pull heart strings
   
Valentine's Day fails to pull heart strings
   
Valentine's Day: Spouse faithfulness questioned
   
Bitter edge to Valentine's Day
   
Valentine kisses, guns and emails
   
Young Chinese keen on day of love, middle-aged doubt
   
Manila marks Valentine's Day with kissing marathon
  Feature  
  Chen Ning Yang, 82, to marry a 28-year-old woman  
Advertisement
         
主站蜘蛛池模板: 99久久国产免费福利| 成人欧美一区二区三区视频| 日韩精品亚洲人成在线观看 | 菠萝菠萝蜜在线免费视频| 精品久久久久久久久中文字幕 | 阿娇囗交全套高清视频| 精品国产人成亚洲区| 特级毛片爽www免费版| 欧洲精品无码一区二区三区在线播放 | 黄a大片av永久免费| 精品无码国产一区二区三区av| 热99re久久国超精品首页| 最近中文字幕国语免费高清6 | 欧美一级视频在线| 成年午夜视频免费观看视频| 夜来香免费观看视频在线| 国产深夜福利在线观看网站| 啊轻点灬大ji巴太粗太长了h| 亚洲精品亚洲人成在线观看麻豆 | 免费国产成人高清在线观看麻豆| 亚洲人成网站免费播放| 丰满熟妇乱又伦| 69国产成人精品午夜福中文| 青楼18春一级毛片| 激情freesexhd糟蹋videos| 日韩在线观看中文字幕| 女人让男人直接桶| 国产极品视觉盛宴| 免费人妻无码不卡中文字幕系| 亚洲AV无码乱码在线观看富二代| www久久只有这里有精品| 国产边打电话边被躁视频| 男女超爽视频免费播放| 日韩中文无码有码免费视频| 国产麻豆剧果冻传媒一区| 四虎影视永久费观看在线| 亚洲av永久综合在线观看尤物 | 日韩免费高清一级毛片在线| 国内精品伊人久久久久妇| 国产一级毛片高清视频完整版| 亚洲女成人图区|