London has its day as Chinese film fest rings in Year of the Dog
As part of the Lunar New Year celebrations, London is hosting the largest festival of Chinese culture seen in the British capital.
The three-month China in London carnival includes a film festival that will feature some of the country' s best movies, from new titles to classic films and animation.
Chris Berry, a professor of film and television studies at London's Goldsmiths College, who helped organise the event, says it reflects China's growing presence on the world stage.
'London audiences have reasonable opportunities to see Chinese movies with events such as the London Film Festival and seasons at the National Film Theatre,' he says.
'But what's important is that, by having more events such as these and by bringing all the different strands together, it helps to emphasise how incredibly important China has become.'
Berry, who has studied Chinese film for more than a decade, says the move to host such a lengthy and wide-ranging event is 'in response to the interest and excitement' centred on the China in London celebration.
'It's wonderful to see all these films and all the other cultural events that are going on,' he says.
The film festival is being organised by the Chinese Cultural Centre in association with the Shanghai International Film Festival and the British Council in Shanghai, and is supported by the mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, London Development Agency, Vue Cinemas, Film London and the UK Film Council Lottery.
'We want Londoners and the capital's visitors to get out and sample just a little of [China's] rich cultural history and celebrate the Chinese community's contribution to the life of our capital,' Livingstone says.
Hong Kong director Wilson Yip Wai-shun's Leaving Me, Loving You (2004), a romantic drama in Putonghua, is among those being shown. It stars singers/actors Leon Lai Ming (Three: Going Home, 2002) and Faye Wong (Chungking Express, 1994).
Other titles to be shown as part of the Shanghai on Screen festival are Shanghai Story (2004) and Shanghai Women (1992), both directed by Peng Xiaolian, and Wu Yonggang's The Goddess (1934), which stars Ruan Lingyu.
There are also plans to feature celebrated actor/director Jiang Wen talking to filmmaker and British Film Institute chairman Anthony Minghella at the National Film Theatre, followed by a screening of Jiang's Devils on the Doorstep (2000). The event is expected to sell out, not least because Jiang's movie is banned on the mainland.
Minghella has said he regards China as the source of 'the most fascinating cinema'. The director, who won an Oscar for The English Patient (1996), regularly cites filmmakers such as Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern, 1992) and Chen Kaige (Farewell My Concubine, 1993) as masters of the form.
Londoners will get a chance to judge Zhang's directorial skills for themselves, with screenings of his films The Road Home (1999) and Happy Times (2001) at the National Portrait Gallery in central London.
Titles already shown at the Museum in Docklands include a British Film Institute-restored version of Piccadilly, E.A. Dupont's film from 1929 starring Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong. It was shot in central London and parts of the old Chinatown in Limehouse, in the eastern reaches of the capital.
Shui Hua's The Lin Family Shop (1959) and Lou Ye's Suzhou River (2000) will screen during the next fortnight.
The celebration of Chinese cinema runs until February 15 at the Vue West End on Leicester Square, with other selected titles showing at the likes of the Museum in Docklands until February 25.
