The Shanghai International Film Festival focuses on discovering cutting-edge directors at multiple levels and from multiple perspectives, focusing on displaying high-quality films and promoting international cooperation and exchanges. Among them, the "New Works of Famous Directors" screening unit collects the latest works of film masters from all over the world to meet the audience's viewing wishes for the first time, while the "Premiere Ceremony" unit aims to bring the world premiere of overseas blockbuster new films to Shanghai. Due to the large number of films in this year's "New Works by Famous Directors" and "Premiere Festival", they were released in two batches, and today's introduction is the first batch of films.
Soup
Hot Soup
-2020-
What to watch: Can there be true love in the future?
The latest work of the sixth generation director Zhang Ming boldly challenges the soft science fiction theme, moves the camera to the future city, and explores the eternal propositions of emotion, marriage and fertility through the four groups of male and female relationships of professors and female doctors, bosses and lovers and adopted daughters, artificial intelligence entrepreneurs and fiancées who want to have children, online ride-hailing drivers and female passengers who want to immigrate. Zhang Ming uses four scenes to interlace the relationships of the four groups of characters, using the hints of objects to magically integrate the four women into one, combined with the reminder of time subtitles, casting a magical narrative time and space that is closed in a loop. The film was selected for the 2020 Warsaw Film Festival.
Rifkin's Film Festival
Rifkin's Festival
What to watch: Another love letter to a classic movie
The 49th feature film, directed by American film maestro Woody Allen, is also the opening film of the 2020 San Sebastian International Film Festival. The film tells the story of an American artist couple who linger in the beauty and their respective encounters while attending the San Sebastian International Film Festival in Spain. Woody Allen pays tribute to film history by embedding fragments from film history such as Citizen Kane and The Seventh Seal into the male protagonist's dreams and cleverly blending them with the storyline.
Bows
Ribbon
-2021-
Highlights: Noh Nian Reina's feature film debut written and directed by herself
After Reina Noh made her debut under the stage name "Non", she was versatile and talented. She is currently an actress, model, singer and artist. This film is the first self-written and self-directed self-acting work in Nengnian, telling the story of a student of an art university who cannot publish his graduation work due to the impact of the epidemic and finds himself in a series of entanglements. The film is currently not officially scheduled in Japan, so the Shanghai International Film Festival will be its world premiere.
Lyra in Haifa
Laila in Haifa
Highlights: This night, they tell stories
This film is the latest work of the film master Amos Gitai, although the film is limited to the enclosed space, but it uses the rich lens language and wonderful character dialogue to present a social microcosm in the context of regional conflict. The opening 10-minute long shot shows superb photography technique and also establishes the calm and natural style of the whole film. The film was shortlisted for the main competition section of the 2020 Venice Film Festival.
Fables Chapter 2
The Fable:
The Killer Who Doesn't Kill
Highlights: "Killer" is also cool and cute
The popular manga "Killer Fables", which won the Kodansha Manga Award and sold more than 8 million copies, launched its second theatrical version this year. The film is still directed by Gan Eguchi, who won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Advertising Festival for three consecutive years, and starred Junichi Okada, a member of the Janis boy band V6. The story tells that the legendary killer "Fable", who has superhuman combat ability but has a large nerve, is ordered by his boss to live an ordinary life in anonymity for a year, during which he cannot attack anyone. And he will have a more difficult enemy to deal with in this episode. In addition to Junichi Okada, Fumino Kimura and other original members, the old drama Shinichi Bone Akira starred as the main villain and contributed a domineering and wonderful performance. The film was originally scheduled to be released in Japan in February, but due to the postponement of the epidemic to June 18, Shanghai fans are expected to see it earlier than Japanese audiences.
Coming to the End - Philippines Chapter
A Hard Day
Highlights: Exciting story and action design
This film is a Filipino remake of the 2014 blockbuster action film "To the End". It tells the story of police officer Edmond William who accidentally bumps into someone on a rushing funeral and is subsequently involved in a dangerous situation of extortion. Filipino director Lawrence Fajardo, who specializes in the field of action films, has a precise grasp of the rhythm in this film, not only the story is interlocking with thrills, but the indoor fight action is even more rapid and fierce, making the audience adrenaline soar. He also added a large amount of localization background to the film, criticizing certain social phenomena in the form of crime films.
Arashi: 5× 20th Anniversary Concert Tour "Memoirs"
ARASHI Anniversary Tour 5×20 FILM “Record of Memories”
Highlights: The big screen shows the most grand concert before the "Arashi" group is suspended
The ARASHI, a group composed of five members, Kazuya Ninomiya, Masaki Aiba, Jun Matsumoto, Tomomo Ono, and Sho Sakurai, is a global household name. Between 2018 and 2019, Arashi conducted an unprecedented 20th anniversary tour "ARASHI Anniversary Tour 5×20", setting a record for the largest number of visitors in a single tour in Japanese history, and the live video product of the concert of the same name that was released with the same name sold more than one million, setting a new number of sales records. Although "Arashi" has been suspended indefinitely from December 31, 2020, and this tour has become a masterpiece, fortunate Shanghai audiences will witness this grand event again in the theater in the form of a new movie version. The film is directed by Yukihiko Tsui, a veteran director who collaborated with Arashi on the "Difficult Life Trilogy" to leave unforgettable images on the screen with high audiovisual standards.
Stay tuned to us and be the first to grasp the blockbuster list of the 24th Shanghai International Film Festival in 2021.
Note: In case of change in the film schedule, the actual schedule shall prevail.