The Piano in a Factory A film by Zhang Meng

Transcription

1 The Piano in a Factory A film by Zhang Meng A delightful Chinese film that artfully blends music, romance, comedy and just a little social comment a thoroughly enjoyable movie experience! Mark Adams, Screen Daily First rate cinematography, set design and editing are in perfect sync with the director comic intent. Kirk Honeycutt, The Hollywood Reporter China 2010 Comedy, Drama, Romance In Mandarin with English Subtitles 100 min. 1:1.85 Dolby SR Film Movement Press Contact: Claire Weingarten 109 W. 27th Street, Suite 9B New York, NY tel: (212) x 208 fax: (212) claire@filmmovement.com Film Movement Theatrical Contact: Rebeca Conget 109 W. 27th Street, Suite 9B New York, NY tel: (212) x 213 fax: (212) rebeca@filmmovement.com

2 SYNOPSIS When Chen s estranged wife reappears asking for a divorce and custody of their daughter, the musician girl decides she will live with whoever can provide her a piano. Chen s struggle thus begins. When efforts to borrow money and even steal a piano fail, Chen concocts a preposterous plan - he'll make a piano from scratch! He persuades a bunch of reluctant, but loyal, misfit friends to help him forge the instrument in a derelict factory from a heap of scrap steel. Though crude in design and tune, the factory piano awaits its first and final performance from his little girl. FESTIVALS AND AWARDS WINNER Best Actor Award TOKYO Int l Film Festival WINNER Grand Jury Prize MIAMI Int l Film Festival OFFICIAL SELECTION Toronto Int l Film Festival Dubai Film Festival Sarasota Film Festival Hawaii Int l Film Festival Cleveland Int l Film Festival Wisconsin Film Festival 2

3 BIOGRAPHIES ZHANG MENG Writer and Director Born in northeast China, Zhang Meng graduated from China Central Academy of Drama. In 2007 he made his directorial debut with Lucky Dog, which earned him the Asian New Talent Award at the 10th Shanghai International Film Festival, and the Best New Director at the Chinese Media Awards He directed his first documentary Mr. Zhang and His Dog in 2008, and THE PIANO IN A FACTORY in WANG QIAN-YUAN Chen Wang Qian-yuan (aka Wang Jin-peng) has earned a name for himself playing very diverse roles in the ten movies and twenty five drama series he has appeared in since he began acting in Many of his programs, including Winner, Judge Zhang's Story and Romantic Story, have won acclaimed industry awards in China. QIN HAI-LU Qin Hailu is best known for her role in Fruit Chan's Durian Durian, which won her five awards, including Best Actress at the 2001 Golden Horse Awards, Best New Performer at the 6th Hong Kong Film Awards, and was nominated at the 57th Cannes Film Festival. She also acted in Loving Him, Chicken Poets, Love Battlefield, Wo Hu, After This Our Exile, Call for Love, Lost and Found, etc. 3

4 INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR ZHANG MENG AND LEAD ACTOR WANG QIAN-YUAN by Yosuke Wakaki, Tokyo Int l Film Festival 2010 TIFF Is it correct to understand that The Piano in a Factory is set in the first half of the 1990s in a north-eastern town in China? Zhang Meng (Zhang): Time and place are not specifically set, but it is certainly set in the period when the heavy industrial area in north eastern China was hit by the policies of reform and openness in China. The state of society from the mid-1980s to the end of the 1990s is the backdrop to the story. Why did you choose this period? I believe it was after Deng Xiaoping s famous southern tour of China in 1992 when reform and openness gathered pace. Zhang:In 1992, I was a 17-year-old in north-eastern China. I remember that period in the midst of my adolescence vividly. Every family was hugely impacted by the waves of change. The north-eastern region has regained economic stability now, but it was unstable in those days. I wanted to make a film about working class people. Wang Qian-Yuan (Wang): I am also from north-eastern China. I was still immature in those days, but the air of the period influenced the frame of mind significantly. People who are in an older generation than the director and I, for example my father, my father s friends and grandfather, they took the brunt of 4

5 the change in society. But I was on the periphery and that period really interests me. I wasn t quite sure where the film was going at the beginning, but as soon as they start building a steel piano, it became apparent that Chen and his fellows are all skilled workers. Seedy-looking men begin to glow as the story goes on to the second half. Zhang: People in that generation are called the lost generation, referring to the workers who were thrown out of their jobs in the state factory. The men in THE PAINO IN A FACTORY are in a stagnant situation, but in the second half, they return to their disused factory. Through their almost eccentric attempt to build an all-steel piano, they rekindle their skills and rediscover the joy of working. Qian-yuan, you look sophisticated, but your character, Chen Guilin, is grouchy and selfish, and yet considerate of his family and friends. Through his limited facial expressions, his character was superbly expressed. Would you tell us about the acting plan and casting, please? Wang:The director and I discussed the character and created it together. But I just know the air of the men from north-eastern China in those days. They were abrupt just like Chen Guilin. Even those in their 30s looked very mature and old, unlike nowadays. So I tried to recreate the people in my memory. Zhang:Chen Guilin gradually took shape as I wrote the script. He is tall, slender, and the type of person who looks cold in winter even with a coat on. He is boorish but his gentle eyes give away to the audience that he is a good man. He is somewhat pitiful and everyone ends up caring for him. When his image was set to this point, I thought Wang is perfect for the role. He joined the Central Academy of Drama in 1993, and I joined in I think we must have been linked by fate. Wang: Both of us are from the north-eastern region and the same school, and I can rely on him. Also, the director s father was a film director, and my father was an actor (who makes an appearance as a seasoned engineer). We have a lot in common. After your debut work, Lucky Dog, you made some documentaries. Do you think the experience is reflected in this film, for example in acting direction? Zhang:I made two documentaries, and the experience was significant. In a documentary you have to calmly follow the subject. The experience helped me to recreate the recent past realistically. In addition to realism, surrealistic expressions were needed to portray the truth during that period exactly as I remember it. I kept it in mind to create the magic surreal atmosphere where reality and unreality coexist, for example, the scene where the snow falls in the factory. (note: His favorite films are Akira Kurosawa films and Italian neo- 5

6 realism.) Chen builds a piano, initially for his daughter, but it gradually changes its nature to settle his own adolescence. The ending suggests Chen s fresh start while the chimneys, the symbol of the factory, are destroyed. Are these two linked in the theme of an end of a period? Zhang: The society moves on at speed while Cheng and his colleagues try to remember the time when working class people lived proudly by building a steel piano. However, they know well that they cannot go back to those days. The collapsing chimneys represent the crumpling of their pride. They lose the factory where they spent nearly 40 years, and another change awaits them. It is possible nowadays to accept a new phase while affirming the life to date. People face the changes in the society, accept them and adapt to them. That is the theme of this film. I am looking forward to the next film by you both. It would be fun to see Chen Guilin in the corner of another film, carrying on obstinately. Wang: I hope to work with Zhang Meng again. Zhang:Shall I add a scene for Chen Guilin on my next film? 6

7 CREDITS CREW Director & Screenwriter Producers Editor Director of Photography Sound Original Music Art Direction Costumes Make-up ZHANG MENG JESSICA KAM, CHOI GWANG-SUK, KWAK JAE- YONG GAO BO SHU CHOU LEE SANG-WOOK OH YOUNG-MOOK RICK WANG, ZHANG YI MA JING SUN YIRAN CAST Chen Guilin She Xian Xiao Ju Fat Head Brother Ji Wang Kangmei Lightening Fingers WANG QIAN-YUAN QIN HAI-LU JANG SHIN-YEONG LIU QIAN LUO ER-YANG TIAN-YU GUO YONG-ZHEN 7