STRIDING INTO THE WIND / YE MA FEN ZONG
A young film student with the rare talent of getting everything wrong, try as he might, buys a second-hand jeep.He rides through town with Hip Hop music blasting out loud, and while others see a jalopy, he sees the key to making his wildest dream come true. More of a self-aware unfulfilled coming-of-age story, this autobiographical debut by the 29-year old Chinese director is a great urban poem, a playful combination of a road movie with comedy which bridges the gap between Hsiao-Hsien Hou and Woody Allen. Official selection at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival.
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CHINA | 2020 | COLOR | DCP | 134' | MANDARIN
The adventures of a 20-year-old in modern China. Adventures that seem to sum up men as circumstantial products of a country conquered by an alienating American culture. Kun does everything wrong. He buys a Jeep while he has absolutely no driving discipline, he is indifferent or simply skips his film sound engineering classes, he damages the shooting of a film, breaks up with his girlfriend, DUIs, ends up in jail.
A sample of the new Chinese wave, the (semi-autobiographical) debut by Shujun Wei has the ambitious mise en scene, the sense of humour, the willingness to break new ground, but also a sense of loss (the final shot is wonderful) that promises an interesting career. Cannes Film Festival - Official Selection. I.D.
DIRECTOR: Shujun Wei
SCREENWRITERS: Gao Linyang, Shujun Wei
DoP: Wang Jiehong
MUSIC: Zou Haolun
EDITOR: Yan Tingting
PRINCIPAL CAST: You Zhou, Xiaomu Wang, Qinling Liu, Ying Chen Zheng
SHUJUN WEI
Director and screenwriter, born in Beijing, where he studied sound engineering. An actor at 14, rapper and a first short film that won him the Special Jury Distinction at Cannes in 2018. This is his first feature film.
FILMOGRAPHY
2020 Striding Into the Wind
