Frost_edelweiss

I'm just out from the opening of the 16th festival of Chinese cinema, where the movie was screened yesterday (and will be again, Wednesday May 28 and Thursday June 5).

Double subtitling in Chinese and French were a bit complicated to read because too close to bottom of screen, in the crowded cinema where the 380 seats were fully occupied, with a bunch of celebs and cinema directors, producers, or people involved in culture. Those guests made speeches before having a group photo prior to screening. Among those were director Hu Mei and actress Lin Peng, who played as Wang Xifeng (wife of Baoyu's cousin and niece of Madam Wang) the woman who ruled the financial affairs of Rongguo mansion.

I remembered fondly reading an easy version of the novel, a long time ago, and it did help following the convoluted web of characters in the story. The movie centered on Jia Baoyu ("Precious Jade") , spontaneous and innocent pleasures seeking adolescent, protected by his jade pendant (remnant of the magic stone of Nüwa, but that information was not much emphasized in the movie, except for the engraving and consequences of its loss), and Lin Daiyu, the orphan cousin he loved and wanted to marry someday, taken in by the Jia Matriarch of the Rong estate, residing in Rongguo Mansion. Daiyu henceforth lived there with her cousins Baoyu and Jia Xichun (who was originally from Ningguo mansion).

The mansions were large, adjacent family compounds in the capital. Although the capital is not named in the novel (and the first chapter insists that the dynasty is indeterminate), it is generally agreed that this is set in the Qing dynasty. The story is an allegory of corruption, through the portrayal of a sprawling cast of characters, many of which are cousins or close blood relations.

Then came the introduction of other girls, among whom Qin Keyi (the one who seduced her father-in-law, in a short nighttime scene where guards/servants lamented the man's behavior, glimpsed from the garden); Xue Baochai whose brother Xue Pan was a murderer (he killed a man to get the slave girl Xiangling). The Xue were intent on marrying Baochai into the Jia family for gaining status in exchange for money, while the Jia family through the machinations of Madam Wang, old Jia Zheng's wife, misappropriated the inheritance of Lin Daiyu to pay for luxury and offset some debts, before casting Daiyu off and tricking Baoyu to marry Baochai...

The power intrigues and exacerbated sentimentality were lightly touched upon in sometimes grandiose cinematic takes. The characters of Granny Liu and her grandson did appear too, but were not lingered on (they served as necessary contrast between princely city life in the mansions and rural life, not shown). The set was carefully, richly, and tastefully laid out, with many colors emphasizing details such as games ; strolling in Suzhou style gardens... The movie has the stately visit in the Daguanyuan (Grand View Garden) of the Rongguo mansion, of princess consort Yuanchun (sister of Jia Zheng who headed the other branch of the Jia clan in Ningguo mansion) , bringing with her imperial gifts and honor. There was also the other-worldly pink peach blossoms raining on Daiyu burying withered flowers, her and Baoyu reading poetry books, crossing arched bridges, Baoyu flying kites, personnel sleeping under the covered outer porches, because of the killing heat and vapor making Daiyu's cough worse, and more. The fantastic comes in with Baoyu's nightmares of drowning and visiting the Void, announcing the downfall of the mansions and of his hopes, and of course the ""sentient", "magic" jade stone pendant, that had begged to be sent to mortal realm to experience life, thus giving its other name to the novel (The Story of the Stone).

For an idea of the movie : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_cEBn4Drnk (1 minute trailer)

For those who are unfamiliar with the classic story, and lacking time to read or re-read the classic novel, there is an interesting 48 minutes animation+documentary video to get introduced to it and the author Cao Xueqin : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab0Fa8G845I

The movie wrapped in 2018, and introduced Zhang Miaoyi as Lin Daiyu, but drew harsh criticism centered on her portrayal of the sickly adolescent who comes out sometimes as peevish and was not beautiful enough, too bland, according to the taste of some audience, still faithful to the canon incarnation of the late Chen Xiaoxu in 1987! Actor Cheng Bian's Jia Baoyu conformed better to expectations. The main objections to young (then) Zhang Miaoyi are recorded in this post : https://dramapanda.com/2024/08/dream-red-chamber-movie-flopped-zhang-miaoyi-role-lin-daiyu-criticism.html. Perhaps there has now been too many adaptations of the long and sprawling novel, so audiences are jaded. Douban rating was low at 3.1 (https://movie.douban.com/subject/26924522/) from only about 21,000 ratings, ; and ImDB followed suit at 4.6/10 from 26 ratings, RottenTomatoes simply ignored the movie, while some lamented that director Hu Mei (famous for her almost classic movie biopic of Confucius) mangled the project, which in my opinion is too negative. I'd give it a passing 7, following the level of applause from audience in Paris, which was composed both of professionals, people interested in Chinese literature and movies, and simply curious naive newbies, a bit put off by having to crane their necks to try and read subtitles (in Chinese and French) at bottom of screen, over a sea of bobbing heads...

The cinema chosen for the purpose was not uncomfortable, despite being an Art Deco arthouse. Seats had been renovated, but still followed the historical almost flat parallel lines seating layout, with the screen placed high up over a stage. So it did feel a bit stuffy for so many people, and the lack of clear slope was unfortunate, especially since this was after all not a mobility impaired friendly theater (many steps and stairs without ramps). Paris is not really friendly to mobility impaired people anyway, be it public transport, rail stations, metro, official buildings, most buildings (despite ramps are supposedly mandatory for private buildings, but can become treacherous with width and lack of handrails). Besides which, since the municipality has vowed to make the city a hell for car drivers and force everybody to become pedestrians, the roads are bumpy and there are almost no parking spaces in the vicinity, even for handicapped people. Even taxi drivers complain, and the metro is a far cry in cleanliness, safety, and reliability, from those who are used to Chinese cities public transit. The state of roads can be a hazard to inexperienced bike or other wheel users. This cinema was not even the worst, as layout comes. For those who came early or wished to speak after (or during! the screening) there was a micro-café style bar with chairs, small round tables, and refreshments to be purchased, although not cheap. On the other hand, the independent cinemas such as Le Balzac are more friendly for the wallet in their policy for tickets. Prices are around 11€ or 9€ reduced when the major cinemas charge up to 15 or 20€.

The movie was shown again in Paris, on the occasion of the 16th festival of Chinese movies, on Tuesday June 3, 2025 at the "Cinéma Les 7 Parnassiens", and on Saturday June 7, 2025 at the "Pathé Les Fauvettes".
Full program of the festival here : https://www.festivalducinemachinoisdeparis.com/
Page in French for the movie here : https://www.festivalducinemachinoisdeparis.com/spip.php?article770

The director is Ann Hu (also known for her award winning movie Shadow Magic, about the earliest days of Chinese movie making in 1902-1905). She also had a dyslexic daughter, raised in part in China and in the USA where she was based since 1977 working in finance before switching career to film making in the late 1990s after meeting famous director Chen Kaige in 1987. She wrote the script, inspired by her experience. I added a biography for her, so hopefully it will be possible to link this new entry with this, her latest movie.

The movie is one of the historical first generation Chinese film directors, "Dan Duyu (但杜宇; 1897–1972), also romanized as Dan Do-yu, was a Chinese film director and cinematographer who directed more than 30 films from 1922 to 1952. He was married to film actress Yin Mingzhu (who starred in his 1927 film The Cave of the Silken Web)." The HK movie data base further informs with the titles and cast/crew details of 21 movies he filmed from 1925 to 1952 ("Cave of Silken Web 盤絲洞" being the second in that list), and adds these biographical details : "Dan Duyu, also known as Ren Zuling, Daan Do-Yue. Painter of distinction before entering the film industry. Established Shanghai Film Co 1920. Migrated to HK 1937. Died 1972."
(Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Duyu ; ImDB; https://hkmdb.com/db/people/view_utf.mhtml?id=655&display_set=eng)

"Yin Mingzhu (Chinese: 殷明珠; 1904–1989), also known as Pearl Ing, was a Chinese actress. Mingzhu was most famous for her role as an actress but was also an investor and production coordinator specifically during her time off camera in the 1930s." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_Mingzhu) She was a famous beauty in Shanghai, who met the director Dan Duyu and started working with him when she was 17. In 1921, she joined Duyu's Shanghai Shadow Play Company, where she starred in the (lost?) movie Sea Oath, in which she was praised for her performance as a first time actress. However, her career almost ended there when her mother forbid her from making any more films, but in 1925, after a three year hiatus from sets, her mother gave in and allowed Pearl (translation of her Chinese first name) to star in Duyu's "philosophical film", "Some Girl" 重返故鄉 (also known as "Return Home or " Back Home From City").
Yin Mingzhu had married a Frenchman, but after he deserted her, going back to his country, she eventually divorced, and married Dan Duyu in 1926, having fallen in love with him. She starred in about half of the 30 movies directed by Dan Duyu, but most are believed to be lost films. Their daughter Judy Dan appeared in many American films.

This movie is a testament to the beauty of actresses and the taste for movies in Shanghai in the late 1920s.

"It was thought to be a lost film until 2011, when an original copy of The Cave of the Silken Web was discovered in the archives of the National Library in Mo i Rana, Norway. The film was presented at the 2013 Films from the South festival in Oslo. Roughly three-quarters of the film is preserved, the first reel and a section in the middle is lost. The Norwegian copy has retained the original Chinese intertitles, but includes additional jokes in Norwegian written for the local audience."

Since the Wikipedia page links it, I was delighted to sit and watch this relic, which goes back to a long lost time, in the birth year of my mother ;) Of course, I always appreciate stories inspired by Journey to the West, and the Norwegian intertitles added to interest, since it is one of the (several) languages I read and am familiar with. It was fun watching the magic of the camera allowing Sun Wukong to "take the form" of one of the Spider beauties to infiltrate the demonic cave and save the monk. Early FX.

I have followed the procedure to add the info about director and cast, but it looks like MDL has trouble keeping up with the "flood of submissions" submerging staff... So, until they get ready for addition and changes, the info is exclusively on my comments here.

I have no idea why and how the unrelated comments below landed on this page which is about a famous ancient movie of 1905, much referred to, but impossible to screen, mute and of course more "archaeological" than else.

Based on an episode in Luo Guanzhong's historical novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and starred Tan Xinpei. The film consisted of a 42 minutes recording of a Beijing opera performance of the Battle of Mount Dingjun and constitutes the first Chinese film ever made.

It remains a relic, and I would have found it as interesting to watch as the documentary movies filmed at the time by foreigner teams such as those of Albert Kahn (which i did watch), perhaps did watch Dingjun Mountain too in a former incarnation... Awarding it a rating of 2/10 is just crazy. It was a feat to film that movie and to keep a copy for so many years for those interested in film history or simply History !

I can't claim to have seen it since the only copy was destroyed in a fire in the late 1940s, during the war of aggression by Japan, and only one still remains, but just to correct that incredible and offensive score mocking a historical and almost mythical relic, I awarded it a 10 here. More about the movie here : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingjun_Mountain_(film)

To know more about the History of Chinese cinema which started with this lost movie, you could check this page : https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d774e3241444d34457a6333566d54/index.html , only regretting this interesting illustrated summary and timeline swept quickly away the "golden age from the 1920s to 1930s", from which many movies, silent or not, many musical, can still be admired both as relics of bygone times and for the acts, plots, cinematography. I greatly admired works from directors such as Sun Yu, Fei Mu etc, but also found it endearing to sample even partial copies of movies that were thought lost such as this one : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cave_of_the_Silken_Web_(1927_film) enjoying the Norwegian inserts of "titles" (subtitles did not exist yet for mute movies) since this is one of the languages I also read fluently ; it makes the experience quite special.

This movie is delightful and deservedly won praise when it was shown. Being familiar with the history of Chinese cinema and the story of the famous 1905 early movie Dingjun Mountain, directed by Ren Qingtai (任慶泰) a.k.a. Ren Jingfeng (任景豐), who was assisted by his cinematographer Liu Zhonglun (劉仲伦), I found it endearing to see these pioneer's life and hopes be portrayed in this movie, including the photograph taking of Empress Ci Xi, and the risks of handling the earliest film strips. What a pity that only a still remains from the first known relic...

Writer, producer and director Ann Hu's 35mm debut Shadow Magic (2000) won both the Chinese Academy Award and Presidential Award in China for Best film among other international prizes. The film premiered at the 2000 Sundance film Festival and released by Sony Classics in 2001.

CORRECT SYNOPSIS (the first one above was totally erroneous, there was no "intern" involved) :
"Beijing, 1902: an enterprising young portrait photographer named Liu Jinglun, keen on new technology, befriends a newly-arrived Englishman who's brought projector, camera, and Lumière-brothers' shorts to open the Shadow Magic theater. Liu's work with Wallace brings him conflict with tradition and his father's authority, complicated by his falling in love with Ling, daughter of Lord Tan, star of Beijing's traditional opera. Liu sees movies as his chance to become wealthy and worthy of Ling. When the Shadow Magic pair are invited to show the films to the Empress Dowager, things look good. But, is disaster in the script? And, can movies preserve tradition even as they bring change?"

The movie has a fuller Wikipedia page : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Magic#cite_note-1

The director also has an interesting story :

Ann Hu / Hú Ān 胡安 born 胡小平 (Hú Xiǎopíng) in 1956, grew up in Beijing. After finishing middle school, she was assigned to work as a waitress but studied by herself in view of passing college entrance examination, when those exams resumed in 1977. She next studied English at Beijing International Studies University in 1977 and came to the USA in 1979 to study at New York University as one of the earliest students to go to the United States after the Cultural Revolution. She stayed there as a businesswoman, working in an international company, shifting carer to study film making at NYU Film School after meeting Chen Kaige in 1987.

In 1992, she wrote and directed her first film, "Old Stories of Mountains and Rivers" 《山河旧话》
In 2000, her film "Shadow Magic" 《西洋镜》 was released in mainland China, and she won the 37th Taiwan Golden Horse Film Award for Best Cross-Media Adapted Screenplay.
In 2005, the film "Still Beautiful" 《美人依旧》 directed by her was released.
On December 4, 2020, the family inspirational film "Confetti" English title of 《五彩缤纷》("Colorful"), inspired by her struggle to help her dyslexic daughter, written and directed by her was released in mainland China. It was also shown abroad in 2021.

Douban page : https://www.douban.com/personage/27515319/

Hi again and thanks for liking my prose :)
Since our exchange here is unrelated to the drama page, perhaps it would be better to keep it hidden under spoilers or in Direct message through our profile pages (I do not accept "friends requests" for privacy reasons: don't like to broadcast lists of my friends, lol).

I am somewhat puzzled that you know that Ireine Song spent part of her life in French speaking Canada but say you don't know much about actors and actresses in c-dramas? For k-dramas, I myself am not really interested, so I am incompetent to discuss those and their cast, but for c-dramas, that's my hobby, lol, including sometimes fandom exploring!

So. Liu Yuning. He is cursed with haters who gun down his face and acting, which are totally fine by me, even if I don't belong to his devoted "pengfeimen". Like many, I loved LYN's singing before I appreciated his acting. I totally warmed up to his acting through "A Journey To Love", which holds a very special place in his heart, despite having been gunned down mostly because of sad ending... LYN's dramas often end tragically, although not all : "the Prisoner of Beauty" should end on a lighter note than "The Story of Pearl Girl" (which I also enthused about for many cultural reasons + the cast)

Therefore, I did two "companion pieces" for those two long "historical" dramas. The first one includes a bio/profile of LYN, which you might look up to know more about him, it is loosely updated to May 2025. Here : https://mydramalist.com/discussions/a-journey-to-love/121473-a-journey-to-love-notes-on-production-location-dates-cast-characters-and-more. The table of contents has a link to my other companion pieces, which are usually rich in pictures and GIF to show people, places, and things.

Btw, if it has been a long time since you did not watch c-dramas and would
like to try something less historical and cultural, I recommend the very comedic, even Looney Tune reminding "Filter" with Tan Jianci (for whom I included a bio/profile in the companion piece of "Love Me Love My Voice" which is a very sweet conventional modern day romance using gufeng music). Tan Jianci himself is a real all rounder musician pop-rocker and Latin dancer, as well! He's the guy at bottom right on my profile page, who dances on, throwing a shoe to accompany a dancing partner in a show because she accidentally lost her shoe: sweet!

Merci pour ces mots sympathiques! 🙏
Ah, ça fait longtemps qu'on ne s'était pas recroisés sur ce site ! ;)
Le temps passe vite... J'espère que vous allez bien et continuez à vous distraire avec plaisir avec les feuilletons et films chinois!

Quant à moi, j'ai butiné un peu de tout, y compris récemment: "Northward", pour lequel j'ai également rajouté une "companion piece" pour ceux et celles que ces choses intéressent. Mais je pense que ce sera ma dernière contribution, au moins pour ce semestre: beaucoup de choses vont devoir me mobiliser, et je n'aurai guère le temps d'écrire beaucoup plus de "tomes".

Présentement en train d'apprécier "The Prisoner of Beauty", le second feuilleton ressorti du placard avec Song Zu'er (et Liu Yuning), et The "Legend of Zang Hai", avec Xiao Zhan.

Il y a trop de choses tentantes à voir ou lire. Je suis aussi arrivée au chapitre 207 de "Sheng Shi Di Fei", l'e-roman sur lequel sera basé le feuilleton à venir de Bai Lu : "Mo Li". La version en anglais semble être de plusieurs mains (les traductions de noms des personnages varient), mais c'est très lisible quand même. J'essaie d'imaginer comment les scénaristes vont adapter ça : c'est une grande épopée, il faudra faire des choix...

J'espère aussi arriver lundi 26 à voir l'ouverture du festival des films chinois au cinéma Le Balzac, avant de rester la semaine et voir les deux films prévus le 29. En juin, en revanche, je ne vais guère pouvoir profiter de ce genre de sorties, alors je vais profiter un max de ce dernier festival.

Vous souhaitant un bel été! 🌙🌞💛

Soon reaching 11 weeks in the top ten (incl. 3 weeks in March as #1) so yes, this one is certainly not to be missed! Welcome to those who start now, or re-watch.
Have a look in Discussions section above this one for more information, pictures, link to the novel etc.

yes, saw that too, and it works, after checking your previous link :)

They do look good, don't they? Miemie is one of the prettiest "dolls" in c-ent. Just came across some BTS where Yu Long looks really in awe of her beauty. They look as sweet off stage as on stage. Wondering if they have a fandom group?

thanks, I peeked at it now :)

"video unavailable: has been removed by uploader" :(

thanks for correction then, so I can add it in my playlist with that title, to remind myself in future of what I was watching. :)

It is still on Youtube. I watched that one in March, with English subtitles : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZo_lAHGa00&t=2333s

ASTER commented below that there are three versions.

I watched it on a whim on YouTube two months ago in March, when it still was not listed here, so I thought it might be another title with same cast, Yu Long and Yang MieMie (who I was not following: they look sweet enough, but I'm usually watching other sort of dramas and these two seem to specialize in vertical dramas which I only occasionally indulge in).

I described it then as: "a box of colored sweets features, and that's an apt metaphor for the vertical drama :)
duration: 2h33mins "compilation edition"
Link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZo_lAHGa00&t=2333s

I just had a re-watch, and re-listen of the nice OST (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKyHbHGEzgM&list=PLLaG0k-PXfncrjv8SyITpvhIpHy-FB6fC&index=12)
So, I am adding the wedding addition short episode into watch list belatedly : I had watched it already and mentioned it as 36.5 in my review at time of airing. No need to amend my review. The full drama is a nice watch, despite the phone becoming part of (sometimes infuriating) supporting cast.
On the other hand, with dual subtitles, like on this special (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhiq57vtUsQ) it is a great tool to improve Chinese language learning, listening and reading in Chinese, although reading on telephone screens requires some pauses to have time to read what is flashing by, sometimes swifter than Chinese bullet comments ;)

see my answer to SkY, above - for finding a place to watch the movie in a cinema ;)
Although the audience will likely watch it with French subtitles on that occasion.
Online-- well, it is perhaps too recent to be able to find it there.
Here is the trailer, no English subtitling : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_cEBn4Drnk

May 29 is a holiday so a good time to visit Paris and catch a Chinese movie festival there, with a double feature screening of movies that day. Provided one is on spot or vacation there, and understands Chinese and/or can read French subtitles too ;)