The Go Master is based on the life of Wu Qingyuan, a Chinese prodigy who became the undisputed master of the Japanese board game Go. Remaining in Japan despite the outbreak of war and later sucked into a religious cult that tries to exploit his celebrity, Wu (beautifully played by Chang Chen) is the still center of the storm, following his own inner notions of integrity and loyalty to the discipline of his chosen vocation.
A film of tremendous visual elegance and spiritual refinement, this quiet portrait is as moving as the cinematography is ravishing.
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Wed Mar 14: 1 & 6
Thur Mar 15: 1:30 & 6:10
Fri Mar 16: 1:30 & 6:10
Sat Mar 17: 1:30 & 6:10
Sun Mar 18: 2 & 6:45
Tues Mar 20: 3
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The premiere of The Blue Kite at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival earned director Tian the highest possible accolades from international film critics—as well as a five-year government ban on his directing any more films in China (he returned, gloriously, in 2002 with Springtime in a Small Town). The film begins in 1953 as Shujuan and Shaolong celebrate their marriage, exchanging vows and swearing allegiance to Chairman Mao. A year later, their son Tietou is born, but by then their optimism has begun to fade. The Blue Kite takes us from the formation of the communist state through the Great Leap Forward and finally to the Cultural Revolution, but the action is never reduced to simple illustrations of these historical milestones; rather, these events are felt through their impact on the daily lives of Tietou and his mother Shujuan. Lu Liping as Shujuan gives an extraordinary performance, ever fighting to protect her son as she attempts to survive in a world in which the only certainty is that nothing is truly certain.
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Wed Mar 14: 3:15 & 8:15
Thur Mar 15: 8:15
Sat Mar 17: 8:20
Sun Mar 18: 4:10
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Tian’s first film since The Blue Kite is an exquisite remake of Fei Mu's classic melodrama about a sickly young landowner named Li-yan (Jun Wu) whose lovely, dissatisfied wife finds her passion for an old lover unabated. To make things more complicated, the lover happens to be her husband's oldest friend.
Tian renders the interplay of conflicting emotions with an unearthly delicacy that reaches its peak during a birthday dinner for Li-yan's sister, in which each gesture and glance sets off a new vibration of feeling. The director is aided in no small measure by director Hou Hsiao-hsien's customary cinematographer Mark Li Ping-bing (who also shot large portions of Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love), whose photography brings every shade of springtime to eye-filling life.
Remarkably, Tian had his two lead actors switch roles one week before shooting began.
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Thur Mar 15: 3:45
Fri Mar 16: 3:45pm & 8:20
Sat Mar 17: 3:45
Sun Mar 18: 9
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