Knitting is a 2008 Chinese film

Cinema of China

The Chinese-language cinema has three distinct historical threads: Cinema of Hong Kong, Cinema of China, and Cinema of Taiwan. Since 1949 the cinema of mainland China has operated under restrictions imposed by the Communist Party of China's State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television and...

 directed by Yin Lichuan

Yin Lichuan

Yin Lichuan is a Chinese writer, poet and filmmaker. A graduate of Peking University, Yin made her name writing novels and poetry, including A Little More Comfort and Fucker. She is known as a member of the "Lower Body Poets."...

. Yin's second film as director, Knitting is a romantic drama. The film was adapted by Yin from the short story "The Story of Li Ai and Haihai" by author Amei.

The film premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival

2008 Cannes Film Festival

The 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival was held from May 14 to May 25, 2008. In addition to films selected for competition this year, major Hollywood productions such as Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Kung Fu Panda had their world premieres at the festival.The British press...

 as part of the Directors' Fortnight

Directors' Fortnight

Directors' Fortnight is an independent section held in parallel to the Cannes Film Festival. The section was created in 1969 after the events of May 1968, in which the Cannes festival was canceled in solidarity with striking workers....

 on 21 May 2008.

Though the film's setting is never stated, Knitting was shot in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou

Guangzhou

Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...

.

Cast

• Zhang Yi as Li Daping. A simple woman from the north, but now living in the south of China with her boyfriend Chen Jin and has recently suffered a miscarriage
  Miscarriage
  Miscarriage or spontaneous abortion is the spontaneous end of a pregnancy at a stage where the embryo or fetus is incapable of surviving independently, generally defined in humans at prior to 20 weeks of gestation...
  
   as the film begins.
• Yan Bingyan as Zhang Haiying. Haiying is one of Chen Jin's ex-girlfriends who suddenly moves into Daping and Chen Jin's apartment. While she bullies and taunts Daping, the two eventually come to share a bond when Chen Jin abandons a newly pregnant Daping.
• Lu Yulai as Chen Jin, Li Daping's selfish boyfriend.

Background

Knitting was inspired in part on the story of the Cowheard and the Weaver Girl, the basis of the Chinese festival of Qi Xi

Qi Xi

Qixi Festival , also known as Magpie Festival, falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month on the Chinese calendar; thus its name. It inspired Tanabata in Japan, Chilseok in Korea, and Thất Tịch in Vietnam...

, also called the Magpie Festival or the Chinese Valentine's Day.

Director Yin Lichuan

Yin Lichuan

Yin Lichuan is a Chinese writer, poet and filmmaker. A graduate of Peking University, Yin made her name writing novels and poetry, including A Little More Comfort and Fucker. She is known as a member of the "Lower Body Poets."...

noted in her statement of intent that Knitting was meant to explore female themes from a feminine perspective. To this end the film has two female leads, one "clumsy and simple-minded," the other "tenacious and shrewd."