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The Days (film)
Encyclopedia
The Days is filmmaker
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
Wang Xiaoshuai
Wang Xiaoshuai
Wang Xiaoshuai is a Chinese film director, screenwriter and occasional actor. He is commonly grouped under the loose association of filmmakers known as the Sixth Generation of the Cinema of China....
's 1993
Chinese films of the 1990s
This is a list of films produced in mainland China ordered by year of release in the 1990s. For an alphabetical listing of Chinese films see :Category:Chinese films- 1990 :- 1991 :- 1992 :- 1993 :- 1994 :- 1995 :- 1996 :- 1997 :...
directorial debut. Filmed entirely in black-and-white
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
, The Days follows the life of Dong (played by actor and artist Liu Xiaodong
Liu Xiaodong
-Education:Liu studied at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in oil painting in 1988. In 1995 he was awarded a Masters of Fine Art in oil painting at the same university. From 1998...
), and Chun (Yu Hong), married artists who have recently graduated from the Beijing Art Institute. Living meagerly in the hope of making enough money off their works, it soon becomes obvious to everyone but themselves that the marriage has begun to die.
Wang's first film on his own after graduating from the Beijing Film Academy
Beijing Film Academy
Beijing Film Academy is a coeducational state-run higher education institution in Beijing, China. The film school is the largest institution specialised in the tertiary education for film and television production in Asia...
in 1989, The Days was shot on a meager budget of less than $10,000 (U.S.), with filming on the weekends with Wang's friends playing the lead roles.
Made outside of the state film system, The Days was blacklisted upon its release by the Chinese Film Bureau. On the international front, however, the film was seen in a different light. Riding the high that Chinese cinema was enjoying abroad at the time (notably by older directors such as Zhang Yimou
Zhang Yimou
Zhang Yimou is a Chinese film director, producer, writer and actor, and former cinematographer. He is counted amongst the Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers, having made his directorial debut in 1987 with Red Sorghum....
and Chen Kaige
Chen Kaige
Chen Kaige is a Chinese film director and a leading figure of the fifth generation of Chinese cinema. His films are known for their visual flair and epic storytelling.-Early life:...
), Wang Xiaoshuai's small independent film was an early indication that a new movement was beginning to supplant the old one.
Inspiration
Wang has stated that inspiration for The Days came from a variety of sources. One of those was, of course, the harsh reality of his situation. Wang realized that a large-budget film would be impossible and therefore became interested in the small-scale, independent features. Beyond pragmatics, with The Days, Wang Xiaoshuai was consciously rebelling against the films of the period. In particular, the early 1990s was a high point for many "Fifth Generation" directors, whose lavish period films, like Zhang Yimou's Raise the Red LanternRaise the Red Lantern
Raise the Red Lantern is a 1991 film directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Gong Li. It is an adaption by Ni Zhen of the 1990 novel Wives and Concubines by Su Tong...
or Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine received critical accolades on the international circuit. Wang, however, found them "unnatural and pretentious." As such, he set out to create a film that spoke to the contemporary Chinese generation. As Wang himself has said, "there may not be an obvious story line in The Days, but at least it presents the truth about the lives of people from my generation in the wake of the Tiananmen Square tragedy."
Production
Upon graduation from the Beijing Film AcademyBeijing Film Academy
Beijing Film Academy is a coeducational state-run higher education institution in Beijing, China. The film school is the largest institution specialised in the tertiary education for film and television production in Asia...
in 1989, Wang was initially assigned to the state-run Fujian Film Studio. Rather than beginning his tenure there, Wang decided to stay in Beijing in an effort to create an independent film. This process lasted nearly a year and ultimately collapsed when Wang failed to obtain proper financing. As a result, he began working at Fujian, writing screenplays that would never be made. His tenure at the Fujian Film Studio would be equally brief, however, and by 1992, Wang had returned to Beijing determined to make it on his own.
In the beginning, Wang, along with actor Liu Xiaodong
Liu Xiaodong
-Education:Liu studied at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in oil painting in 1988. In 1995 he was awarded a Masters of Fine Art in oil painting at the same university. From 1998...
and classmate Zhang Yuan
Zhang Yuan
Zhang Yuan is a Chinese film director who has been described by film scholars as a pioneering member of China's Sixth Generation of filmmakers...
attempted an extremely small-scale production that would eventually collapse. The effort, though a failure, galvanized Wang to begin again with The Days. Due to an extremely low budget, the production would prove to be arduous. The actors and crew, mostly Wang's friends, donated both time and money to the film. Equipment was rented and usually obsolete. Even obtaining film was a trial, as Wang and cinemtographer Liu Jie were forced to travel to the manufacturer in Baoding
Baoding
-Administrative divisions:Baoding prefecture-level city consists of 3 municipal districts, 4 county-level cities, 18 counties:-Demographics:The Baoding urban area has a population of around 1,006,000 . The population of the Baoding administrative area is 10,890,000. The considerable majority are...
to personally request film stock.
Logistically, the film was also a difficult process as all the actors and crew had normal jobs. As a result, filming could only take place two days a week, on the weekends. Equipment would be rented on Friday and returned on Monday, the process repeating each week.
Cast
- Dong, a young artist played by actual artist Liu XiaodongLiu Xiaodong-Education:Liu studied at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in oil painting in 1988. In 1995 he was awarded a Masters of Fine Art in oil painting at the same university. From 1998...
. His name is the "Dong" in the Chinese title with a literal meaning of "WinterWinterWinter is the coldest season of the year in temperate climates, between autumn and spring. At the winter solstice, the days are shortest and the nights are longest, with days lengthening as the season progresses after the solstice.-Meteorology:...
." - Chun, Dong's young wife, played by artist Yu Hong. Her name means "SpringSpring (season)Spring is one of the four temperate seasons, the transition period between winter and summer. Spring and "springtime" refer to the season, and broadly to ideas of rebirth, renewal and regrowth. The specific definition of the exact timing of "spring" varies according to local climate, cultures and...
." Both Yu and Liu were personal friends of Wang Xiaoshuai.
Reception
The Days was screened at several film festivals notably RotterdamInternational Film Festival Rotterdam
The International Film Festival Rotterdam is an annual film festival held in various cinemas in Rotterdam, Netherlands held at the end of January. It is approximately comparable in size to other major European festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Locarno...
, and Berlin
Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978...
; it ultimately went on to win the Golden Alexander at the 1995 International Thessaloniki Film Festival and a Best Director award for Wang at the 1995 Taormina Film Festival. The Days was also selected as one of the best 100 films of all time by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
in 1995.
Despite its critical successes, The Days had only limited commercial releases, primarily in European markets. Most audiences were able to watch The Days not in theaters, but on television. Not only did the BBC broadcast the film, but many other European television stations as well. As Wang has noticed, most buyers of the film have not been film distributors
Film distribution
The distribution of a film is the process through which a movie is made available to watch for an audience by a film distributor...
at all, but television stations.
Like many underground features, however, The Days was never released in the People's Republic of China, either commercially or on television. Indeed, because the film had been screened at several international film festivals without permission, the Film Bureau initially blacklisted Wang from making any new films.
External links
- The Days at the Chinese Movie Database
- The Days at Fortissimo FilmsFortissimo FilmsFortissimo Films is a multi-national film production, sales and distribution company. The company has been behind such East Asian films as Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love, the Thai films Tears of the Black Tiger and Last Life in the Universe, as well as such independent films as Pleasure...