Letter from an Unknown Woman (2004 film)

Infobox Chinese Film
name = Letter from an Unknown Woman


image_size =
caption =
director = Xu Jinglei
producer = Dong Ping
Xu Jinglei
Zhao Yijun
Ma Paobing
writer = Xu Jinglei
Stefan Zweig (novella)
starring = Xu Jinglei
Jiang Wen
Lin Yuan
Sun Feihu
Su Xiaoming
music = Osamu Kubota
Lin Hai
cinematography = Pin Bing Lee
editing = Zhang Yifan
distributor = Asian Union Film & Media
released = San Sebastián:
September 20, 2004
China:
March 4, 2005
runtime = 90 min.
language = Mandarin
budget =
amg_id = 1:316769
imdb_id = 0424234
jianti = 一个陌生女人的来信
fanti = 一個陌生女人的來信
pinyin = yī gè mò shēng nǚ rén de lái xìn

"Letter from an Unknown Woman" is a 2004 Chinese film written and directed by Xu Jinglei and is her second feature film as director after 2002's "My Father and I". The film is an adaptation of Stefan Zweig's 1922 novella of the same name which was also adapted in 1948 by screenwriter Howard Koch. The film stars Xu and Jiang Wen as lovers during the 1930s and 1940s in Beijing. The film was produced by Asian Union Film & Media. [cite web|url=http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117925166.html|title =Letter from an Unknown Woman Review|author=Young, Deborah|publisher = "Variety" |date=2004-10-07|accessdate=2008-08-31]

Xu Jinglei won the Best Director award for the film at the 2004 San Sebastián International Film Festival. [cite web|url=http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-09/27/content_378100.htm|title=Xu Jinglei claimed Best Director Title at Spain|publisher="China Daily" |date=2004-09-27 |accessdate=2008-08-31]

Script

Originally the film's story was to have taken place in modern times, spanning the 1970s through the 1990s.cite web|url=http://www.kinema.uwaterloo.ca/jingl061.htm|title=Interview with Xu Jinglei|author= Ng, Yvonne & Uhde, Jan | publisher="Kinema"| date=2006-09-12| accessdate=2008-08-31] Eventually Xu moved the film's setting several decades back in time, to avoid dealing with social issues such as unmarried mothers and prostitution during the Cultural Revolution and beyond that would have aroused the suspicions of Chinese censors. Xu also decided to use Beijing as the primary setting over cities like Shanghai (which she felt was overly colonial), Chongqing, and Nanjing (both of which were too turbulent during the war to adequately serve as the setting for a love story). Additionally, Xu felt that Beijing would offer a distinct visual perspective that would have been absent in other Chinese cities.

Cast

* Xu Jinglei as Miss Jiang. The director and successful actress took on the role of the title character who, as a young girl, becomes infatuated with the writer played by Jiang Wen. Her character then engages in a short but torrid love affair with the writer in the midst of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
* Jiang Wen as the writer. A wealthy and successful writer who captures of the imagination of Miss Jiang as a girl and later becomes her lover. Jiang, a successful actor and director himself, and also starred in Xu Jinglei's debut film, "My Father and I".
* Lin Yuan as Miss Jiang as a young girl.
* Sun Feihu as the writer's house steward. Years later, only the steward recognizes Miss Jiang in her new role as a high-society courtesan.
* Su Xiaoming as Miss Jiang's mother.
* Huang Jue as an army officer and Miss Jiang's new companion when she returns to Beijing after the war.

References

External links

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* [http://www.dianying.com/en/title/ygm2004 "Letter from an Unknown Woman"] at the Chinese Movie Database