Sons (1996 film)

Infobox Chinese Film
name = Sons


image_size =
caption =
director = Zhang Yuan
producer = Wang Shize
Zhang Yuan
writer = Ning Dai
narrator =
starring = Fu Derong
Li Ji
Li Maojie
Li Wei
music =
cinematography = Sun Hongqing
Zhang Jian
editing = Fen Sihai
distributor =
released = 1996
runtime = 95 min.
language = Mandarin Chinese
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:135878
imdb_id = 0116223
jianti = 儿子
fanti = 兒子
pinyin = Érzǐ

"Sons" is a 1996 Chinese film directed by Zhang Yuan. Detailing the collapse of a family due to alcoholism, "Sons" straddles the line between fiction and documentary, as the film's "actors" all play themselves in reenactments of their own lives.

Zhang came upon the idea of making a film about a family's collapse into alcoholism after hearing about the story of his downstairs neighbors, former professional dancers, and their two grown sons.

The film was privately financed and was made outside of the traditional studio system. As a result, "Sons" was never screened in China.cite web|url= http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9504E7D81F31F93BA25751C0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print |author = Klawans, Stewart | title=Glimpses of China Never Seen in China | publisher = "The New York Times" |accessdate = 2008-05-18 |date =2001-02-18]

Cast

* Li Maojie, the father, a former professional dancer, he has long since succumbed to alcoholism and is eventually committed to a mental asylum by his family. The father, Li Maojie, was given special permission to leave the mental asylum he had been committed to in order to film his scenes.
* Fu Derong, the mother, also a former dancer.
* Li Ji & Li Wei, Li Maojie and Fu Derong's two sons who have also begun to drink heavily. Both sons also helped guide the writing of the script by Ning Dai to accurately reflect what really happened to their family.

Reception

Though never screened in its native China, "Sons" helped cement Zhang Yuan's reputation abroad as a major creative force in Chinese cinema. The film was therefore screened in several international cities and film festivals including New York in 2001.

The film was also one of the three Tiger Award winners at the 1996 International Film Festival Rotterdam, [cite web|url=http://professionals.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/eng/programme/awards/vpro_tiger_awards.aspx|title=VPRO Tiger Awards|publisher=International Film Festival Rotterdam|accessdate=2008-05-12] where it also managed to win the FIPRESCI prize. [cite web|url=http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/eng/programme/juries_and_awards/fipresci_award.aspx|title=FIPRESCI AWARD|publisher=FIPRESCI|accessdate=2008-05-17]

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0116223|title=Sons
*amg title|id=1:135878|title=Sons
* [http://www.dianying.com/en/title/ez-1996 "Sons"] at the Chinese Movie Database