Moderator: Zhang Xianmin

Guest: Liu Yonghong (director)

Tangle

2010 / China / Liu Yonghong / 77 min / In Mandarin with English subtitles

FIPRESCI Award at 34th Hong Kong International Film Festival

The 34th Hong Kong International Film Festival

The 4th Cinema Digital Seoul Film Festival Asian Competition

The 7th China Independent Film Festival

The 5th Beijing Independent l Film Festival

Beijing Indie Workshop has been devoted to promoting, collecting and popularizing Chinese independent films. Mr.Zhang Xianmin founded Indie Workshop in 2005.Indie Workshop has sound cooperation with many Chinese independent directors. It has successfully produced and distributed a number of independent films. Indie Workshop also has been organizing screening events or festivals. It has organized special events of Chinese independent films in other countries. Furthermore, Indie workshop also provides facilities and consulting to the curators, programmers and academics.

Du Jun, a small-town traffic cop in southern China, has a wife who’s about to give birth, a lover he can’t let go of, an unwed sister who’s pregnant, a mother he has no way of communicating with and a boss who, under pressure to meet targets set from above, encourages his subordinates to abuse police power. This film tells the story of the tangled web of connections in modern-day China through Du Jun, the four women in his life and the unexpected crisis they face when, one day, their lives are thrown into chaos.

Synopsis

In modern China, being a small town traffic cop, who wears a handsome uniform and who holds a definite amount of power, is a job which people envy.

However, imagine what would happen to your life if your father passed away and you need to take responsibility for your family, yet you have no way of communicating with your mother; your unwed teenage sister is pregnant to a secret lover; you have a lover you don't want to let go of; at the same time, your wife is about to give birth. What then would the future hold for yourself and your family?

Ye Lang is a story about the conflict between human nature and power, revealing the lies told by an ordinary Chinese family to hide their true feelings, the absurd reality of an individual's existence, and the social reality of the systematic abuse of power existing in China.

Director’s Bio

Liu Yonghong is an independent director and cinematographer, was born in the Chinese province of Henan. At 21 he went to study architecture at Yangzhou University. After working as an architect for six years he was awarded a place to study Cinematography at the Beijing Film Academy. He graduated in 2000 with a Masters degree in Cinematography and Film Theory. He attended the Central Academy of Drama and Television Arts from 2001 to 2004 and was awarded a Doctorate in Drama and Operatic Studies.

Director’s Statement

I intend to make a film that reflects the real emotion of the general public in contemporary era in China. In modern society of China, the policemen represent the state apparatus and are a symbol of power. They whose daily life, family, and emotion could be a mystery to the public appear to be lordly and straitlaced. Dujun, a local traffic policeman, shows his filial respect to his mother but feels difficult to express inner mind to her. Although he is concerned about his sister, yet in the name of father and elder brother, he forces her to have an abortion. He not only has to be responsible for his wife and family but also has a lover in secret. As the emotion of Dujun is complex and struggled in his heart, it is uneasy to define it according to the criteria of the good and evil, or the right and wrong. Most of the time, he is able to effectively deal with complicated relationships. Nonetheless, everything is out of control when misfortunes unexpectedly happen to him.

This movie is accomplished to display the awkward situation in a person’s life. Dujun has the power in the traffic police department. Although he is unwilling to be involved in the corruption of the department, yet in reality he is incapable of maintaining his own integrity. Taking advantage of his position and power, Dujun may settle down and get on with his pursuit, assist his sister out of the predicament, and help to bring his lover’s younger brother a bright future and his lover a new life. Nonetheless, such advantageous power could be a kind of poison, the cause of the misfortune, which leads to the corruption of his human nature as well as the break-up of his family harmony. With such power, he who has been struggling between the desire and the responsibility or between the good and the evil has eventually become a victim of the power game. Thus, I aim to present the real situations of the person living in modern society of China in terms of the decayed morals, the confused values, the lost belief, and the increasing spiritual crisis. All in all, to corrupt is the way of living, to struggle is the channel of redemption, and to die is the permanent home of relief.

The unusual metaphor adopted in this movie is relevant with “Yelang country” and “Yelang culture”. Used as the film location, Yuanling is not only a county located at the west of Hunan province in China but also one of the territories of the ancient Yelang country in Han dynasty in southwest of China. There are proverb and allusion about “the ludicrous conceit of the King of Yelang” and the related poem that “The distressed heart would accompany you to the Yelang west”. “Yelang” that is the country lost in the ancient China represents a cultural phenomenon with a long history, peculiarities, and mysteries.

According to a few of historians’ description, the earlier westerners called the ancient China, “Yelang”. Therefore, I name this movie by referring to the place name of a fiction’s locale, aiming to establish the link between the reality this film reflects and the history as well as culture this film location has. With the establishment of such link, it may present my memory and consideration on the lost ancient Yelang country.

This is not a realistic movie but the experimental works blending Gothic arts, record, and dramatic elements.

NOTE:

Box office will close 30 minutes after the film starts

Guest:

Liu Yonghong (director)

Partner:

Indie Workshop