We just wanted to give you all an early 'heads-up' on a short season of Chinese cinema coming to Film4 in October.
Following the broadcast on Monday 8th October of the documentary China's Stolen Children in Channel 4's Dispatches strand, Film4 presents a week of films from contemporary Chinese filmmakers.
The season begins on the 8th at 11.40pm with the schooldays drama LITTLE RED FLOWERS from acclaimed director Zhang Yuan. Zhang is further represented in the season by his notorious debut, a landmark of 'underground' Chinese cinema BEIJING *******S on Thursday 11th October at 1.20am.
Screening on Tuesday 9th October is THE WORLD (SHIJIE) by Jia Zhang-ke (the director of recent classics Platform and Unknown Pleasures). Since making The World, Jia has gone on to win the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival with his film STILL LIFE and he has a new work - USELESS - ready for this year's London Film Festival. The World is one of the great unreleased films of recent years and we're thrilled to be presenting the UK TV Premiere on Film4.
Also part of the series is the touching but penetrating family saga SUNFLOWER from Zhang Yang (best known here for his film Shower) on Wednesday 10th October at 1.20am, and the powerful war film DEVILS ON THE DOORSTEP - part of our Films To See Before You Die series on Friday 12th October at 12.30am. The latter film is particularly noteworthy, having been suppressed by Chinese authorities following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000 and since championed by such directors as Steven Soderbergh and Anthony Minghella. Fans of Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter, Platoon and other similarly vivid war films will discover a new favourite film in Devils on the Doorstep.
Film4's China Season runs from Monday 8th to Friday 12th October, with all films repeated the following week. Visit the website nearer the time and keep your eyes peeled for our on-air promotions for further details.
Just to update the details of the season, as one or two of the films have swapped around - it now runs as follows: Monday 8th October Little Red Flowers at 23.40 Tues 9th Oct Beijing *******s at 1.20am Wed 10th Oct Sunflower at 1.20am Thurs 11th Oct The World at 12.50am Fri 12th Oct Devils on the Doorstep at 12.30am
I've been trying to keep up with this Chinese season so far, either staying up (very!) late or setting the video....... But unfortunately (and I guess this may be a problem for each film which is shown last every night), neither on your own website, nor on a site like 'TVGuide' can I find what time each film finishes. The next 'show' after each film is the FilmFour preview slot at 4am, but the films clearly don't run till then.
