October 29, 2009
Today’s Hefei Evening News features an image of the glittering high-rises that will go up in place of a declining commercial district.
The urban renewal project will displace 2,500 households, but they’ll be able to move back eventually: “National Day two years from now will be the day for displaced households to move back home,” said Hu Mingwen, vice-secretary of Yaohai District.
The paper also offers a bit more information about Zhang Yimou’s new film, Three Shots (三枪), his first in three years, set to premiere on December 11:
Zhang Yimou’s Three Shots is adapted from the Coen brothers’ Blood Simple, with the setting changed to ancient China. However, a source in the audience for the “rough cut” screening yesterday said that Three Shots was basically a combination of “northeastern errenzhuan” and My Own Swordsman, “with Xiao Shenyang speaking instead of singing.” The first fifth of the film is a comedy, and then it turns into a thriller. Three Shots continues the Zhang Yimou cinematographic style, with colors so rich and vibrant that outside scenes resemble paintings. Interiors feature actors in lush, eye-catching costumes.
Three Shots calls itself a comic thriller, but the comedy section only makes up one-fifth of the film and it remains to be seen how its laughs will test out with audiences. One member of yesterday’s audience told this reporter that the first fifth of the film did have lots of laughs, the best of which came during a cameo by Zhao Benshan. A group of men and women suspected of improper activities were hauled out of an inn and forced to squat at the base of a wall. Then Uncle Benshan, decked out in period costume, walked casually over and said in all seriousness, “Our chief task now is to gain a grip on behavior problems.” At this, all of the cinema heads in the audience erupted in laughter.
The film stars Xiao Shenyang a student of Zhao Benshan’s who found national popularity for his performance in a skit during the previous Spring Festival Gala. According to the paper, producer Zhang Weiping said the actor was chosen “because he came cheap.”
- Hefei Evening News (Chinese): Zhang Yimou nervous over rough cut of Three Shots, Hefei’s former “vegetable basket” to be transformed