Bliss

Fu sheng

China

2006

96 Min

Color

Mandarin

Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
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PROD Fruit Chan, Paul Cheng, Carl Chang

CAST He Xingquan, Guan Jiangge, Tao Xu, Liao Zhong, Wang Lan, He Qin

MUSIC Zhao Li

Toronto, Locarno (International Competition): Netpac Award, Ghent

Synopsis

This is a story about a family living beside a river. Like all the other families, every member of the family seems close to each other. But in fact they are miles apart, and everyone has a secret that they cannot share. The retried policeman Lao Li and his family members with is or her own character all want to have a special life for themselves. They get together in this family and create their own stories. Water in the river is flowing day and night, and life is just like a river. You can only move on without stopping. Never themes, it seems that people in the story are getting something in their hearts at a particular moment. Is that Joy? Or is that sorrow? —chinafilm.com

Director

Sheng Zhimin

Sheng Zhimin (born 1969) is a Chinese filmmaker from Beijing. Unlike other directors to emerge in recent years, Sheng has had no formal training. He instead began his career as a line producer, screenwriter, and assistant director for other filmmakers like Jia Zhangke, Fruit Chan and Zhang Yang. In these positions, Sheng worked on the films Spicy Love Soup, Durian Durian, Public Toilet, and Platform.

Bliss

Sheng’s first, and so far only directorial effort was 2006’s Bliss, a family drama set in the central Chinese city of Chongqing.

Bliss premiered at the 2006 Locarno International Film Festival where it won the NETPAC award, and had its North American premiere at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival.It also screened at the 2007 Shanghai International Film Festival, where it picked up a best picture prize for the New Talent side-competition.

Influences

Sheng lists Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull and Edward Yang’s Yi Yi as important influences… read more