Chinese film
The cinema of China is one of three distinct historical threads of Chinese-language cinema together with the cinema of Hong Kong and the cinema of Taiwan.
Cinema was introduced in China in 1896 and the first Chinese film, '' Dingjun Mountain'' ...
, and the second film by Sixth Generation writer-director Wang Chao. It is also known, less accurately, as ''Night and Day''. The film constitutes the second entry in Wang Chao's loose trilogy on modern China. It was preceded by Wang's 2001 debut, ''
The Orphan of Anyang
''The Orphan of Anyang'' is a 2001 Chinese film from Sixth Generation writer-director Wang Chao. It is Wang's first feature film as director (he had previously served as an assistant director to Chen Kaige), and is based on a novel written by th ...
'', and would be followed by '' Luxury Car'' in 2006. The film is a Chinese-French co-production between Fang Li's
Laurel Films
Laurel Films is an independent Beijing-based production company, operated by producer and screenwriter Fang Li. The company has produced several independent films from directors such Wang Chao, Li Yu and Lou Ye.
The company was founded in 2000 ...
''Day and Night'' tells the story of a miner, Li Guangsheng (Liu Lei), in a fictional northern Chinese city who carries on an illicit affair with the wife of his friend and father figure (played by ''Orphans Sun Guilin). When his friend is killed in a cave-in, the miner is wracked with guilt and takes it upon himself to end the affair, rebuild the mine, and help his friend's mentally disabled son find a wife.
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
, near the provincial capital of
Hohhot
Hohhot,; abbreviated zh, c=呼市, p=Hūshì, labels=no formerly known as Kweisui, is the capital of Inner Mongolia in the north of the People's Republic of China, serving as the region's administrative, economic and cultural center.''The Ne ...
.
Cast
*
Liu Lei
Liu Lei (; born February 1957) is a general of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA). He has been Political Commissar of the PLA Ground Force since December 2015, and formerly served as Political Commissar of the Lanzhou Military Region and ...
as Li Guangsheng, the main character, a miner in northern China.
* Sun Guilin as Zhongmin, Li Guangsheng's friend and father-figure.
*
Wang Lan Wang Lan (,1922–2003) was a Taiwanese writer, artist and a National Assembly of the Republic of China deputy. He is famous for the novel '' Blue and Black'', which is considered one of four major novels about anti-Japanese war.
See also
*Taiwane ...
''Day and Night'' premiered in several major international film festivals, notably the 2004 Adelaide Film Festival but also at
Pusan
Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...
and
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
. However, the film would ultimately fail to garner the same level of acclaim that Wang's ''The Orphan of Anyang'' was able to, though it was more technically polished than the decidedly low-budget ''Orphan''. Critics such as Derek Elley derided the film as a "curiously lifeless item that falls short of its seemingly mythic intent." As such, it is generally considered a less successful film than its predecessor.
The film did manage to garner one major award, however, with the Golden Montgolfiere at the
2004
2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO).
Events January
* January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...