''The House'' is a

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

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'' ...

directed by

Wang Xiaoshuai Wang Xiaoshuai (; born May 22, 1966) is a Chinese film director, screenwriter and occasional actor. He is commonly grouped under the loose association of filmmakers known as the "Sixth Generation" of the Cinema of China. Like others in this gener ...

. It is rarely, if ever, screened abroad, and remains one of Wang Xiaoshuai's least well-known works outside of China. It is alternatively referred to as ''Suburban Dreams'', ''Fantasy Garden'' or ''Dream House''. The film was produced by the

Beijing Film Studio } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

and the

China Film Group China Film Group Corporation (CFGC), is the largest, most influential film enterprise in the People's Republic of China, owned by the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party. According to ''Forbes'', it is a state monopoly that al ...

. Wang Xiaoshuai himself considers it one of his most inconsequential efforts to date, to the extent that it has "sunk into oblivion."

Plot

In contrast to Wang's previous films, ''The House'' is a family-

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

that follows a young urban married couple as well as their friends, ex-girlfriends, and family. A young couple has recently purchased their dream house and are expecting a baby. One day, while his wife is out of the home, an ex-girlfriend arrives at the door drenched from rain. She had heard of his wife's pregnancy and had come only to sell the couple insurance. The husband, feeling sympathetic allows her to take a shower in his home. Suddenly, his in-laws arrive at the home unexpectedly. The husband now has to find a way to get his ex-girlfriend out of the home without his in-laws noticing, and all before his wife returns home.

Production

''The House'' was, in essence, Wang Xiaoshuai's apology to the

. After financing his previous film, '' So Close to Paradise'', the studio was forced to wait for censors to approve the film for nearly four years, whereupon it was not even given a commercial release. Embarrassed that his friends at the studio had supported him for naught, Wang offered to direct a light comedy for the studio in an effort to recoup losses from the previous film.Berry, p. 178. Despite the film's low-budget and simple story, shooting ''The House'' proved to be unusually difficult. For one thing, the film was plagued with equipment failure. None of the

film camera A movie camera (also known as a film camera and cine-camera) is a type of photographic camera that rapidly takes a sequence of photographs, either on an image sensor or onto film stock, in order to produce a moving image to project onto a movie s ...

s' lenses had been modulated correctly, resulting in the cameras being unable to focus through windows for external shots. As a result of these problems, the shoot lasted twenty days, longer than had been anticipated. More significantly, the shooting schedule fell on the hottest part of the year in Beijing. With temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius outside, and 45 degrees indoors, the shoot took a toll on both cast and crew.

Release

Because of the film's non-controversial story, ''The House'' was easily approved by Chinese censors, in sharp contrast to Wang's earlier films from 1993's '' The Days'' to 1997's '' Frozen'', to 1998's ''So Close to Paradise''. Nevertheless, ''The House'' received only a limited screening with no promotion, for one week in Beijing. Wang claimed that this was due to problems with other films, which affected a slew of Beijing Film Studio productions, including ''The House''.Berry, pp. 178-79.

Cast

* Fu Lili — Mrs. Lin * Tao Zi — Xiao Xia *

You Yong You Yong (born 13 December 1963) is a Chinese actor. He enrolled in the Xi'an Drama School (西安话剧院) in 1979 and joined the Shanghai Theatre Academy Shanghai Theatre Academy () is a public university in Shanghai, People's Republic of ...

— Wen Gang *

Faye Yu Yu Feihong (born 1971), also known as Faye Yu, is a Chinese actress and an occasional film director and producer, best known in the west for Wayne Wang's award-winning American films ''A Thousand Years of Good Prayers'' (2007) and '' The Joy Luck ...

— Lei An-an * Zhao Tieren

References

External links

*
''The House''
at the Chinese Movie Database {{DEFAULTSORT:House, The 1999 films Chinese comedy-drama films 1990s Mandarin-language films Films directed by Wang Xiaoshuai Beijing Film Studio films