''Weekend Lover'' () is the

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

directorial debut This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many film makers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early work ...

by Chinese director

Lou Ye Lou Ye (), born 1965, is a Chinese screenwriter-director who is commonly grouped with the " Sixth Generation" directors of Chinese cinema. Films Born in Shanghai, Lou was educated at the Beijing Film Academy. In 1993, he made his first film '' W ...

. The film stars actors

Jia Hongsheng Jia Hongsheng (; 19 March 1967 – 5 July 2010) was a Chinese actor who became known in the late 1980s and early 1990s for roles in movies like ''The Case of the Silver Snake'' (1988), ''Good Morning, Beijing'' (1991), ''A Woman from North Shaan ...

and Ma Xiaoqing. Fellow director

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 ...

also plays a minor role. The film follows a young man, A Xi, who is recently released from prison. Once released, he seeks out his old girlfriend Li Xin, who has since begun a relationship with La La, a young musician. As the two men vie for her attention, tension and violence escalate.

Cast

— A Xi, a young man recently released from prison where he had served a term for murder of a fellow teenager. * Ma Xiaoqing — Li Xin, A Xi's ex-girlfriend. *

Wang Zhiwen Wang Zhiwen (, born June 25, 1966) is a Chinese actor born in Shanghai, China. He was selected by for his acting abilities at an early age and began to pursue a career in acting that has flourished in recent years, culminating in his role in Che ...

— La La, Li Xin's new boyfriend. * Nai An — Chen Chen, the film's narrator. *

— Zhang Chi, a musician in La La's band.

Production

''Weekend Lover'' served as Lou Ye's first feature-film since graduating from the

Beijing Film Academy Beijing Film Academy (BFA; ) is a coeducational state-run higher education institution in Beijing, China. The film school is the largest institution specializing in the tertiary education for film and television production in Asia. The academy h ...

in 1989 and is notable for having the youngest production team in Chinese cinematic history upon its release. Shot and produced in 1993 and 1994, once complete, the film was banned for two years by the Chinese film censors; after the ban ended, ''Weekend Lover'' was released internationally at the tail end of 1995.

Reception

''Weekend Lovers noir-style and tales of violent disaffected youth led to its comparison with similar films of the period, notably Zhang Yuan's ''

Beijing Bastards ''Beijing Bastards'' () is a 1993 drama film by Sixth Generation director Zhang Yuan, and is one of the first independently produced Chinese films. Cast * Karzi "a rock promoter" - played by Li Wei 李委 * Cui Jian as himself * Wu Lala (武啦 ...

''. Like that film, ''Weekend Lover'' is also considered a defining film for the "Sixth Generation" of Chinese cinema, particularly in its tone and subject matter that focuses on modern urban life instead of traditional Chinese history. Less positive reviews often praised the film as technically assured, but convoluted in its plotting leading at least one reviewer to refer to it as a "minor festival curio."

Premieres and awards

The film managed to premiere at a handful of foreign

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upon ...

s, notably the Turin Young Cinema Festival in 1995. It eventually went on to win the Werner Fassbinder Award for Best Direction at the 1996

Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival The Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival (german: Internationales Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg), often referred to by the German-language initialism IFFMH, is an annual film festival established in 1952 hosted jointly by the citi ...

References

External links

* *
''Weekend Lover''
at the Chinese Movie Database {{Lou Ye 1995 films 1990s Mandarin-language films Films directed by Lou Ye 1995 drama films Chinese drama films 1995 directorial debut films