they made a movie of Could Be Beautiful?

[Outofin]

I didn't know someones were making it but now it seems well done. Has anyone seen it? I definitely loved the novel. But it's hard to make a movie out of it.

[laolee]

It's scheduled to compete at Cannes, so it probably hasn't been released yet, has it?

Here's a related article about the director, Zhang Yuan:

http://www.asia-inc.com/March05/Hchina_ZhangYuan_mar.htm

Last year, Zhang released Green Tea, starring Jiang Wen and Vicky Zhao, and again found the middle ground between art film and pure commercial release. I Love You was an adaptation of a well-known short story by Beijing bad-boy writer Wang Shuo, and on the success of that adaptation, Zhang is now trying his hand at another Wang novel, It Looks Beautiful.

[gato]

Wang Xiaoshuai, director of "Beijing Bicycle" (Chinese title: "17-year Old Bicycle"), is presenting a film at this year's Cannes Festival, too. It's called "Shanghai Dreams by Wang Xiaoshuai, supposedly about 1970 in China, set in Shanghai, I would think. I wonder it'll be in Shanghainese.

[Outofin]

According to the website I visited, Could Be Beautiful didn't not even get pre-selected by Cannes. So, I guess I'll lower my expectation a little bit.

3 out of 6 movies are selected, which are The Best of Our Times, Qing Hong and Election. I didn't see the name of Shanghai Dreams gato metioned. Maybe it's just another name of Qing Hong?

MonkeyPeaches

The website is quite informative. But I feel it's focus on the big budget movies too much.

[gato]

Yes, Wang XiaoShuai's "Shanghai Dreams" is "Qing Hong" (《青红》Green Red).

His "Beijing Bicycle" was pretty good -- it was banned in China for some reason I can't quite understand -- so I'm looking for this. That movie had a little bit of cliched social criticism, but was overall well executed.

The story in "Shanghai Dreams / Qing Hong" centers around a family that moved from Shanghai to the interior province of Guizhou in the 1960s following a government directive to assist the more impoverished areas of the country. In the 1980s the parents want to return to Shanghai, but their 19-year old daughter, who grew up in Guizhou, fell in love with a local boy and wants to stay. What to do? What to do?

The actor who played the struggling schoolboy in "Beijing Bicycle" plays the lovestruck local boy here.

http://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/f/qinghong/index.html

资料：影片《青红》剧情介绍

　　这是一个发生在上个世纪八十年代初期的故事，十九岁的女孩青红开始了她的第一次感情历程。青红的家庭是一个典型的移民家庭，在六十年代中期，随内迁的工厂，由沿海繁华的大都市上海迁移到了内地边远的贵州，当时这被叫做支援三线建设。将近二十年过去了，无数个如青红家一样的家庭就像无数浮萍一样被扔在这块远离故土的地方。而当初因具有战略意义而迁移的工厂也在新的改革浪潮中，逐渐失去了往日的荣光。本以为将终老此地，人们开始惶惶不安，随着中国的改革开放，许多家庭都开始在想办法能够回到上海老家，那里 有他们熟悉向往的生活环境，是他们的根，也能够给下一代更好的前途。这些家庭正面临着生活中最重要的一次选择，青红的父亲就是其中之一。

　　然而青红并不理解父母的愿望。她和她的伙伴生于斯、长于斯，这里就是她人生中记忆的一切。在青红心中，这里才是她的家园，有童年的乐趣，有真诚的友谊，还有在青春萌动的心中难以割舍的初恋--小根，一个来自当地农民家庭，刚刚进工厂做临时工的小伙子。

[gato]

Yes, Wang XiaoShuai's "Shanghai Dreams" is "Qing Hong" (《青红》Green Red).

http://nytimes.com/2005/05/22/international/europe/22cannes.html

The Jury Prize, a kind of honorable mention [the third highest prize at Cannes], was given to "Shanghai Dreams," Wang Xiaoshuai's tale of proletarian unhappiness in provincial China in the early 1980's.

[BeijingSlacker]

Somehow I really like the poster. Maybe its coler?

[skylee]

The film (called "Little Red Flowers") will be shown in the HK Film Festival -> http://www.hkiff.org.hk/chi/prog/show_detail.php?fi_id=257&se_id=16

I will see it on 8 April.