Ba Wang bieji

Producer Hsu Feng made one of the most highly-praised productions from China (and Hong Kong) in recent years with this successful film by Chen Kaige (Golden Palm in Cannes). The film will be used as a case study this year during a conference organised by the Cinemart and Netpac (Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema) on the distribution and promotion of Asian films. is not just a remarkable production because of its scale, the epic story and the beauty of the costumes, but also because delicate material is tackled with intelligence and originality in the film. The story spans a period of fifty years and touches all sensitive episodes in the 20th-century history of Red China. is a courageous production in the Chinese context, not lastly because of the homo-erotic love interwoven into the plot.