Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Conversely, those at the
art-house
end of the scale have found themselves making low-
budget, introspective fare, developed almost exclusively for international consumption and
the global film festival circuit.
The mainstream fare is by no means all bad. By way of example, local spaghetti western
(does that make it a spaghetti eastern, or a noodle western?)
Let the Bullets Fly
(2010) broke
local box-office records, yet also went on to scoop a few international awards. However, the
most telling films are those coming from new directors such as
YingLiang
, whose
The Other
Half
(2006) won awards for its depiction of gambling and dysfunctional families in a pol-
luted industrial town, and
LiuJiayin
, whose
Oxhide
(2004) showed Beijing family life from
a documentary-style perspective.
Documentaries
Beijing does, indeed, have a promising
documentarymovement
of its own, one which often
skirts, then goes beyond, the line of what's acceptable to the state. Some pertinent (and im-
portant) tales of the city have been told in works such as
Out of Phoenix Bridge
and
Bum-
ming
(1990), which consists of a series of interviews with disaffected local artists.
Beijing
Taxi
(2011), which takes a trip around the city with local cabbies, doesn't perhaps drip with
so much meaning, but is illuminating in its own way - expats tend to deplore Beijing's taxi
drivers, but here they're painted in a more sympathetic light.
New Socialist Climax
is another
good example.
