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Chinese director says "Funeral" barrel of laughs
2002-03-15
HONG KONG - Chinese director Feng Xiaogang says filmgoers who catch his zany new comedy "Big Shot's Funeral" may laugh loud enough to wake the dead. The comedy, with a top West-East cast featuring Donald Sutherland and stunning Hong Kong actress Rosamund Kwan, has become China's highest-grossing Chinese-language movie ever and is set to go global. It had its international premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival last month and will soon screen in much of the rest of Asia and the United States. It is also likely to be shown in Australia and Europe. "The audience was delighted by it during the Berlin screening. It will appeal to international audiences," Feng told Reuters in an interview this week. "Now there are many good directors and films in China and some of them have screened overseas. But Chinese comedies have never been exported. I hope 'Big Shot's Funeral' will let foreigners know Chinese creativity in comedies," Feng said. The film follows a famous Hollywood director (Sutherland) as he shoots a lavish period production in the Forbidden City in the Chinese capital Beijing. He falls into a deep coma, and a Chinese friend prepares to give him a wacky wake to prepare him for a happy reincarnation in the next life. In a sarcastic shot at modern China's obsession with money, the film shows the cost of the increasingly elaborate funeral spiraling out of control. To pay for it, his friend decides to televise the big shot's funeral worldwide, and sell prime advertising space. The only problem is, he wakes up. Feng attributed the movie's success in China to a good script, his strong box office record and the international cast. Besides Sutherland, the Western part of the crew features acclaimed scriptwriter and director Paul Mazursky ("Bob&Carol&Ted&Alice," "An Unmarried "Woman"), who plays the director's studio boss and longtime friend. "Paul Marzursky is himself an experienced director. He gave some advice on the script," Feng said. "And Donald Sutherland has played his role very well at every stage." The Columbia Pictures production also stars top mainland actors Ge You, who won Best Actor at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival, and Ying Da, who appeared in international hit "Farewell to My Concubine." Feng, 43, won international acclaim with "Sigh," a portrait of marital infidelity which won best film, best actor and best actress awards at the 2000 Cairo International Film Festival. "Big Shot's Funeral" is his first cooperation with top international actors. "There will be more and more such exchanges," he said. Feng said he will make two more films for Columbia, which is owned by Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp. "One of them is being written. It's a drama/comedy about two thieves, in a contemporary setting in mainland China, from Xinjiang to Beijing. We hope to star Stephen Chiau." Chiau is often described as Hong Kong's equivalent of rubber-faced Hollywood star Jim Carrey. (Reuters)
'The Banquet' aims to please, says emerging Chinese filmmaker (2006-06-26)Taiwan gears up for Golden Horse film awards (2005-11-13)Chinese director says "Funeral" barrel of laughs (2002-03-15)Columbia Pictures Brings Out Chinese Filmmakers (2001-04-27)Chinese Filmmakers Seek Riches (2000-12-01)
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