No.7 Cherry Lane
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Theatrical Screenings
Kinoteka 1
Kinoteka 1
Film description
In 1967, Hong Kong is shaken by a wave of anti-British protests. Ziming, a literature student fascinated by Proust, is dating the elegant Mrs Yu, a runaway Taiwanese dissident and, at the same time, with her beautiful daughter Meiling. He takes them both to see films with Simone Signoret…
This forbidden love triangle, drawn with the intense colors of this hypnotic, technically pioneering animation, is a story about passion, but also a unique portrait of a city at a hectic time of political and social changes.
The dominant emotion of this intimidating masterpiece is bittersweet nostalgia, the longing for the times that are long gone, and a place that is no more. But the ambition of Yonfan in his animated debut goes beyond recreating the world of his youth. "No.7 Cherry Lane" bustles with elegance and kitsch and wanders into the realm of naughty fantasies, leading towards personal liberation.
In the course of his incredibly rich career, Yonfan worked with most of the Hong Kong stars, and this time is no different. Ms Yu speaks in the voice of Sylvia Chang, her daughter with the voice of Zhao Wei. In cameos, we hear artists well-known to Five Flavours audiences – Ann Hui plays the pickpocket, and Fruit Chan plays the cat!
text:
Marcin Krasnowolski
Yonfan
Director, photographer and writer. He was born in 1947 in Wuhan, but spent most of his life in Hong Kong. His second film "Lost Romance" with Maggie Cheung (in her first romantic role!) and Chow Yun-Fat became a smashing hit, but in the subsequent decade the director backed away from the mainstream market. The breakthrough came with "Bishonen," a rare example of a Hong Kong film about the homosexual community. In 2019, after 10 years of silence, he came to the festival in Venice with "No. 7 Cherry Lane" – his first animation in which he developed his unique visual style even further.
1984 Shao nu ri ji / A Certain Romance
1987 Yi luan qing mi / Double Fixation
1990 Zhu fu / Promising Miss Bowie
1994 San tung gui see doi / In Between
1995 Yao Jie Huang Hou / Bugis Street
1998 Mei Siu Nin Ji Luen / Bishonen
2001 Youyuan jingmeng / Peony Pavilion
2009 Książę łez / Lei Wang Zi / Prince of Tears
2019 Ulica Wiśniowa nr 7 / Ji Yuan Tai Qi Hao / No.7 Cherry Lane