Chollywood' goes arty,Yunnan Adventure Travel

Chollywood' goes arty

The re-emergence of Chinese films on festival circuits may point toparallel growth of art-house cinema along with the nation'sbooming film industry, writes Raymond Zhou.

The winning of the top prize at a prestigious international filmfestival by a Chinese submission may speak as much about thestate of Chinese cinema as the international perception of acertain body of Chinese work.

The surprise ending of Black Coal, Thin Ice, a yet-to-be releasedfilm by a little-known Chinese auteur, taking home the covetedGolden Bear at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival has filledthe home audience with more perplexity than euphoria. Of the threemovies selected for the main competition of the festival, No Man'sLand by Ning Hao has already become a critical and commercialdarling in its home market, and Blind Massage, though not yetreleased, is adapted from an award-winning best-seller. To mostChinese, Black Coal, Thin Ice had been an unknown quantityheavily discounted in crystal-ball gazing for award results.

Yet, it has now been revealed that this film, among all threeChinese contenders, was the first picked by the festival curators,and just to show the keenness of their foresight, was the favorite ofthe jury as soon as they watched it. It was the frontrunner all alongeven though it had eluded prognosticators who use namerecognition as a major yardstick.

Since deliberations by the jury were not available to the public, what follows is one man'seducated conjecture on what might have swayed the jurors.

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