The Chinese Widow

　　烽火芳菲

　　Length: 97 minutes

　　Release time: November 10th, 2017

　　Type: War, love, feature film

　　Director: Bille August

　　Cast: Emile Hirsch, Liu Yifei

　　Story：After the attack on Pearl Harbor, in order to inspire the morale, the president of the U.S. ordered the execution concerning the bombardment of Tokyo. However, after the completion of the task, captain Jack Turner and his subordinates had to carry out the forced landing in Zhejiang province of China because of the fuel starvation. Eiko and her daughter found the comatose Jack and they made efforts to save this American despite great risk, and the emotion between them was established step by step.

　　Review: The film is adapted from the real historical events of World War II. In June 2017, the film entered the main competition of Golden Cup Prize on the 20th Shanghai International Film Festival as the opening film of this festival. What’s more, the soundtrack is created by Annette Focks, the Germany master musician, and the live performance is played by the German and Polish Symphony Orchestra. The staff try their best and the movie displays the sincerity and kindness of the human beings. The entire film is literary and the style is objective and calm.

　　The Seventy-Seven Days

　　七十七天

　　Length:110 minutes

　　Release time: November 3rd, 2017

　　Type: adventure, feature film

　　Director: Zhao Hantang

　　Cast: Zhao Hantang, Jiang Yiyan

　　Story：Yang got lost in life and decided to explore the snow-covered plateau after enough consideration, which hadn’t been completed by previous explorers. Before the journey, he met with Lan Tian, a brave girl who suffered the high paraplegia after the thoracic damage due to the star shooting but was still optimistic. He was encouraged by her attitude. And at last, they stubbornly walked out of the unmanned area.

　　Review: The film truly presents the various challenges across the Qiangtang, the challenges between men and men and also men and nature. You have to make choices in the face of comfort and challenges. As the first polar adventure film, the movie screen can be used as wallpaper, displaying the magnificent landscape of China.

　　Have A Nice Day

　　大世界

　　Length: 77 minutes

　　Release time: February 17th, 2017 (Berlin Film Festival)

　　Type: animation

　　Director: Liu Jian

　　Story: In a southern town, the site driver Xiao Zhang robbed the salary payments of the construction company in order to pay for his girlfriend’s facelift and save their love, thus triggering a chain reaction. At last, many people ushered the unexpected outcome.

　　Review: The film is directed by Liu Jian who spent three years on completing it. 80-minutes’ hand-painted two-dimensional animation and over 800 shots of the original painting are completed on his own. It has not only won the nominations of 54th Taiwan Golden Horse Award for the Best Animated Feature, the Best Original Screenplay, the Best Original Film Song, but also shortlisted for the 68th session of the Berlin Film Festival competition unit, thus breaking the zero-list record of Chinese animation on the three major international film festivals (Cannes, Berlin and Venice).

　　The Storm Looming

　　暴雪将至

　　Length: 118 minutes

　　Type: Crime, suspense and feature film

　　Release Time: November 17th, 2017

　　Director: Dong Yue

　　Cast: Duan Yihong, Jiang Yiyan

　　Story: In a small town in the southern China, the weather forecast says that a blizzard is coming here when the serial killings happens. Yu Guowei wants to use this opportunity to display his detective skills and becomes the police. However, he gets lost.

　　Review: It is a meaningful movie under the cloak of crime. The combination of cold suspense and spicy theme is so smooth. It describes the fate of small potatoes under the background of the great era, reflecting a series of social problems.

　　Youth

　　芳华

　　Length: 136 minutes

　　Release Time: December 15th, 2017

　　Type: war, feature film

　　Director: Feng Xiaogang

　　Cast: Huang Xuan, Miao Miao, Zhong Chuxi

　　Story: Adapted from the same name novel by Yan Geling, this film tells the story of a group of military art troupes with great passion and idealism from the 1970s to 1980s. These people at their beautiful youth go through their love and bumpy life. Under the background of the times, everyone’s life is quite different and their fate is unexpected.

　　Review: The war scenes in the movie are so magnificent and powerful. The bloody war directly exposes the hero’s fantasy and beautiful ideal and mission to the audience. It also demonstrates the most precious youth in the most purest, beautiful and cruel way.

　　Edited by Yu Qianqian

　　Produced by CUC & CCTSS

　　Please contact: Chinafilmdigest@126.com