Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – Autumn 2019: Director Li Yu – Fish and Elephant (2001), Dam Street (2005) and Lost in Beijing (2007) [TIFF Cinematheque: “Seeing the Unseen: Re-encountering Chinese Cinema”]

Nov 15, 2019

We look at the first three films of Li Yu, FISH AND ELEPHANT (2001), DAM STREET (2005), and LOST IN BEIJING (2007), the latter seen by us at the TIFF Cinematheque retrospective Seeing the Unseen: Re-Encountering Chinese Cinema, which focused on films by Sixth Generation directors that had trouble with government censorship in China. It's not difficult to see how the Verhoeven-meets-Renoir-esque LOST IN BEIJING got into this category. Trigger warnings for extensive discussion of violence against women and fish. We also touch on some of our other favourites from the retrospective, such as Jia Zhangke's A TOUCH OF SIN and Joan Chen's XIU XIU: THE SENT-DOWN GIRL.

 

Time Codes:

0h 01m 00s:          Brief overview of the retrospective – Seeing the Unseen: Re-                                           Encountering Chinese Cinema (October 2019)

0h 29m 58s:          Fish and Elephant

0h 45m 06s:          Dam Street

1h 04m 49s:          Lost in Beijing

1h 28m 01s:          Scorsese v. Marvel

1h 41m 22s:          Fall Cinemagoing Update – Chantal Akerman continues

                               

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Theme Music:

“What’s Yr Take on Cassavetes?” – Le Tigre