Movie reel
In Birthday, Ni Dahong, one of China's best supporting actors, more than acquits himself in the lead role of an aging father who fakes his own death to remind his neglectful children that he is alive.
The veteran actor, who graduated from the Central Academy of Drama in 1986, previously impressed audiences as an imperial physician who poisoned the Empress in Zhang Yimou's Curse of the Golden Flower (2006).
Ni, also a voiceover specialist, now takes center stage as an old man aggrieved when his three children forget his 60th birthday. This prompts him to plot a fake funeral to prove a point and rekindle their affection for him.
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