Shanghai:Movie reel

By Chen Nan (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-12 11:32

Dada's Dance

Dada's Dance marks the return of former enfant terrible Zhang Yuan, whose latest opus tells the story of a young woman's search to find her birth mother. The director, who seems most at home when dealing with sensitive social issues, does well to capture the tension Dada feels as a rebellious girl going through an emotional roller-coaster of love, depression and loathing. The movie caught the eye of the judges at this year's Sundance Film Festival and opened at cinemas across Shanghai yesterday.

Hailed as a pioneering sixth-generation Chinese filmmaker, Zhang has dallied with controversy throughout his 20-year career. His debut, Mama, a documentary feature film about a mother and her mentally handicapped son, is widely considered to be the first independent film in China post-1949.

After shooting the first music video for Cui Jian, the father of Chinese rock n' roll, Zhang made Beijing Bastards (1994). His next film, Son, continued to blur the line between fact and fiction, while East Palace, West Palace, his most controversial work to date, took on the theme of homosexuality.

Though he was banned from making movies on the mainland for many years, Zhang managed to return to the industry due to the success of his Seventeen Years (1999), which won international acclaim at that year's Venice Film Festival. However his controversial life story was far from finished as a drugs scandal early last year saw him recede from public view.

His filmography also includes I Love You, Green Tea,and Little Red Flowers.

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