LIGHTING UP THE STARS

“You see that chimney? That’s your grandmother roasting,turning to smoke.Floating up to heaven,no more,vanished,”barks a grown man at an 8-yearold girl,who understandably bursts into tears.“You won’t see her ever again,do you understand?”Lighting Up the Starsis the strange and heart-wrenching story of an undertaker recently released from prison,Mo Sanmei (Zhu Yilong),whose heart is slowly softened when he adopts spirited orphan Wu Xiaowen(Yang Enyou),who is grieving the death of her grandmother.This flick promises superb acting from Beijing Film Academy graduate Zhu and child star Yang.

HARD LOVE

Many in China now choose to delay marriage until the storms of competition for jobs and housing have subsided.But finding a happy family life can be another battle all of its own.In the documentaryHard Love,up-and-coming young director Dong Xueying explores the love lives of five young women living in Beijing in very different circumstances,all of whom are still single past the traditional marrying age.Dong filmed her subjects from 2018 to 2019,filtering 300 hours of footage down to one-and-a-half.

THE CHANTING WILLOWS

On the surface,this film by Dai Wei is a tortuous love triangle,following two female opera singers whose friendship is rent asunder when they compete for the same man.But it comes with cultural pedigree,adapted from a story by Mao Dun Literature Award-winner Wang Xufeng.The Chanting Willowsis bedecked with all the beauty of Hangzhou’s famed West Lake and Yue opera.Indeed,this local form of opera is the fourth star of the show:The film takes care to immerse the viewer in the Yue opera world and features over 20 minutes of singing.

SNIPERS

China’s latest patriotic offering is directed by Zhang Yimou,and follows the brave actions of five Chinese snipers during the Korean War,as well as their bullets—the camera tracking crack shots all the way to the foreheads of their American targets.The film has been praised in Douban reviews for its heightened realism by using unknown actors.Other comments compare the bombastic caper to major patriotic blockbusters likeOperation Red Sea.