ZHANG Lu’s Chongqing Released Nov. 6
Korean-Chinese director ZHANG Lu’s third feature Chongqing opens in Seoul, Thursday, through art house and independent distributor Sponge Pictures. The film screened earlier this year at the Cinema Digital Seoul film festival.
Originally intended as one half of a feature film about two places, Chongqing, China and Iri, South Korea, director ZHANG found enough material in each half to edit two separate films. Chongqing is about a young woman, Xuie, who barely gets by as a language teacher and lives were her restless and unemployed father. The city of the film’s title is China’s most populated, home to 40 million people. Images of shock, black humor, stark sexuality, and poetic contemplation make this film a memorable experience.
Its companion feature, Iri, is about a Korean man (who plays a minor role in Chongqing) living in his hometown of Iri, where a tragedy occurs which causes the town to change its name to Iksan. Iri will also be released by Sponge at a later date. Chongqing opens at Sponge House in the Joong-Ang cinema venue, central Seoul.
Nigel D’Sa (KOFIC)
