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Format: DVD
 Jan 2002
 Not Rated
 Recording Mode: Stereo
 107 min.
 Color
 UPC: 738329023324 |
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* ML=ships from multiple locations, AE/AP/AA=ships from U.S. Military location.
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Movie Description Chen Kaige's LIFE ON A STRING, based on a story by Tiesheng Shi, tells the tale of an old blind musician who, when he was a young boy, was told that he would be cured of his affliction after he broke 1000 strings on his instrument. The old master (Liu Zhongyuan) has become a grizzled, saintly figure in pursuit of his goal of sight. His student, Shitou (Huang Lei)--also blind--wants a different sort of life from his ascetic master, desiring romance, and when he meets and falls in love with a young villager (Xu Qing), he goes against his master's wishes to be with her. As the elderly musician approaches the time when he will break the fateful string--as well as his own death--he is forced to question his faith and his many philosophical differences with his youthful apprentice. As in Kaige's earlier film YELLOW EARTH, LIFE ON A STRING is saturated with wondrous folk music from Chinese composer Xiao-Song Qu. Thoughtful and lyrical in its portrayal of inner vision and spiritual faith, Kaige's deceptively simple fable is a mysterious and beautifully shot meditation on the thin, fraying strings separating vision from blindness, music from silence, and life from whatever comes next.
Film Notes DVD Features:
Region 1 Keep Case Letterboxed - 1.85:1 Audio: Stereo - Mandarin Subtitles - English - Optional Interactive Features: Scene Access Interactive Menus
Shown in the New York Film Festival, and at the Cannes Film Festival in 1991.
Additional crew: Yang Kebing and Xu Xiaoqing were production managers; Zhang Jinzhan was the assistant director; and Hong Huang was an associate producer.
The title in Chinese literally means "Walking, Singing."
Shot on location in Inner Mongolia.
Copyright 1991 Serene Productions.
Industry Reviews "...Clearly the work of a visionary filmmaker..." Film Comment - Robert Horton (11/01/1991)
"...[The] highly stylized, awesomely beautiful LIFE ON A STRING casts its spell from the first frame and holds it to the fade-out..." Los Angeles Times - Kevin Thomas (06/12/1992)
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