The Girl from Dabancheng
Set in China, the story is about a middle aged mother of one, Su Chunnuan, who intends on traveling to Xinjiang with her daughter. The movie begins with Su Chunnuan at the clinic where the doctor informs her about menopause and advises her to take up dance classes to alleviate the anxiety. She enrolls herself at the University of Senior Citizens. At the dance class, Su Chunnuan finds a friend in a retired soldier who has dinner with her after the dance class. At dinner, the soldier shares his experiences of living and working in Xinjiang. He entertains her by singing a folk song from Xinjiang called ‘The Girl from Dabancheng’. She is on a high after making this new friend but soon her joy turns to misery when she finds out that he has a wife. She visits her daughter and expresses her desire to travel to Xinjiang but the daughter brushes her off and at the end of the film, Su Chunnuan finds herself companionless and decides to go to Xinjiang on her own.
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Liu ZheDirector
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Liu ZheWriter
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Liu ZheProducer
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Zhang YuexiProducer
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Shi JieqiangKey Cast
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Han ChunyuKey Cast
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Project Title (Original Language):春暖花开
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Project Type:Short, Student
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Genres:Drama, Family, Comedy
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Runtime:15 minutes
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Completion Date:August 1, 2014
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Production Budget:17,752 USD
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Country of Origin:China
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Country of Filming:China
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Language:Chinese
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Shooting Format:RED
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Aspect Ratio:16:9
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:Yes
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NYU Post Production Award
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KODAK Student Scholarship Program 2015 Nomination
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GUAM International Film Festival 2015Guam
September 27, 2015 -
China Women's film festivalBeijing
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Silk Road Film Festival 2016Dublin, Ireland
Liu Zhe is the Writer, Director and producer of The Girl From Dabancheng. When she was 18, she left home (Jinan, China) and went to study abroad in Singapore. With full scholarship, she studied Information Engineering at Nanyang Technological University. She started to write films reviews, which were published on newspapers and worked as a volunteer for Singapore
Film Society and Asia Film Archive in the college. She is now in her third year of MFA of New York University Tisch School of Arts Asia after. During the two years at school, she wrote and directed three short films, one documentary and worked on more than 10 productions across Asia, including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Nepal.
The original concept for the film was to make a movie about a strong independent woman. Back then, I was going through my post break up phase and I was of the opinion that love and relationships are not trustworthy. I felt the need to be independent and pursue happiness on my own. And thus came about the idea of a character that realizes she cannot depend on anyone and has to find satisfaction and happiness on her own. With this, I elaborated by adding characters with which the protagonist could possibly relate to, obviously the antagonists of the film.