alr

For Fun
(Zhao le)

Screening on Film
Directed by Ning Ying.
With Huang Wenjie, Huang Zongluo.
China, 1993, 35mm, color, 97 min.
Mandarin with English subtitles.

This beautifully observed comedy opens with a tracking shot through the streets of Beijing, set to the strains of a Kurt Weill song in the background—a delightful signal of Ning Ying’s unique, boundary-crossing perspective on the new China. An old man, forced to retire from his life-long job as manager of the local opera house, meets up with a cantankerous group of elderly amateur singers in the park and organizes the men into a troupe of their own. In her simple, realist style, Ning Ying delineates her characters with precise, economical, and loving detail.
 

Part of film series

Read more

From China with Love:
The Films of Ning Ying

Current and upcoming film series

Read more

Harvard Undergraduate Cinematheque

Read more

Museum Hours: Mati Diop’s Dahomey

Read more

Albert Serra, or Cinematic Time Regained

Read more

Wang Bing’s Youth Trilogy

Read more

The Shochiku Centennial Collection

Read more

Planet at 50

Read more

The Yugoslav Junction Continues!

Read more

Theo Anthony, Subject to Review

Read more

The Ideal Cinematheque of the Outskirts of the World