About this event
FilmA New Old Play
椒麻堂会
QIU Jiongjiong
179 min
2021
Fiction
Sichuanese Dialect
English and Chinese Subtitles
Content Advisory: This film contains scenes of disturbing content
The 74th Locarno Film Festival—Special Jury Prize
The 46th Hong Kong International Film Festival—Firebird Award, FIPRESCI Prize
One evening in the 1980s, Qiu Fu, a leading clown-role actor in 20th-century Sichuan opera, departs this world and must reluctantly set off for the Ghost City under the escort of two underworld officials. Along the way, he meets old friends. As they recall the past, earthly scenes creep into the mists of the Netherworld.
Qiu Fu’s life in opera unfolds against the backdrop of a secular upheaval. The “New-New” Troupe in which he grows up and learns his trade is affiliated with the military. As power shifts, the troupe is cast loose to wander rootlessly through a broken world. Despite this unsettled destiny, shaped by war, famine and political turmoil, Qiu Fu becomes one of the finest clown-role performers in Sichuan opera. And yet, one day he finds himself clapped in a pigsty as a political revolution rages outside.