非诚勿扰 | If You Are the One

China director Feng Xiaogang returns to the small story for his latest film, the romantic comedy If You Are The One starring top actress Shu Qi and popular Mainland actor and Feng Xiaogang regular Ge You. Feng’s once-a-year Lunar New Year offerings are box-office guarantees in China, and If You Are The One has been no exception, turning into one of the China’s highest-grossing films of all time. After Banquet and Assembly, Feng goes back to the smartly scripted comedies he’s best known for to tell the humorous, yet heartbreaking tale of a wealthy middle-aged man’s long-winded journey to find his other half. Keeping some of Feng’s recent penchant for grandeur, If You Are the One features sweeping photography and beautiful location shoots in China and Japan, not to mention a star-studded supporting cast that includes Taiwan beauty Vivian Hsu Hong Kong actor Alex Fong Chung Sun, and Mainland stars Fan Wei and Hu Ke Nouveau riche entrepreneur Qin Fen turned into an overnight millionaire after selling off an unlikely invention. Now all he needs is someone to share the wealth with. With his below-average looks and above-average wallet, Qin Fen sets out to find a wife through online personal ads, and ends up meeting a long lineup of strange candidates. But he holds a torch for only one: Smiley, a gorgeous flight attendant with a married lover and tons of emotional baggage.

Directed by Xiaogang Feng | Starring : You Ge, Qi Shu, Wei Fan, Alex Fong, Vivian Hsu | Presented at Leeds Film Festival

美丽上海 | Shanghai Story

The Kang family was once well-off, owning a garden house in Shanghai, until catastrophe befell them in the late 1960s. The four adult children of the family are now scattered and residing in three places: Shanghai, Inner Mongolia and San Francisco. When the mother is suddenly hospitalized, the children return to see her. The family reunion, however, is anything but a happy event: the four siblings are unable to even have one peaceful dinner together, and the mother herself has serious matters to settle with all of them.

Directed by Xiaolian Peng | Starring : Joey Wang, Zhenyao Zheng, Youliang Zhao, Josephine Koo, Yuanzheng Feng | Presented at Shanghai Film Festival

紫蝴蝶 | Purple Butterfly

1928. Manchuria. Itami, a young Japanese man, falls deeply in love with Cynthia, a beautiful Chinese girl. Their brief happiness ends when he is called home for his military service and they are forced to part. Returning sorrowfully from the train station where she has bid her lover farewell, Cynthia witnesses her brother’s bloody murder at the hands of Japanese right-wing extremists. Three years later, Shanghai has been unofficially occupied by Japan. The city is tense, rife with violence and barely contained anarchy. Cynthia – now known as Ding Hui – is working for Purple Butterfly, a resistance group planning to assassinate Yamamoto, head of the Japanese secret service. Itami is also in Shanghai, operating as a secret agent and reporting directly to Yamamoto. Arriving at Shanghai station to meet his fiancée, Szeto, a young Chinese man, is mistaken by the assembled resistance fighters for the assassin they have engaged to eliminate Yamamoto. Violence erupts and Szeto’s fiancée is shot dead in the crossfire. Szeto escapes with the Purple Butterfly members, all of whom believe him to be the hired killer. Only Ding Hui realises the truth… Thus three destinies are linked by chance, and three fates set in tragic motion.

Directed by Ye Lou | Starring : Ziyi Zhang, Ye Liu, Yuanzheng Feng, Tôru Nakamura, Bingbing Li | Presented at Cannes Film Festival, Munich Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival

邮差 | Postman

One of the most critically acclaimed films to have emerged from the “Sixth Generation,” Beijing-based He Jianjun’s Postman is a fascinating study of an introverted mailman who cannot resist the urge to open and read the letters he is entrusted to deliver. Emotionally detached from his coworkers and family members, Xiaodou becomes entangled in the lives of the people whose mail he opens in private. Initially inconsequential, these interventions become more critical when he discovers a secret affair between two gay junkies.

Directed by Jianjun He | Starring : Yuanzheng Feng, Danni Liang, Cunxin Pu, Tianwei Zheng, Xin Huang | Presented at Rotterdam Film Festival, Singapore Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, Chicago Film Festival, Thessaloniki Film Festival