China Onscreen Biennial
“[The Wan brothers’] masterpieces brought major recognition for China in the field of animation.” —Marie-Claire Quiquemelle, Centre Georges Pompidou
Jack H. Skirball Series
Co-presented with the UCLA Confucius Institute
The inaugural edition of the three-week bicoastal showcase of Chinese cinema brings two evenings of eye-opening animated and live-action film, respectively, to REDCAT.
On October 23, Zhang Yuan, the best- known exponent of the post 1990s “Urban Generation” of Chinese filmmakers, presents Beijing Flickers (2012), an incisive yet lyrical exploration of the lives of young people “trying to make it” in the melting pot of social contradictions and hybrid cultural values that Beijing has become.
CLIFF RETALLICK WILL BE PLAYING LIVE, ORIGINAL MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT FOR:
The Mouse and the Frog 1934
鼠与蛙
Producer: Wan Brothers
HDCAM, b&w, silent with English subtitles, 15 min.
China’s earliest extant animation opens with a live-action prologue set in a classroom of cheeky kids (this prologue is currently unrestored). The animated rest of the film, illustrating an Aesop’s fable, is all Wan Brothers gleeful zaniness, its anthropomorphic surreality and fluid lines recalling early Disney and Fleischer.