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Each week, The Hollywood Reporter will offer up the best new (and newly relevant) books that everyone will be talking about — whether it’s a tome that’s ripe for adaptation, a new Hollywood-centric tell-all or the source material for a hot new TV show.
Rights Available
The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li (The Wylie Agency)
The prolific author’s latest novel borrows a bit of mood and background from Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels (two girls growing up in a European town eventually grow estranged) but adds a juicy secret about literary fraud to the center of the story.
Creep: A Love Story by Lygia Day Peñaflor (Grandview)
This YA thriller follows a private high school’s golden couple, Laney and Nico — they’re gorgeous, popular and seemingly in love — from the perspective of an interloping fellow student whose admiration quickly spirals into dangerous obsession.
Each week, The Hollywood Reporter will offer up the best new (and newly relevant) books that everyone will be talking about — whether it’s a tome that’s ripe for adaptation, a new Hollywood-centric tell-all or the source material for a hot new TV show.
Rights Available
The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li (The Wylie Agency)
The prolific author’s latest novel borrows a bit of mood and background from Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels (two girls growing up in a European town eventually grow estranged) but adds a juicy secret about literary fraud to the center of the story.
Creep: A Love Story by Lygia Day Peñaflor (Grandview)
This YA thriller follows a private high school’s golden couple, Laney and Nico — they’re gorgeous, popular and seemingly in love — from the perspective of an interloping fellow student whose admiration quickly spirals into dangerous obsession.
- 10/5/2022
- by Seija Rankin
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The New Yorker Festival will once again be a largely virtual affair this year, though a number of in-person events will also be held outdoors, at Brooklyn’s Skyline Drive-In.
The 22nd annual edition of the festival will take place October 4 to 10.
Amy Schumer, Stanley Tucci, Aimee Mann and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl are among the confirmed participants, with more to be announced over the coming days. There will also be a preview screening of Stephen Karam’s The Humans, a film adaptation of his Tony Award-winning play, as well as an event focused on HBO limited series Scenes from a Marriage.
The festival has attained a notable profile on the fall cultural calendar over the past two decades, offering the Condé Nast-owned magazine new revenue opportunities. Prior to the pandemic, dozens of festival events would typically unfold simultaneously at multiple indoor venues across the city, among them Town Hall,...
The 22nd annual edition of the festival will take place October 4 to 10.
Amy Schumer, Stanley Tucci, Aimee Mann and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl are among the confirmed participants, with more to be announced over the coming days. There will also be a preview screening of Stephen Karam’s The Humans, a film adaptation of his Tony Award-winning play, as well as an event focused on HBO limited series Scenes from a Marriage.
The festival has attained a notable profile on the fall cultural calendar over the past two decades, offering the Condé Nast-owned magazine new revenue opportunities. Prior to the pandemic, dozens of festival events would typically unfold simultaneously at multiple indoor venues across the city, among them Town Hall,...
- 9/13/2021
- by Dade Hayes
- Deadline Film + TV
In today’s TV news roundup, Apple TV Plus released a premiere date for “Tehran,” and Netflix announced a premiere date for “The Duchess.”
Dates
Apple TV Plus will premiere the first three episodes of “Tehran” on Sept. 25. The eight-episode series follows a Mossad agent who goes undercover on a dangerous mission in Tehran. The show stars Niv Sultan, Shaun Toub, Navid Negahban, Shervin Alenabi and Menashe Noy. Apple partnered with Cineflix Rights and Israeli network Kan 11 to co-produce, and the series is created by Moshe Zonder, Dana Eden, Maor Kohn.
Netflix has announced comedy series “The Duchess” will premiere on Sept. 11. From creator, executive producer, writer and star Katherine Ryan, the show follows a chaotic single mother in London and her relationship with her daughter, Olive. Along with Ryan, Dave Becky and Josh Lieberman for 3Arts and Murray Ferguson, and Petra Fried and Ed Macdonald for Clerkenwell Films executive produce.
Dates
Apple TV Plus will premiere the first three episodes of “Tehran” on Sept. 25. The eight-episode series follows a Mossad agent who goes undercover on a dangerous mission in Tehran. The show stars Niv Sultan, Shaun Toub, Navid Negahban, Shervin Alenabi and Menashe Noy. Apple partnered with Cineflix Rights and Israeli network Kan 11 to co-produce, and the series is created by Moshe Zonder, Dana Eden, Maor Kohn.
Netflix has announced comedy series “The Duchess” will premiere on Sept. 11. From creator, executive producer, writer and star Katherine Ryan, the show follows a chaotic single mother in London and her relationship with her daughter, Olive. Along with Ryan, Dave Becky and Josh Lieberman for 3Arts and Murray Ferguson, and Petra Fried and Ed Macdonald for Clerkenwell Films executive produce.
- 8/11/2020
- by Janet W. Lee
- Variety Film + TV
From a full programme of film and stage adaptations to a new James Bond novel, unpublished works by Rs Thomas and Wg Sebald and a new prize for women writers, 2013 is set to be a real page-turner
January
10th The Oscar nominations are announced unusually early this year. Keep an eye out for a bumper crop of literary adaptations, including David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, Yann Martel's Life of Pi, the David Nicholls-scripted Great Expectations, as well as Les Miserables, Anna Karenina and The Hobbit.
18th A new stage adaptation of Henry James's The Turn of the Screw at the Almeida theatre in London. In the year of the centenary of Benjamin Britten's birth, his musical version will also feature around the country in both concert and stage performances.
24th The finalists for the fifth Man Booker International prize will be announced at the Jaipur festival.
January
10th The Oscar nominations are announced unusually early this year. Keep an eye out for a bumper crop of literary adaptations, including David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, Yann Martel's Life of Pi, the David Nicholls-scripted Great Expectations, as well as Les Miserables, Anna Karenina and The Hobbit.
18th A new stage adaptation of Henry James's The Turn of the Screw at the Almeida theatre in London. In the year of the centenary of Benjamin Britten's birth, his musical version will also feature around the country in both concert and stage performances.
24th The finalists for the fifth Man Booker International prize will be announced at the Jaipur festival.
- 1/5/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
Krysta Ficca Fiction writer Daniel Orozco
The 2011 Whiting Writers’ Awards are being presented tonight to 10 recipients by the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation. The writers — four in fiction, four in poetry, one in nonfiction, and one in plays — will each receive $50,000 in recognition of their early-career talent and promise.
The recipients were proposed by anonymous nominators and then selected by an anonymous committee. A ceremony announcing the winners will take place this evening at the Times Center in New York, with...
The 2011 Whiting Writers’ Awards are being presented tonight to 10 recipients by the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation. The writers — four in fiction, four in poetry, one in nonfiction, and one in plays — will each receive $50,000 in recognition of their early-career talent and promise.
The recipients were proposed by anonymous nominators and then selected by an anonymous committee. A ceremony announcing the winners will take place this evening at the Times Center in New York, with...
- 10/25/2011
- by Barbara Chai
- Speakeasy/Wall Street Journal
Getty Poet Yusef Komunyakaa
The 20 finalists for the 2011 National Book Awards were announced Wednesday. The National Book Foundation later added one more finalist to the Young People’s Literature category. The finalists are:
Fiction: Andrew Krivak (“The Sojourn”), Tea Obreht (“The Tiger’s Wife”), Julie Otsuka (“The Buddha in the Attic”), Edith Pearlman (“Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories”), Jesmyn Ward (“Salvage the Bones”).
Nonfiction: Deborah Baker (“The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism”), Mary Gabriel (“Love and Capital: Karl...
The 20 finalists for the 2011 National Book Awards were announced Wednesday. The National Book Foundation later added one more finalist to the Young People’s Literature category. The finalists are:
Fiction: Andrew Krivak (“The Sojourn”), Tea Obreht (“The Tiger’s Wife”), Julie Otsuka (“The Buddha in the Attic”), Edith Pearlman (“Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories”), Jesmyn Ward (“Salvage the Bones”).
Nonfiction: Deborah Baker (“The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism”), Mary Gabriel (“Love and Capital: Karl...
- 10/12/2011
- by Barbara Chai
- Speakeasy/Wall Street Journal
Jonathan Franzen's family epic, a new collection from Seamus Heaney, Philip Larkin's love letters, a memoir centred on tiny Japanese sculptures ... which books most excited our writers this year?
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
In Red Dust Road (Picador) Jackie Kay writes lucidly and honestly about being the adopted black daughter of white parents, about searching for her white birth mother and Nigerian birth father, and about the many layers of identity. She has a rare ability to portray sentiment with absolutely no sentimentality. Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns (Random House) is a fresh and wonderful history of African-American migration. Chang-rae Lee's The Surrendered (Little, Brown) is a grave, beautiful novel about people who experienced the Korean war and the war's legacy. And David Remnick's The Bridge (Picador) is a thorough and well-written biography of Barack Obama. The many Americans who believe invented biographical details about Obama would do well to read it.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
In Red Dust Road (Picador) Jackie Kay writes lucidly and honestly about being the adopted black daughter of white parents, about searching for her white birth mother and Nigerian birth father, and about the many layers of identity. She has a rare ability to portray sentiment with absolutely no sentimentality. Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns (Random House) is a fresh and wonderful history of African-American migration. Chang-rae Lee's The Surrendered (Little, Brown) is a grave, beautiful novel about people who experienced the Korean war and the war's legacy. And David Remnick's The Bridge (Picador) is a thorough and well-written biography of Barack Obama. The many Americans who believe invented biographical details about Obama would do well to read it.
- 11/27/2010
- The Guardian - Film News
Yiyun Li’s writing is oddly soothing. Her sentences convey a sense of relaxation, of slowly slipping into a place where living life matters more than simply letting everything slip by, where watching other people is more interesting than doing anything yourself. This is what keeps her new story collection, Gold Boy, Emerald Girl, from falling into a pit of predictability, but it also makes the book feel oddly somnambulant. Some of the stories vividly express what it’s like to live on the edges of society, always watching other people who seem to live in more interesting worlds. Some ...
- 10/7/2010
- avclub.com
- The MacArthur Foundation's annual list of scientists, scholars, musicians and artists to receive $500,000 "genius" grants includes David Simon, the co-creator/writer/producer behind The Wire, Treme, Homicide: Life on the Streets [pictured with The Wire star Dominic West]. The Foundation says Simon's latest work on Treme explores "the constraints that poverty, corruption and broken social systems place on the lives of a compelling cast of characters, each vividly realized with complicated motives, frailties, and strengths." Among the other ten women twelve men who received the grant is jazz pianist Jason Moran, theater director David Cromer, marble sculptor Elizabeth Turk and fiction writer Yiyun Li. You can meet all the Fellows here, where each of the recipients are featured in their own video interview. Simon talks ...
- 9/28/2010
- Thompson on Hollywood
(Reuters) - The creator of the acclaimed TV series "The Wire," a stone carver, and a scientist working to rescue threatened bees were among 23 recipients of $500,000 "genius" grants awarded by a U.S. charity on Tuesday.
Chicago's John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced its annual list of some two dozen scientists, scholars, artists and musicians surprised with the no-strings-attached stipends to be paid over five years.
"I was absolutely flabbergasted. I was bowled over," said stone carver Nicholas Benson, 46, a third-generation stone carver and calligrapher from Newport, Rhode Island.
Benson, who makes his living carving gravestones and other commissions, including the Martin Luther King monument on the Mall in Washington, D.C., said the windfall will free him up to pursue dreams of making art.
"I don't have a lot of time to work on my own projects. I think I'm going to do that," he said, adding...
Chicago's John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced its annual list of some two dozen scientists, scholars, artists and musicians surprised with the no-strings-attached stipends to be paid over five years.
"I was absolutely flabbergasted. I was bowled over," said stone carver Nicholas Benson, 46, a third-generation stone carver and calligrapher from Newport, Rhode Island.
Benson, who makes his living carving gravestones and other commissions, including the Martin Luther King monument on the Mall in Washington, D.C., said the windfall will free him up to pursue dreams of making art.
"I don't have a lot of time to work on my own projects. I think I'm going to do that," he said, adding...
- 9/28/2010
- by By Reuters
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The New Yorker, Vanity Fair’s chief athletics rival, has published its much-anticipated list of the 20 best fiction writers under 40. The names of the canon inductees will be published in next week’s fiction double issue. The list has also been published in a New York Times piece, which is available right this moment. The chosen ones: “Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 32; Chris Adrian, 39; Daniel Alarcon, 33; David Bezmozgis, 37; Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, 38; Joshua Ferris, 35; Jonathan Safran Foer, 33; Nell Freudenberger, 35; Rivka Galchen, 34; Nicole Krauss, 35; Yiyun Li, 37; Dinaw Mengestu, 31; Philipp Meyer, 36; C. E. Morgan, 33; Tea Obreht, 24; Z Z Packer, 37; Karen Russell, 28; Salvatore Scibona, 35; Gary Shteyngart, 37; and Wells Tower, 37.” This is the most exciting thing to happen in the young-ish literary community since The Paris Review started a blog!
- 6/2/2010
- Vanity Fair
Chicago – Welcome back to the Round-Up, a safety net to catch the DVD titles that fell off the mainstream tightrope. The titles this week have virtually nothing in common other than coming in two waves from two studios - a pair of classics from Paramount’s Centennial Collection and a trio of indie films from the great Magnolia Pictures.
All five titles were released on May 19th, 2009.
“Centennial Collection #8: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”
Photo credit: Paramount Synopsis: “”This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” Behind the camera? John Ford, a director whose name is synonymous with “Westerns.” Gathered in front of it? An ideal cast – James Stewart, John Wayne, Vera Miles and Lee Marvin. Now presented on two discs, with all-new special features, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance rides into town as classic entry in the Paramount Centennial Collection.
All five titles were released on May 19th, 2009.
“Centennial Collection #8: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”
Photo credit: Paramount Synopsis: “”This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” Behind the camera? John Ford, a director whose name is synonymous with “Westerns.” Gathered in front of it? An ideal cast – James Stewart, John Wayne, Vera Miles and Lee Marvin. Now presented on two discs, with all-new special features, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance rides into town as classic entry in the Paramount Centennial Collection.
- 5/27/2009
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Director Wayne Wang, best known for his adaptation of Amy Tan’s celebrated novel The Joy Luck Club, has kept himself at the forefront of Asian-oriented filmmakers even while making a variety of crowd-pleasing commercial films (Maid in Manhattan, Last Holiday). This collection of two of his latest films, both low-budget works shot on HD, is a great way to get acquainted with a unique filmmaker of considerable skill. Although the films vary in quality of both filmmaking and performance, there is no denying both pose interesting questions about Chinese or general Asian identity and their place in and outside of China.
The stronger of the two films, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, is a meticulous study of character. In the film, an aging Mr. Shi travels to America to visit his daughter Yilan, recently estranged form her husband. Mr. Shi is played by Henry O, until now relegated...
The stronger of the two films, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, is a meticulous study of character. In the film, an aging Mr. Shi travels to America to visit his daughter Yilan, recently estranged form her husband. Mr. Shi is played by Henry O, until now relegated...
- 5/27/2009
- by Mark Zhuravsky
- JustPressPlay.net
Director Wayne Wang, best known for his adaptation of Amy Tan’s celebrated novel The Joy Luck Club, has kept himself at the forefront of Asian-oriented filmmakers even while making a variety of crowd-pleasing commercial films (Maid in Manhattan, Last Holiday). This collection of two of his latest films, both low-budget works shot on HD, is a great way to get acquainted with a unique filmmaker of considerable skill. Although the films vary in quality of both filmmaking and performance, there is no denying both pose interesting questions about Chinese or general Asian identity and their place in and outside of China.
The stronger of the two films, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, is a meticulous study of character. In the film, an aging Mr. Shi travels to America to visit his daughter Yilan, recently estranged form her husband. Mr. Shi is played by Henry O, until now relegated...
The stronger of the two films, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, is a meticulous study of character. In the film, an aging Mr. Shi travels to America to visit his daughter Yilan, recently estranged form her husband. Mr. Shi is played by Henry O, until now relegated...
- 5/27/2009
- by Mark Zhuravsky
- JustPressPlay.net
By Aaron Hillis
Since the '90s, Hong Kong-born filmmaker Wayne Wang has directed large-scale Hollywood productions like "The Joy Luck Club" and "Maid in Manhattan," though his richest films have really been his smaller projects, like "Smoke" and its companion work, "Blue in the Face." Going back to the earliest days of his career, Wang was at his most personal and independent with films like 1982's "Chan is Missing" and 1985's "Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart," and it's these stories of the immigrant experience that Wang felt obliged to return to, having moved to America as a teenager.
Winner of four awards at the San Sebastián Film Festival, including best film, Wang's distinctly modest delight "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" is the first of his two films adapted by author Yiyun Li from her own collection of Chinese-American-themed stories. (The second is "The Princess of Nebraska,...
Since the '90s, Hong Kong-born filmmaker Wayne Wang has directed large-scale Hollywood productions like "The Joy Luck Club" and "Maid in Manhattan," though his richest films have really been his smaller projects, like "Smoke" and its companion work, "Blue in the Face." Going back to the earliest days of his career, Wang was at his most personal and independent with films like 1982's "Chan is Missing" and 1985's "Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart," and it's these stories of the immigrant experience that Wang felt obliged to return to, having moved to America as a teenager.
Winner of four awards at the San Sebastián Film Festival, including best film, Wang's distinctly modest delight "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" is the first of his two films adapted by author Yiyun Li from her own collection of Chinese-American-themed stories. (The second is "The Princess of Nebraska,...
- 9/17/2008
- by Aaron Hillis
- ifc.com
By Neil Pedley
Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen put their signature on an oater, but they're not the only ones to head west this week . an all-star cast led by Charlize Theron charge into Seattle, Wayne Wang follows the travels of a Chinese scientist visiting his daughter in Spokane, Neil Labute tries vilifying the L.A.P.D. and Ricky Gervais heads across the pond to bring his schtick to an American comedy.
"All of Us"
In this documentary, filmmaker Emily Abt follows Dr. Mehret Mandefro, a young, Ethiopian-born, Harvard-educated physician working in the South Bronx, and her efforts to both treat and bring awareness to the plight of African-American women affected by the HIV virus. Through her research with two of her patients and their own candid stories and circumstances, Dr. Mandefro highlights some of the key factors that have led to a steep increase in the number of...
Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen put their signature on an oater, but they're not the only ones to head west this week . an all-star cast led by Charlize Theron charge into Seattle, Wayne Wang follows the travels of a Chinese scientist visiting his daughter in Spokane, Neil Labute tries vilifying the L.A.P.D. and Ricky Gervais heads across the pond to bring his schtick to an American comedy.
"All of Us"
In this documentary, filmmaker Emily Abt follows Dr. Mehret Mandefro, a young, Ethiopian-born, Harvard-educated physician working in the South Bronx, and her efforts to both treat and bring awareness to the plight of African-American women affected by the HIV virus. Through her research with two of her patients and their own candid stories and circumstances, Dr. Mandefro highlights some of the key factors that have led to a steep increase in the number of...
- 9/15/2008
- by Neil Pedley
- ifc.com
Director Wayne Wang is getting with the Web 2.0 times and will be releasing his upcoming film The Princess Of Nebraska fully on YouTube on October 17th. Based on the the short story by Yiyun Li, the film centers on a pregnant Chinese girl's life in the U.S and covers the larger theme of family and Chinese identity in the modern world, which he's been exploring for the last six films. As for why he's doing this, Wang had this to say: "'The Princess of Nebraska' is about a young woman from...
- 9/12/2008
- by Omar Aviles
- JoBlo.com
Wayne Wang's new film "The Princess of Nebraska," from Magnolia Pictures, will make its world premiere on YouTube on Oct. 17. It will be released for free on the recently launched YouTube Screening Room, a channel dedicated to premium film content.
Magnolia is releasing another new film of Wang's, "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers," theatrically on Sept. 19. But it opted to release his companion film, "Nebraska," online as part of a larger distribution plan for the two films.
"Nebraska" and "Prayers" are both adapted from a collection of short stories by Yiyun Li. They mark the seventh and eighth of Wang's Asian-themed films that explore the bonds of family and Chinese identity in the modern world.
"The Princess of Nebraska" is about a young woman from China who tries to locate her identity through different kinds of new media," Wang said. "The piece was shot with this kind of...
Magnolia is releasing another new film of Wang's, "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers," theatrically on Sept. 19. But it opted to release his companion film, "Nebraska," online as part of a larger distribution plan for the two films.
"Nebraska" and "Prayers" are both adapted from a collection of short stories by Yiyun Li. They mark the seventh and eighth of Wang's Asian-themed films that explore the bonds of family and Chinese identity in the modern world.
"The Princess of Nebraska" is about a young woman from China who tries to locate her identity through different kinds of new media," Wang said. "The piece was shot with this kind of...
- 9/11/2008
- by By Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, winner of 4 awards at the San Sebastian Film Fest, has been picked up by Magnolia Pictures. Directed by Wayne Wang, the film is a return to his indie roots following a succession of sappy commercial fair including the Queen Latifa starrer Last Holiday and J-Lo’s Maid in Manhattan. The film stars noted character actor Henry Q (The Last Emperor) as a Chinese father who travels to Spokane, Washington to visit his estranged daughter (Faye Yu) and help her following a messy divorce. In the process, he meets an Iranian woman with whom he connects with despite their language barrier... even moreso than he can with his own child. Author Yiyun Li adapted her own Hemingway Award-winning collection of short stories of the same name. Prayers picks right back up with Wang’s interest in exploring strained interpersonal relationships, primarily that between parents and children,
- 4/29/2008
- IONCINEMA.com
Toronto International Film Festival
TORONTO -- One of two new small-scale films from Wayne Wang (both based on stories by Yiyun Li), A Thousand Years of Good Prayers is modest but moving, a finely observed portrait of a father/daughter relationship that will resonate deeply for many viewers. The scale may limit its pull in the art house arena somewhat, but Chinese-Americans and viewers from other immigrant communities will appreciate its themes.
The story of a man who doesn't know his daughter at all, Prayers showcases an affecting performance by Henry O as Mr. Shi, who has just arrived in Spokane from China to see daughter Yilan for the first time in 12 years. The two greet each other stiffly when he emerges from the airport gates, and Yilan clearly has little idea what to do with him; heading out to work on his first day in town, she suggests that he should "take it easy" and might want to walk to the park.
Shi has higher hopes than that, taking constant notes in order to improve his English and shopping for what he needs to cook in Yilan's underequipped kitchen. For the next few nights, they will see each other only at dinner, where he makes much more food than the two can eat.
Though Shi is eager to make up for lost time (he innocently snoops around her apartment during the day, looking for insight), his daughter spends less and less time at home. Shi (whose wife died of cancer) makes friends at the park with an Iranian woman, and we come to get the point that, if rejecting one's parents is common in many cultures, it's doubly so for immigrants hoping to assimilate in a new environment. Shi and Madam, as he calls her, have amusingly piecemeal conversations in which three languages are spoken but only one understood.
Until the film's end, when some causes of family tension are finally brought to the surface, this is about all that happens. Wang's empathy for Mr. Shi, and O's dignified persistence in what appears to be a doomed effort to connect, draw us in and keep us from becoming bored. (An 83-minute running time helps in that respect.)
At one point, Yilan repeats a friend's idea that people would be better at raising children if they could somehow be grandparents before becoming parents. She doesn't seem to see the obvious corollary, that we are often far more forgiving of our grandparents' perceived faults than of our parents'. "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" waits patiently for her to piece it together.
A THOUSAND YEARS OF GOOD PRAYERS
No Distributor
North by Northwest
Credits:
Director: Wayne Wang
Writer: Yiyun Li
Based on the short story by Yiyun Li
Producers: Yukie Kito, Rich Cowan, Wayne Wang
Executive producers: Yasushi Kotani, Taizo Son, Jooick Lee
Director of photography: Patrick Lindenmaier
Production designer: Vincent De Felice
Music: Lesley Barber
Co-producer:
Costume designer: Lisa Caryl
Editor: Deirdre Slevin
Cast:
Yilan: Faye Yu
Mr. Shi: Henry O
Madam: Vida Ghahremani
Boris: Pasha Lychnikoff
Running time -- 83 minutes
No MPAA rating...
TORONTO -- One of two new small-scale films from Wayne Wang (both based on stories by Yiyun Li), A Thousand Years of Good Prayers is modest but moving, a finely observed portrait of a father/daughter relationship that will resonate deeply for many viewers. The scale may limit its pull in the art house arena somewhat, but Chinese-Americans and viewers from other immigrant communities will appreciate its themes.
The story of a man who doesn't know his daughter at all, Prayers showcases an affecting performance by Henry O as Mr. Shi, who has just arrived in Spokane from China to see daughter Yilan for the first time in 12 years. The two greet each other stiffly when he emerges from the airport gates, and Yilan clearly has little idea what to do with him; heading out to work on his first day in town, she suggests that he should "take it easy" and might want to walk to the park.
Shi has higher hopes than that, taking constant notes in order to improve his English and shopping for what he needs to cook in Yilan's underequipped kitchen. For the next few nights, they will see each other only at dinner, where he makes much more food than the two can eat.
Though Shi is eager to make up for lost time (he innocently snoops around her apartment during the day, looking for insight), his daughter spends less and less time at home. Shi (whose wife died of cancer) makes friends at the park with an Iranian woman, and we come to get the point that, if rejecting one's parents is common in many cultures, it's doubly so for immigrants hoping to assimilate in a new environment. Shi and Madam, as he calls her, have amusingly piecemeal conversations in which three languages are spoken but only one understood.
Until the film's end, when some causes of family tension are finally brought to the surface, this is about all that happens. Wang's empathy for Mr. Shi, and O's dignified persistence in what appears to be a doomed effort to connect, draw us in and keep us from becoming bored. (An 83-minute running time helps in that respect.)
At one point, Yilan repeats a friend's idea that people would be better at raising children if they could somehow be grandparents before becoming parents. She doesn't seem to see the obvious corollary, that we are often far more forgiving of our grandparents' perceived faults than of our parents'. "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" waits patiently for her to piece it together.
A THOUSAND YEARS OF GOOD PRAYERS
No Distributor
North by Northwest
Credits:
Director: Wayne Wang
Writer: Yiyun Li
Based on the short story by Yiyun Li
Producers: Yukie Kito, Rich Cowan, Wayne Wang
Executive producers: Yasushi Kotani, Taizo Son, Jooick Lee
Director of photography: Patrick Lindenmaier
Production designer: Vincent De Felice
Music: Lesley Barber
Co-producer:
Costume designer: Lisa Caryl
Editor: Deirdre Slevin
Cast:
Yilan: Faye Yu
Mr. Shi: Henry O
Madam: Vida Ghahremani
Boris: Pasha Lychnikoff
Running time -- 83 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 9/14/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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