The film marks the second collaboration of director Feng Xiaogang, writer Zhenyun Liu (who actually adapts his own novel) and actress Fan Bingbing. The first one was “Cell Phone”, the latter’s debut, 12 years before.
In a story that reminded me much of Zhang Yimou’s “The Story of Qiu Zu,” the script revolves around Lian, a woman determined to face the whole judicial system, in order to find justice. The film starts with the story of Pan Jinlian, the Chinese version of Madame Bovary, a woman whose infidelity led to murder. The connection, however, is revealed later.
In the beginning of the story, Lian pleads to a judge, who is a distant relative, in order to revoke her divorce. She explains that the divorce was fake, as she and her ex-husband took it in order to to get a better apartment. However, her husband swindled her and actually married another woman,...
In a story that reminded me much of Zhang Yimou’s “The Story of Qiu Zu,” the script revolves around Lian, a woman determined to face the whole judicial system, in order to find justice. The film starts with the story of Pan Jinlian, the Chinese version of Madame Bovary, a woman whose infidelity led to murder. The connection, however, is revealed later.
In the beginning of the story, Lian pleads to a judge, who is a distant relative, in order to revoke her divorce. She explains that the divorce was fake, as she and her ex-husband took it in order to to get a better apartment. However, her husband swindled her and actually married another woman,...
- 11/15/2016
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
As its title proclaims, Feng Xiaogang’s bureaucratic satire I Am Not Madame Bovary has no direct connection to Flaubert’s adulterous heroine. Madame Bovary does, however, share some common traits with Pan Jinlian, the fictional 17th century character from Chinese literature name-checked in the film’s original title, who cuckolded then conspired to murder her husband. Adapted by frequent Feng collaborator Liu Zhenyun from his own 2012 novel, the film follows the increasingly desperate efforts of Li Xuelian (played by Fan Bingbing) to get her divorce to Qin Yuhe (Li Zonghan) reversed. Over a period of 10 years, Lian claws her way through China’s multi-tiered civil service, from provincial judges to county chiefs, to mayors and ultimately the Chairman of the National People’s Congress in Beijing....
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- 11/1/2016
- Screen Anarchy
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