THE SENT DOWN GIRL
A Film by Joan Chen
"MIRACULOUS! AN EPIC!
A Lovely, Expert Film."
Richard Corliss, Time Magazine
Opens May 7
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Presented By
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XIU XIU
The Sent Down Girl
A Film by Joan Chen
Directed by
Joan Chen
Screenplay by
Yan Geling - Joan Chen
From the Original Novella "Tian Yu" by
Yan Geling
Executive Producers
Joan Chen - Allison Liu - Cecile Shah Tsuei
Producers
Joan Chen - Alice Chan
Director of Cinematography
Lu Yue
Production Designer
Pan Lai
Editor and Associate Producer
Ruby Yang
Sound Designer
Jay Boekelheide
Original Music by
Johnny Chen
CAST
XIU XIU..................Lu Lu
LAO JIN.............Lopsang
MOTHER.............Gao Jie
SISTER...........Li Qianqian
FATHER...............Lu Yue
CHEN LI...........Qiao Qian
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WINNER
Best Dramatic Feature
1998 Fort Lauderdale
Film Festival
WINNER
7 Golden Horse
(Taipei Oscar) Awards
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Original Song
Best Music
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Director's Statement
There is a story in Tibet, from a long time ago, about a young girl who was chosen to be sacrificed. She was killed by her tribe and her skin made into a drum. This drum became the medium between her people and the spirit world.
While traveling on the plateau along the Sichuan and Tibetan border, I thought of this girl whenever a faraway song was blown near by the wind. I became aware of a mysterious and intangible world existing around me, haunting yet beautiful. In this distant land of such mystical past, the line between the living and the dead seemed only a state of mind.
It was on this high plateau that our characters had lived, in an army tent under the sky. Lao Jin, a peaceful man with a legendary past; and Xiu Xiu, a tailor's daughter, who would destroy his peace. Lao Jin personifies the nobleness of the human emotion that we call love. He would be the fairytale hero whose honor and dignity nothing could sway, and whose soul nothing could corrupt. Xiu Xiu, in turn, would be  chosen to be sacrificed, like the Tibetan girl whose skin was made into a drum. In Xiu Xiu's little army cot, a martyr would be born under the silver moonlight, soaked in sweat. She would become the symbol for innocence lost and regained.
Joan Chen
JOAN CHEN (Director/Producer)
Chen was born in Shanghai, where she was selected for the Actors' Training Program of the Shanghai Film Studio in 1975. In 1980, Chen received China's Best Actress Award for leading performance in her second film, LITTLE FLOWER.
She began her U.S. acting career in 1985, distinguishing herself on screen and in television, including roles in David Lynch's controversial series, Twin Peaks; and in the feature films BLOOD OF HEROES, TURTLE BEACH, GOLDEN GATE, ON DEADLY GROUND, HEAVEN AND EARTH and THE LAST EMPEROR.
LU LU (Xiu Xiu)
LuLu marks the third generation of her family to reach widespread acclaim as part of the August 1st, the national film studio run by China's People's Liberation Army. Under the auspices of the August 1st, LuLu's paternal grandfather was a resident filmmaker, her mother (a former ballerina) became a renowned actress, and her father worked as a staff director after completing his service as a "sent down" boy during China's Cultural Youth Revolution.
Prior to XIU XIU, LuLu had made only two film appearances, cameo roles at the age of three and again at thirteen. Her performance in XIU XIU, for which she received the Golden Horse (Taipei Academy) Award for Best Actress, distinguishes her screen debut in a leading role.
After living for two years in the San Francisco Bay Area, LuLu has returned to China and now lives in Bejing.
LOPSANG (Lao Jin)
A former accountant, Tibetan actor Lopsang was admitted to the prestigious Shanghai Academy of Drama in 1977. Upon his graduation in 1981, the respected actor starred in innumerable theatre, film and television productions before achieving the title of Advanced-Level Actor -  a professional recognition held in high regard throughout China's professional theatrical community. Thereafter, Lopsang acting as leading director of several acting troupes.
Over the past decade, Lopsang has been honored with several Excellent Actor's Awards, in both national and regional companies of China's Performing Arts. In 1995, he was uniquely honored with the title of "Exemplary Worker" by the China Bureau of Arts and Culture. XIU XIU marks Lopsang's film debut in a leading role.
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Between 1967 and 1976, nearly eight million Chinese youths were "sent down" for
specialized training to the remotest corners of that vast country, under a campaign known as the Cultural Youth Revolution. Although each could ostensibly return home, the majority who did often found that home had been forever lost to them the moment they left. Of the many who never returned, some reinvented their lives in the out land regions to which they'd been sent. Others fell into obscurity, never to be seen or heard from again. At least one inspired a fable that redeemed the innocence of a lost generation, and gave witness to the timeless imagination of love.
Directed by Joan Chen from the award-winning novella by Yan Geling, Xiu Xiu is actually two love stories: one told as the haunting remembrance of love lost, and the other
unfolding against reason in a seemingly loveless time and place.
Precocious and inquisitive, Wen Xiu - known playfully among her peers as Xiu Xiu - enlists for horse-training on the plains of Tibet, so that she may be considered for the illustrious Girls' Iron Calvary. After a brief sojourn at a regional camp, she is assigned to train under Lao Jin, a simple and solitary man whose local legend is fueled as much by a painful "secret," as it is by his rare talent with horses.
Reluctantly, Xiu Xiu ventures into the nomadic plains where Lao Jin lives in a dilapidated army tent, set among fields of vivid wildflowers under Van Gogh skies. The solemn horse trainer tolerates her half-hearted attention to this horses, and surprises her with a tenderly-crafted bath he has constructed for her among the flowers. Modest, but outspoken, Xiu Xiu is indifferent to Lao Jin's solitary life, and the seasons pass merely as markers for her return to Cheng-du. After her tenure is past and autumn threatens their camp's meager resources, Xiu Xiu learns that the precious calvary unit has long been disbanded, and that without a wealthy family or influential "friends," it is unlikely she will ever acquire her travel permits.
Abandoned behind the curtain of a dead revolution, Xiu Xiu will inspire this simple and passionate man to risk a simple and compassionate deed that will free them both.
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Clips
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1.55 meg recommended for
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2.19 meg recommended for
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Click here to download the Press Kit for Xiu Xiu as a PDF.
Click here to download Adobe® Acrobat Reader®
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Opening By State:
| st. | city | theater | opens |
| AZ | Tucson | The Loft Cinema | 7/23/99 |
| CA | San Francisco | Clay Theater | 6/11/99 |
| DC | Washington | Inner Circle | 6/4/99 |
| ID | Boise | Flicks Movie Theatre | 8/27/99 |
| MA | Brookline | Coolidge Corner | 5/28/99 |
| MT | Missoula | Crystal Theatre | 7/23/99 |
| NM | Las Cruces | Fountain Theater | 7/16/99 |
| NY | Huntington | Cinema Arts Center | 5/21/99 |
| NY | New York | Metro Twin | 5/7/99 |
| NY | New York | Eastside Playhouse | 5/7/99 |
| NY | New York | Village East 7 | 5/7/99 |
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"MIRACULOUS! A delicate, harrowing epic!"
Richard Corliss, Time Magazine
"Heart-wrenching and beautifully made by a director full in command of her visual style. Beautiful!"
G. Allen Johnson,
San Francisco Examiner
"A harmony of sounds
and images."
Karen Lam, A. Magazine
"Stunning lyricism and poignancy in actress Joan Chen's directorial effort."
Dennis Dermody,
Paper Magazine
"A MASTERPIECE! Exquisite and Breathtaking!"
Paul Wunder, WBAI Radio
"****!A stirring and powerful motion picture..., a devastating and unforgettable portrait of hopeless love. One of the most stunning first features from any film maker since Quentin Tarantino..., Lu Lu gives an incredible performance of extraordinary power. XIU XIU is a forecful, emotionally riveting experience!"
James Berardinelli,
movie-reviews.colossus.net
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