''Chen Mo and Meiting'' () is a 2002 Chinese romantic drama film written and directed by Liu Hao. It was Liu's directorial debut and stars Du Huanan and Wang Lingbo as the titular Chen Mo and Meiting. The film was produced independently of the Chinese bureaucracy, primarily from funds solicited by Liu Hao himself, as well as some foreign investment from the Germany-based Zero Film. ''Chen Mo and Meiting'' tells the story of a flower vendor and a massage parlor girl, the children of persecuted intellectuals during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated go ...

, as they enter into a shy and tentative romance.

Production

After writing the screenplay for ''Chen Mo and Meiting'', Liu set out to find the money to finance his project. Eventually Liu was forced to search for benefactors from the phone book, eventually raising ¥140,000 from a friend in Shanghai. Given the small budget, the film production was limited with Liu and the crew living in a small basement to save on housing costs. Post-production was funded primarily from Liu and his producers selling calendars on the street, eventually paying off debts over the course of two years. Though filmed in

16 mm 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, edu ...

, the film was blown up to 35 mm during post-production.

Release

''Chen Mo and Meiting'' was screened as part of the 2002

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...

's international Forum program. The film managed to win two awards at the competition: a

NETPAC The Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) is a worldwide organization of 29 member countries. It was created as the result of a conference on Asian cinema organized by Cinemaya, the Asian Film Quarterly, in New Delhi in 1990 at the ins ...

Prize and a Special Mention in the Premiere First Movie award. The film was also screened at the 2002

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival ( cs, Mezinárodní filmový festival Karlovy Vary) is a film festival held annually in July in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. The Karlovy Vary Festival is one of the oldest in the world and has beco ...

as part of its "Another View" program for more experimental works. As an independent and foreign-financed film, however, ''Chen Mo and Meiting'' was not given official approval and as a result was not released in China.

References

External links

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''Chen Mo and Meiting''
at Cinemasie 2000s Mandarin-language films 2002 films Chinese drama films 2002 romantic drama films Films set in Beijing 2002 directorial debut films 2000s Chinese films {{2000s-romantic-drama-film-stub