Xiao Shan Going Home is a Chinese

Cinema of China

The Chinese-language cinema has three distinct historical threads: Cinema of Hong Kong, Cinema of China, and Cinema of Taiwan. Since 1949 the cinema of mainland China has operated under restrictions imposed by the Communist Party of China's State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television and...

 short film directed by Jia Zhangke

Jia Zhangke

Jia Zhangke is a Chinese film director. He is generally regarded as a leading figure of the "Sixth Generation" movement of Chinese cinema, a group that also includes such figures as Wang Xiaoshuai and Zhang Yuan....

. The film, running around one hour in length, was made by Jia while he was attending the Beijing Film Academy

Beijing Film Academy

Beijing Film Academy is a coeducational state-run higher education institution in Beijing, China. The film school is the largest institution specialised in the tertiary education for film and television production in Asia...

 and stars his friend, classmate, and now frequent collaborator, Wang Hongwei

Wang Hongwei

Wang Hongwei is a Chinese actor. Wang is perhaps best known for his work with director Jia Zhangke. The two men were classmates at the Beijing Film Academy when they began their professional relationship, with Wang starring in Jia's breakthrough short film Xiao Shan Going Home in 1995...

 in the titular role.

The film follows a poor cook in Beijing as he tries to find his way back home for the Spring Festival

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year – often called Chinese Lunar New Year although it actually is lunisolar – is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is an all East and South-East-Asia celebration...

. As one obstacle after another seems to appear before him, Xiao Shan soon realizes that his goal is moving ever further out of reach.

Reception

The film, made in 1995 while Jia was still in school, screened at the 1997 Hong Kong Independent Short Film & Video Awards, where it won the Grand Prix. This put Jia in touch with the European-trained cinematographer Yu Lik-wai

Yu Lik-wai

Yu Lik-wai is a Hong Kong cinematographer, film director, and occasional film producer. Born in Hong Kong, Yu was educated at Belgium's INSAS where he graduated with a degree in cinematography in 1994...

 (who has become one of Jia's most important collaborators), and producer Li Kit Ming. The three men then began work on Jia's feature film debut, Xiao Wu

Xiao Wu

Xiao Wu also known as The Pickpocket is a 1997 Chinese movie directed by Jia Zhangke.The film was the directorial debut of Jia Zhangke, one of the major figures of the so-called Sixth Generation of Chinese cinema and stars Wang Hongwei in the titular role along with Hao Hongjian and Zuo Baitao...

, which was completed in 1997.

Style

Like his later film Still Life, Xiao Shan Going Home uses intertitles seemingly divorced from the narrative, including one intertitle giving a resume-like listing of Xiao Shan's career goals, while another lists the broadcast schedule for a television station after narrating to the audience Xiao Shan's plan to go watch TV with a friend for the evening.

The film is also notable for its use of non-Mandarin dialects, including in the very first instance, where the audience is treated to the sound of Jia's native Shanxi

Shanxi

' is a province in Northern China. Its one-character abbreviation is "晋" , after the state of Jin that existed here during the Spring and Autumn Period....

 dialect. This is in contrast to most Chinese films that had, for the most part, followed government regulations to be dubbed into Standard Chinese

Standard Chinese

Standard Chinese, or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....

.

External links

• Xiao Shan Going Home from the Chinese Movie Database