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Southern Celebrations

Actress Xin Zhilei (辛芷蕾) won the Best Actress Award at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival on Saturday for her performance in The Sun Rises on Us All (日掛中天), a story by neo-noir director Cai Shangjun (蔡尚君) about a pair of estranged lovers. As the stat…
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Actress Xin Zhilei (辛芷蕾) won the Best Actress Award at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival on Saturday for her performance in The Sun Rises on Us All (日掛中天), a story by neo-noir director Cai Shangjun (蔡尚君) about a pair of estranged lovers. As the state-run China Daily noted, Xin was just the second actress from China to win the honor — coming more than three decades after Gong Li (鞏俐) clinched the title for her role in Zhang Yimou’s The Story of Qiu Ju in 1992.

Coverage of Xin Zhilei’s Venice win made the front page of yesterday’s Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper in Guangzhou — and received (above) a full page spread on page 3.

Produced in Guangdong, The Sun Rises on Us All derives its title from the Cantonese opera The Purple Hairpin (紫钗記). The film is the first production from the province to compete in the main competition of a major European film festival. The news has been reported enthusiastically by media across southern China, and in Hong Kong — including HK01 and the state-controlled Ta Kung Pao (大公報) — as well as by Taiwanese outlets such as Mirror Media and ETToday.

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