Tom in China

By TANG YUANKAI Chinatoday 2008-4

Feng Xiaogang with his wax figure at the Shanghai Madame Tussauds Wax Museum.

THE year 1997 is over. I will miss it.” So ends the 1997 cinematic blockbuster The Dream Factory (Jiafang Yifang) by one of China’s leading directors, Feng Xiaogang. The line probably expressed Feng’s own sentiments at the time. The Dream Factory not only saved Feng’s career but also pulled the Chinese film industry out of what had seemed like a terminal nosedive.

Poster for In Love We Trust

DIRECTOR Wang Xiaoshuai picked up his second Silver Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival last February for In Love We Trust. In 2001, Beijing Bicycle earned him the Grand Jury Silver Bear and the award for the Best Young Director, while this year he won for best screenplay.

Director Wang Xiaoshuai posing with the Silver Bear.

The 42-year-old director is a regular guest at international film festivals since first coming into the public eye in Berlin in 1994 with his debut film, The Days. In 2005, he won the Prix of Jury at the Cannes film festival for Shanghai Dreams.