Current Status: Post Production
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4.04 (also known as April 4th) is an independent feature film with notable experimental elements. After compromising and living a dull life in a secluded small town for seven years, a photo store owner, Liu Quan, gradually re-embraces her unyielding moral standards and values, then challenges the town’s superficial harmony.
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Main Cast |
Key Crew |
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Sheng Bingyu 盛冰玉
Liu Zhen 刘震 Deng Jing 邓竞 Long Yue 龙月 Zhang Tianyue 张钿悦 Wei Ruguang 魏如光 Li Jialu 黎珈璐 Su Aiting 苏爱婷 |
Liu Quan 柳泉
Lin Sijun 林思君 Liu Cheng 刘城 Li Chunlan 李春兰 Xu Tingting 徐婷婷 Xu Dazhi 许大治 Xiao Su 小苏 Mrs. Wang 王女士 |
Zheng Xiangtian 郑翔天
Jing Jun 靖军 Qian Sitong 钱思瞳 Jeffrey Chu 朱志刚 Liang Yun 梁韵 Li He 李赫 Ling Jingsong 凌靖松 Shan Jinhui 单金辉 Xiong Liang 熊亮 Sun Zhengjun 孙郑军 |
Writer, Director 编剧，导演
Executive Producer 监制 Producer 制片人 Director of Photography 摄影指导 Production Designer 美术指导 Composer 音乐 Hair and Make-up Head 服化指导 Sound Recordist 录音师 Special Effects 特效 1st Assistant Director 执行导演 |
Behind
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4.04 is a feature film with notable experimental elements. The story takes place in an isolated small town . Although the story is entirely fictional, it is derived from my own experience after returning home from the overseas.
After I graduated from my middle school in 2010, I went abroad to study in the United States. Seven years have passed by, I came back to China, my motherland, holding a college diploma written in English. Many of my friends had a difficult time choosing between returning back to China or staying in the States. After little wavering, I made up my mind to come back. After all, this is my hometown. Even though the glorious period of the Chinese domestic films has passed or it is yet to come, even though I do not dare to say that I want to “save” the Chinese film industry, I hope to contribute as much as I can to an industry I love, an industry with so much potential. Even though my friends were highly concerned that a large amount of Chinese audiences would not appreciate or approve my film style, I moved to Beijing uncompromisingly with dreams, passion and ambition. This marked the start of my Bei Piao (Beijing Drifting Life). When I was studying filmmaking at NYU Tisch in New York City, independent experimental films impacted me the most. Therefore, I made several experimental shorts focusing on the metaphors and the ideas instead of the plots. However, the audience of these shorts were extremely limited and many of them did not quite understand the films. Then I started to find my own style of filmmaking that somehow integrates storytelling and the experimental elements. 4.04 is my best representation. The two major experimental elements in this film are the surreal scenes and the montages that the protagonist entering into the photographs. However, films with experimental elements are not widespread in China nowadays. Since 1930s, the Chinese Film Industry has been following the example of the Hollywood studio system. Nowadays, the IP and the star system are extremely popular. These systems imperceptibly become the rules of the game, and help to “stabilize” the Chinese film industry. Even knowing the current circumstances, I still decided to pursue the films I am passionate about instead of making compromises. This decision may sound aspiring, or naive and innocent to some others. This so-called “self-willed” has been rooted in my character ever since I decided to study film in high school, but it has become more and more difficult to carry out with the passing of time. I remember the days in high school when I simply picked up a camera and started video-graphing. I remember the time when I chose to come back to China without a second thought. It is always easy to say, “Be yourself,” but it is also true that,“Common fame is seldom to blame,” according to an old saying. Being faithful to yourself, being faithful to the order, or being faithful to the society? I believe this is a choice we all need to make at some point of our life, and this is also the major question 4.04 raises. Probably these choices do not contradict each other in the real life, but in this film, not only the protagonist Liu Quan, but also every member of the society needs to make a choice. After several ensuing incidents, Liu Quan does find her old self and becomes faithful again. However, after all, is this a tragedy or a comedy? Which is the right choice? The film gives the audience an open ending, and it is up to the audience’s own interpretation. |
Director
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