Ash is Purest White (Jiang Hu Er Nü)

Written and Directed by: Zhangke Jia
Cast: Tao Zhao, Fan Liao, Yi’nan Diao and Zheng Xu
Drama/Romance | NOT RATED | 141 min. | Chinese/Mandarin with English subtitles | China/France/Japan

SCREENING:
Saturday, October 13 – 4:00 pm, Uptown Theatre

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“Occasionally dream-like and frequently transcendent, the film brilliantly portrays an ever-evolving Chinese landscape struggling with the many changes of the 21st century.” – Tom Augustine, NEW ZEALAND HERALD

“The best performance seen in eight days at Cannes was by Zhao Tao in Jia Zhangke’s Ash Is Purest White, a too-rare subgenre of the crime drama: the life of a gangster moll.”– Kent Turner, FILM-FORWARD.COM

“There’s a timeless quality to Qiao and Bin’s relationship, to its elemental cycles of loyalty, power, and humiliation.” – Bilge Ebiri, VILLAGE VOICE

Qiao is in love with Bin, a local mobster. During a fight between rival gangs, she fires a gun to protect him. Qiao gets five years in prison for this act of loyalty. Upon her release, she goes looking for Bin to pick up where they left off. Ash is Purest White is the most recent contribution to director Zhangke’s body of work as a record of 21^st century China and its warp-speed transformations.

2 WINS, 5 NOMINATIONS:

WON – Prix du Jury-ICS Cannes Award, Best Actress (Tao Zhao), International Cinephile Society Awards, 2018
NOMINATED – Palme d’Or, Cannes Film Festival, 2018
NOMINATED – Best International Film, Jerusalem Film Festival, 2018