Yu Opera performers [Widescreen]

Directed, photographed and edited by Liu Shumin, this documentary film presents an intimate view into the lives of husband and wife team, Zhao Feng and Lu Ronghua, Xi’an’s famous Yu Opera performers. Yu Opera emerged during the late Ming Dynasty and is designed more for the broad masses with its stories of social themes and the working class. It is mostly dominated by singing opera arias with minimal make-up, costuming and acting and performed at traditional Tea-houses. The documentary includes behind-the-scenes and backstage operations and negotiations as the local Henan TV Station prepare a live-to-air performance of their Art Troupe featuring Lu Ronghua and Zhao Feng. It also follows Lu and Zhao’s bid to establish their own Teahouse - their financial problems, legal negotiations and the long and frustrating bureaucratical system that keeps on hindering them from achieving their ambition of bringing traditional Chinese culture to the masses. Shumin’s photography is quite evocative, particularly his images of the Chinese landscape, and although the film is at times slow-moving, it still provides a most interesting insight into Chinese customs, daily life and Yu Opera. In Mandarin with English subtitles.