In June in Shanghai, the cinema takes center stage - and this
year is no exception.
Tickets for the 10th Shanghai International Film Festival are
selling like hotcakes.
Group ticket sales for the festival started last Thursday. On
Saturday, sales opened to individuals at 21 theaters across the
city, including the Shanghai Film Art Center, the Wanda
International Cinema and Paradise Warner Cinema City.
"So far we have sold about three million yuan (US$391,875) worth
of tickets, almost identical to the same period last year," said
Wang Xiaojun, an official with the festival's organizing
committee.
The Shanghai Film Art Center - the festival's main site -
attracted hordes of movie buffs, some of whom came early to snap up
tickets.
Liang Dejun, a local engineer, bought tickets for a few
small-budget art movies like the family drama Suspect
(Canada) and the romance Talk to Her (Spain) at the
center. Liang said he has been attending movies at the festival for
years.
According to Shao Zhenhua, a manager of the center, they had
taken more than 1.05 million yuan worth of ticket sales. The most
popular films among the 180 or so movies showing at the center have
been Perfume: The Story of A Murder
(Germany-France-Spain), High Heels (Spain) and
Oscar-winning film The Lives of Others (Germany).
Officials from the Wanda International Cinema also said ticket
sales are doing well, particularly such award-winning movies as the
Japanese classic Seven Samurai, and All about My
Mother (Spain-France).
Peter Mueller, a movie fan from Germany who is on a Shanghai
business trip, said he will study the schedule to choose some
Japanese and Thai movies.
"I am enthusiastic about Asian films, some of which have
striking visual artistry and an interesting storyline," Mueller
said.
About 200 foreign and domestic pictures will be presented during
the festival - which runs from June 16 until 24 - including recent
productions and a retrospective exhibition of Japanese director
Akira Kurosawa and Spanish film maker Pedro Almodovar.
A schedule of films to be screened during the festival can be
found online at www.siff.com.
(Shanghai Daily June 11, 2007)