EGG AND STONE
(Jidan He Shitou)
Director:
Huang Ji
Narrative
2016
|
China
Minutes:
98
Mandarin w/ English subtitles
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Huang Ji's brave personal film is one of the most auspicious debuts in recent Chinese cinema. Set in her home village in rural Hunan province, EGG AND STONE is a powerful autobiographical portrait of a 14-year-old girl's attempts to come to terms with her emerging sexual maturity.
Since her parents moved to the city to work, she has been forced to live with her uncle and aunt for seven years. Alone with her own inchoate fears and desires, she grapples with a terrifying world of sexual awakening and danger. Huang Ji's visual sophistication, narrative fluency, and technical polish belie her youth. Cinematographer Ryuji Otsuka (also the film's producer and editor) contributes beautifully crafted cinematic images, fearfully intimate, softly pulsing with light, saturated with complex emotional power.
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Winner, Tiger Award, International Film Festival Rotterdam
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Winner, Grand Prix, Andrey Tarkovsky International Film Festival
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Special Jury Mention, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival
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Special Jury Mention, Beijing Independent Film Festival
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Best First Feature Film, Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival
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International Film Festival Jerusalem
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Taipei Film Festival
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Vancouver International Film Festival
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Stockholm International Film Festival
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New Horizons International Film Festival
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Hong Kong Asian Film Festival
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Beijing Independent Film Festival
EGG AND STONE
EGG AND STONE
"A deliberately constructed work of feminist symbology… Utilizes gorgeous photography and acutely thoughtful composition, adding formalist dimension to this feminine perspective."
Exclaim!
"Stunning... Relevant… In a place where womanhood is often considered less than, I applaud Ji for using strong feminist imagery to convey her message."
Toronto Film Scene
"A remarkably poised, redolent autobiographical work in which the filmmaker re-creates the vivid textures of her girlhood in Hunan Province and the body shame endemic to the culture in which she was raised."
Artforum
"Meticulous in every way: the non-professional actors with incredible skills, the beautiful camerawork, the timing and dosing of the tragic storyline about a fourteen-year-old Chinese girl from the countryside. A grown-up feature film debut by a major talent."
International Film Festival Rotterdam