Tempest and Midsummer Night

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Creative Statement

Film history has countless works about famous writers, filmmakers and playwrights, but very few about translators. Translators have long been treated as shadows behind others and overlooked. This film fills that gap and gives translation its due: it is a craft and an art form in its own right and deserves recognition.

Synopsis

In 1590, the young William Shakespeare is a bit-part actor in a London theatre company. His dream is to overcome all objections and bring to the stage The Taming of the Shrew, a romantic comedy he has been developing and polishing for years. In 1932, the young Zhu Shenghao meets Song Qingru, the love of his life, and while pursuing her he also finds his life's goal: translating Shakespeare for the Chinese nation. In 2022, the young director Liu Chi is caught between the market and his subject matter. In a market dominated by fast-food culture, he has to pitch to investors a play within a play about the meeting of minds between Zhu Shenghao and Shakespeare.

Genre:

Biography, Fantasy, Inspirational

Director:

Pengfei

Screenwriter:

David Murdoch | Han Jinglong

Producer:

Zhu Li

Production Company:

Juben (Shanghai) Pictures Co., Ltd.

About the Director

Pengfei: A young director from the Chinese Mainland who studied in France for many years. His work has won multiple awards in China and abroad. His first feature, Underground Fragrance, received support from the Rotterdam and Cannes film funds and was well received from the start, winning Best Film in Venice Days at the 72nd Venice Film Festival. His second feature, The Taste of Rice Flower, was selected for the Venice Days competition at the 74th Venice Film Festival. His latest film, Return to Nara, was nominated for Best Low-to-Medium Budget Feature Film at the 34th China Golden Rooster Awards and for the Golden Goblet Award in the main competition of the 23rd Shanghai International Film Festival.

About the Screenwriter

David Murdoch: British screenwriter and producer. Winner of a BAFTA and a Royal Television Society award. He worked with Emmy-winning writer David Quantick on the HBO series Veep. Screenwriter of the film The Woman Who Lives by Being Assassinated, released worldwide on Netflix, and of the TV series Lady Macbeth, to be co-produced with the BBC. Han Jinglong: Chinese screenwriter. His film 12 Citizens won Best Screenplay at the 30th China Golden Rooster Awards, the Media Award for Best Screenplay at the 18th Shanghai International Film Festival and Best Screenplay at the 7th Australian International Chinese Film Festival.

About the Producer

Zhu Li: Partner at Juben Pictures. Co-producer of the film Wuhai, selected for the main competition of the 68th San Sebastian International Film Festival, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize. The film Ayka was selected for the main competition of the 71st Cannes Film Festival in 2018 and won Best Actress. The film 12 Citizens won the People's Choice Award, the top prize at the 9th Rome Film Festival. The film Metok and Moonlight won the Pioneer Producer award at the 20th Hollywood Film Festival. On the film Wolf Totem 2 he worked with Hollywood screenwriter John Fusco (The Forbidden Kingdom, Marco Polo).

About the Production Company

Juben (Shanghai) Pictures Co., Ltd.: Founded in 2020. Its founders, Wang Luna and Zhu Li, have produced films including 12 Citizens (Best Film, 9th Rome Film Festival), Ayka (Best Actress, 71st Cannes Film Festival) and Metok and Moonlight (Best Film in the Ethnic Film section, 11th Beijing International Film Festival). The company's film Wuhai was selected for the main competition of the 68th San Sebastian International Film Festival in Spain in 2020 and won the FIPRESCI Prize. Its film Wolf Totem 2 was recently selected for the 2022 Shanghai Major Literary and Artistic Creation Funding Program. Other projects in production or development include Super Golden Week and Tempest and Midsummer Night.

Logline

A young director at a dead end, a young man down on his luck in Republican-era China, and an unrecognized bit-part actor in a theatre company. Across three times and places, three young people chasing their own dreams are linked by The Taming of the Shrew.