Double Xposure

The Smithsonian Freer/Sackler Museums present a screening of Double Xposure by director Li Yu.

Since debuting with her first feature Fish and Elephant in 2001, director Li Yu has gone from rough-and-ready documentary realism with non-professional actors to working with some of the biggest stars in China. This stylish and briskly paced psychological thriller is her fifth and visually most ambitious feature yet. Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing impresses as a young urbanite whose façade of certainty and comfort—boyfriend, apartment, and car—violently splinters when she succumbs to an act of voyeurism. Joan Chen in a supporting role adds a deliciously surgical quiver to the mix. Description by Cheng-sin Lim. (Dir.: Li Yu, 2012, 105 min., Mandarin with English subtitles, HDCAM)

Preceded by:
Shanghai Strangers

It’s Christmas Eve. A woman meets a foreigner. Memories spark memories of a romance born of another brief encounter—between a recent Shanghai torn apart by SARS and the city’s forgotten Jewish past. With this internet “micro-movie,” Joan Chen returns to directing for the first time in 12 years, weaving a delicate tale of love, loss, and remembrance in her beloved hometown of Shanghai. Description by Cheng-sim Lim. (Dir.: Joan Chen, 2012, 24 min., Mandarin and English with English subtitles, HDCAM)