Preceeded by Chantal Akerman's "Nightfall on Shanghai"
“In Xu Haofeng’s excellent The Final Master, the talking is as good as the fighting.” — The Village Voice
Co-presented with the China Onscreen Biennial, The Final Master – the third film by Xu Haofeng, famous as the novelist who co-wrote Wong Kar-Wai’s The Grandmaster – relocates its titular martial arts master from Southern China to 1932 colonial Tianjin. Xu's sarcastic and elegant approach to cinema has been described as what martial arts movies would look like if directed by Straub-Huillet —or David Mamet. Echoing the film’s cultural hybridity is a rare Chantal Akerman short that captures the changing light as dusk creeps over Shanghai, its immemorial waters rippling under neon and gaudy ads, to a cover of “Nights in White Satin.”
The China Onscreen Biennial is being held at multiple venues in Los Angeles, New York and Washington, DC, this fall. This program is curated by Bérénice Reynaud and COB.
The Final Master courtesy of United Entertainment Partners. Special thanks to Golden Network. Tombée de nuit sur Shanghai courtesy of Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.
Buy tickets online or call the REDCAT box office at 213-237-2800.