Cast members of the Chinese remake of Everybody's Fine, including director Zhang Meng (third right), actor Zhang Guoli (first right) and actress Yao Chen (second left) at a promotional event in Beijing. (Photo provided to China Daily)
Sentimental Chinese moviegoers will probably have their heartstrings pulled early next year before they journey back to their hometowns on the eve of Spring Festival.
A Chinese remake of Everybody's Fine, a classic Italian drama from the 1990s, directed by well-known filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore, will be released on Jan 15.
The original production depicts a retired Sicilian bureaucrat's trip around the Italian mainland for a surprise visit to his five adult children, all of whom claim to be "fine". Both generations find themselves reconsidering the parent-children relationship.
In 2009, a starry Hollywood cast, including Robert De Niro, Kate Beckinsale and Drew Barrymore, brought a remake of the film to theaters.
Ma Ke, producer of the Chinese film, recalls that he fell in love with the story the moment he watched the original film and immediately planned to adapt it into Chinese because films that stir family emotions have great resonance here.
"Parental love has no national boundary," Ma said at a promotion event on Monday in Beijing. "Many Chinese children go far away from their hometowns to build careers. We want to record that emotion.
"We even believe Chinese people are better able than Westerners to understand such subtle feelings."
An interesting fact: The 2009 Hollywood remake of Everybody's Fine got a "just-fine" 7.2 out of 10 points on Imdb.com, a major film fan's website based in the United States. However, it got 8.7 points on Douban.com, a Chinese film site.
It took Ma two years to get the adaption copyright. He says that the copyright holder was reluctant to allow the adaption at first, but the agreement was finally reached with the involvement of William Kong, a world-renowned Hong Kong film producer.
"It didn't matter if the film was an Italian or American version - both revealed the typical social issues of their times, like the generation gap and young people's painstaking efforts to start their careers," says Zhang Meng, director of the new film.
Zhang, 40, says he will introduce common problems confronted by today's Chinese people in the film to give it more local flavor. He is known for his award-winning The Piano in a Factory (2010), another touching story of a father-daughter relationship.
Ma says he made the choice because "Zhang is good at using the true face of ordinary Chinese people to touch the audience."
"The father figure in the film will be a typical Chinese father, which I believe will remind moviegoers of their own," Zhang says, adding that he doesn't worry such a story from the West will encounter any cultural shock in adaption.
Nevertheless, the father in the film, actor Zhang Guoli, says that he was reluctant to participate in such a film at first.
"Today's ostentatious Chinese film market is a little bit sick, and I really worried if such a film with a peaceful tone would be able to win its position in the box office," Zhang Guoli says, adding that a public-service TV advertisement sharing a similar theme changed his mind.
"When traditional family emotions become more and more unfamiliar for Chinese people, we have to get them back," the veteran actor says. "So, we need a film that doesn't intend to catch a fad."
Popular young-generation actors Yao Chen, Shawn Dou, Ye Yiyun and Chen He will play his four children in the film.
