Seventeen Years (1999)

Original title

过年回家

Directed by

Zhang Yuan

Genre

drama film

Country

People's Republic of China, Italy

Runtime

1h 30m

Rating

7.0 of 10 from 11 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

After a tragic accident in her childhood, a woman returns home for the first time in seventeen years. She must face her family and the unresolved feelings from the past.

melancholicreflectiveslow-burnemotionalquietbittersweetintimate

What happens

Seventeen Years (simplified Chinese: 过年回家; traditional Chinese: 過年回家; pinyin: guò nián huí jiā; lit. 'New Year Homecoming') is a 1999 Chinese film directed by Zhang Yuan and starring Li Bingbing in her feature film debut. Seventeen Years was screened at several international film festivals where it garnered numerous accolades, including the Silver Lion for Best Direction at the 56th Venice International Film Festival. The film is co-produced by Keetman Limited (China) and Fabrica (Italy), as presented by Keetman and the Xi'an Film Studio. It premiered concurrently with Zhang Yuan's documentary feature, Crazy English in the 1999 Locarno International Film Festival. Seventeen Years is seen, at least by some critics, as Zhang Yuan's move away from his "Bad Boy" image, an image that was cultivated after run-ins with Chinese authorities with his previous films, Beijing Bastards, and the homosexual-themed East Palace, West Palace. In contrast, Seventeen Years (and Crazy English) was produced under the aegis of the Chinese bureaucracy, though some editing of the film was required before it could be released. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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