China’s first four-screen film, Suzhou Quartet, has premiered at the Pingyao International Film Festival, featuring four stories told simultaneously.
Suzhou Quartet, China’s first four-screen film, had its world premiere at the 10th Pingyao International Film Festival on Sept. 25th.
Director Cai Chengjie said the film was inspired by traditional Chinese folding screens.
The film was selected for the festival’s Hidden Dragon section. It has also been selected for the Main Competition of the 42nd Warsaw International Film Festival.
Suzhou Quartet adopts a four-screen format. Four vertical frames unfold simultaneously within a single 16:9 image. Each frame has an aspect ratio of 2.25:1.
Cai said the idea came from his wish to place life and death, as well as joy and sorrow, side by side in the same frame.
“We wanted to create a Chinese form of scattered perspective, like Along the River During the Qingming Festival, and look at the world from above,” Cai said. He hoped the emotions of the four groups of characters would interact and explore how people today find their place in life.
Actor Huang Bo serves as the film’s executive producer and also stars in it. He said he was excited that there was still room to take film in a new direction after more than a century of cinema.
In his view, the film has a distinctly traditional Chinese aesthetic. Its scroll-like composition and vertical subtitles, for example, draw on visual elements familiar to Chinese audiences. At the same time, viewers can catch the emotions of the other three stories in their peripheral vision.
The film is set in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. It follows four people at different stages of life: an 8-year-old boy, a 25-year-old woman, a 45-year-old man and a 65-year-old man.
Their stories eventually meet at a small noodle restaurant on a rainy night, where the four characters cross paths. Their names also correspond to the four seasons — spring, summer, autumn and winter.
According to Cai, the film’s structure and visual approach are an experiment with the language of cinema.
“There may be new attempts in the future,” he said. “But it will depend entirely on whether a particular technique fits the story. We will not pursue technological innovation for its own sake.”
Additional repoting by Hu jian.
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