During the 10th Shanghai International Film Festival, the Shanghai Film Critics Association announced their best of 2006 list. Here it is:
Top 10 Chinese films: Tokyo Trial, The Knot, Courthouse on the Horseback, Jia Zhang-ke's Sanxia haoren / Still Life, The Old Summer Palace, Loach Is Fish Too, Zhang Yimou's Curse of the Golden Flower, Patrick Tam's After This Our Exile, Curiosity Kills the Cat, and The Aunt's Postmodern Life.
Best Director: Yin Li, The Knot
Best Actor: Jay Chou, Curse of Golden Flower
Best Actress: Siqin Gaowa, The Aunt's Postmodern Life
See below what the Shanghai film critics had to say about their top-ten choices:
Tokyo Trial: The film vividly depicts a historic event with fine details.
The Knot: The film hails the perseverance of characters as well as revels their great pains.
Courthouse on the Horseback: The film portrays the life of an unsung hero, a court judge at grassroots level.
Still Life (above): The film shows a profound insight of life and wins world acclaim for Chinese film industry.
The Old Summer Palace: The film accurately reproduces the appearance of the Summer Palace, which was burnt down long ago, with the help architectures and historians.
Loach Is Fish Too: Its director shows great skills in change between the scenes, which properly fits the changing thoughts, desire and hope of characters.
Curse of Golden Flower (top photo): The film offers a visual feast for audiences with its beautiful scenes, exciting plot, superb costumes, excellent music and memorable performance of Chow Yun-Fat, Gong Li and Jay Chou.
After This Our Exile (right): China' s Hong Kong director Patrick Tam shows a profound insight of human nature and the cruel side of life in this film.
Curiosity Kills the Cat: The film tells a thought-provoking story and the vivid characters in the film allow the audience to have a profound insight of life.
The Aunt's Postmodern Life: The film tells a depressing story of a group of city dwellers who fail to adapt to life amidst great changes.
Source: 10th Shanghai International Film Festival Website
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