Night Train | |
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Traditional | 夜車 |
Simplified | 夜车 |
Mandarin | Yè chē |
Directed by | Diao Yi'nan |
Produced by |
Vivian Qu Steve Chow |
Written by | Diao Yi'nan |
Starring |
Liu Dan Qi Dao |
Music by | Wen Zi |
Cinematography | Dong Jingsong |
Edited by | Kong Jinglei |
Production
company |
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Distributed by | MK2 Diffusion |
Release date
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Running time
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94 minutes |
Country | China |
Language | Mandarin |
Night Train is writer-director Diao Yi'nan's second feature film. Like his previous film, Uniform, Night Train takes place in Diao's home province of Shaanxi and was shot in and around Baoji.
Night Train premiered in the 2007 Cannes Film Festival as part of the Un Certain Regard competition and was one of only two Asian films (the other being Li Yang's Blind Mountain) in competition for an award. The film was produced by Diao's Beijing-based Ho-Hi Pictures with funding from French (Fonds Sud Cinema) and American (DViant Films) companies.
The film follows a young woman, Wu Hongyan (Liu Dan), who works as a prison guard who aids in the execution of female prisoners. Lonely and widowed, Wu finds herself taking the night train to a dating service in a neighboring city.
After a series of unsuccessful dates, she meets Li Jun (Qi Dao), with whom she begins a relationship. It soon becomes clear that Li Jun is hiding a secret: that he is the widower of one of Wu's executed prisoners. Li Jun is torn both by his attraction to Wu, but also his desire to exact some sort of vengeance. Wu, meanwhile, must consider her own safety in this new volatile relationship.