Liu Yulin [Yangtse Evening Post]

One Sentence is Worth Thousands, a novel created by celebrated contemporary Chinese writer Liu Zhenyun, was made into a film by his daughter Liu Yulin, whose former work has been awarded in the 2014 Student Academy Awards in the US.

Considered the most mature work of Liu, the novel was awarded the 2011 Mao Dun Literature Prize, one of China's most important literature awards, and has been translated into more than 20 languages.

Given the wide international influence of the original work, the film that wrapped up this January has attracted extensive attention from famed filmmakers and scholars who pin high hopes on its release.

Yulin is more than just the daughter of a literary tycoon. Born and raised in Beijing, she pursued a master's degree of fine arts in film-making at New York University after graduating from the Communication University of China.

In 2014, 27-year-old Liu won the Narrative Silver Medal at the 41st Student Academy Awards for her first short film Door God after taking a gap year from her second-year of postgraduate studies. The film featured a story about a girl whose life spins out of control from heartbreak after losing her childhood innocence, and was entered in over 50 international film festivals, winning a dozen awards.

"The reason why I chose to make Door God is because the rural girl's grief and her family's sorrow are ignored by the public. Such emotion can be found in many people in my hometown (in Yanjin, Xinxiang City of central China's Henan Province) and I want to show it to the audiences," Liu said in an acceptance speech.

In 2015, she began to engage in the shooting of her father's opus along the Yellow River also in Henan Province. One Sentence is Worth Thousands is hailed as the Chinese version of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez.

The young director claimed she has been enormously affected by her father. "He told me how to look at our world, how to observe life. He always tries to ascertain the true meanings of human life and probes questions plaguing ordinary people. The interpersonal relationships and plot frames in these stories have developed unique styles, which has exerted great influence upon me."

The movie depicts the protagonists' search for someone with whom they can have a heart-to heart discussion. It is an unusual reflection of the inner loneliness of the average Chinese person and an in-depth analysis of the alienation that is  increasingly commonplace among people nowadays.

According to Liu, the new movie continues the theme of the apathy toward emotion at the grassroots level of society. The two leading characters, both devoid of close friends, seek to reach out to someone with whom to share their feelings and burdens.

"They hide their emotion and aspirations, which, in actuality, is as soul-stirring as the wars in Iraq and Syria." Liu said that she aimed at expressing this basic human need in film language. 

Regarding the current film market in China, she says that she approves of the improving taste of Chinese audiences. "It seems they have started to love seeing movies that can touch their heart, which is indeed an exciting trend. Actually, there are two kinds of films in the world: good and bad. I hope to produce good ones, and to have heart-to-heart talks with the audience."

(Source: chinanews.com and China Radio International/Translated and edited by Women of China)

Editor: Mable Wang