{"id":7111,"date":"2010-08-12T14:56:40","date_gmt":"2010-08-12T14:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=7111"},"modified":"2015-04-14T15:04:20","modified_gmt":"2015-04-14T15:04:20","slug":"locarno-film-review-hongqui-lis-winter-vacation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=7111","title":{"rendered":"LOCARNO FILM REVIEW: Hongqui Li&#8217;s &#8216;Winter Vacation&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/wintervacation-x650.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7112\" src=\"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/wintervacation-x650.jpg\" alt=\"wintervacation x650\" width=\"650\" height=\"278\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/wintervacation-x650.jpg 650w, https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/wintervacation-x650-300x128.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n<p>LOCARNO, Switzerland \u2013 There are many slow and uneventful scenes in Hongqi Li\u2019s labored comedy \u201cWinter Vacation\u201d that are intended to show how slow and uneventful a break from school can be for teenagers in a snowbound urban wasteland with nothing to do.<\/p>\n<p>There are two or three moments worth a chuckle in the film but there cannot be many audiences that will share the view of the Locarno International Film Festival competition jury, which gave it their top prize Golden Leopard.<\/p>\n<p>That honor means the film will likely get airings at other festivals but viewers will discover a production that uses a static camera for a series of scenes in which people gather but say little or nothing.<\/p>\n<p>There is a running gag involving a very proper but grouchy grandfather who imposes silence and stillness on a dutiful but resentful little kid, but its humor dwindles.<\/p>\n<p>That same child has the only funny line in the picture when a visiting little girl asks him what he wants to be when he grows up. Hearing his reply, she regards him scornfully and says, \u201cYou are a pitiful child.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Otherwise, it\u2019s one scene after another of four or five teenagers in winter clothing standing about or sitting on a sofa in the snow saying not very much.<\/p>\n<p>Venue: Locarno International Film Festival. In Competion; Cast: Ba Junjie, Zhang Naqi, Bai Jinfeng, Xie Ying, Wang Hui, Bao Lei<\/p>\n<p>Director, writer, editor: Hongqi Li; Director of photography: Qin Yurul; Music: Zuoxiao Zuzhou, The Top Floor Circus; Production company: Ning Cal, Alex Chung; Not rated; running time, 91 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ray Bennett LOCARNO, Switzerland \u2013 There are many slow and uneventful scenes in Hongqi Li\u2019s labored comedy \u201cWinter Vacation\u201d that are intended to show how slow and uneventful a break from school can be for teenagers in a snowbound &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=7111\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2652,14],"tags":[3462,3463,795],"class_list":["post-7111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-locarno-international-film-festival","category-reviews","tag-winter-vacation","tag-hongqui-li","tag-locarno-international-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7111"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7113,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7111\/revisions\/7113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}