Zhao Liang Collection - 3-DVD Box Set ( Shangfang ) ( Petition / Crime and Punishment / Paper Airplane )

Zhao Liang Collection - 3-DVD Box Set (DVD) (*)

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Original Title: Shangfang
Alternate Title: Petition / Crime and Punishment / Paper Airplane
Screened, competed or awarded at:
Cannes Film Festival

Language Selections:
Chinese ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
English ( Subtitles )
French ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
France ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
324 min + 32 min extras

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
3-DVD Set
Box Set
Cast/Crew Interview(s)
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Short Film
Booklet

Movie filmed in 2001 - 2009 and produced in:
Belgium ( France, Benelux )
China ( India, Eastern Asia )
Finland ( Scandinavia, Iceland )
France ( France, Benelux )
Switzerland ( Germany, Central Europe )
United Kingdom ( Great Britain, Ireland )

Directed By:
Zhao Liang

Written By:
Zhao Liang

Actors:
Zhao Liang

Synopsis:

Petition (2009)
The dysfunctional Chinese court system allows citizens with grievances against their local governments to petition the court to clear or correct their record. Yet in order to do so, the petitioners must travel to Beijing to file paperwork and wait an indefinite period to plead their case. The vast majority of petitioners are impoverished villagers who travel far to the capital and typically end up waiting desperately in decrepit shantytowns for their cases to be settled, often pressured by hired thugs to return home.

Crime and Punishment (2007)
Offers an authentic everyday portrait of the microcosm that is a police station in the border regions, where the impact of China's economic boom has not been felt. The documentary uncovers the real human stories and key themes from China that is both regimented and rapacious, providing an insight into how the social structure is influenced by omnipresent police repression.

Paper Airplane (2001)
Paper Airplane is a feature-length documentary that looks at the breakdown of China's socialist systems, which had provided jobs and security, allowing disenfranchised youths to fall into new lifestyles that sometimes involve the underworld of drugs.

Petition (2009)
A unique testimony about China today. Since 1996 Zhao Liang has filmed the 'petitioners', who come from all over China to make complaints in Beijing about abuses and injustices committed by the local authorities. Gathered near the complaints offices, around the southern railway station of Beijing, living in most cases in makeshift shelters, the complainants wait for months or years to obtain justice. Peasants thrown off their land, workers from factories which have gone into liquidation, small homeowners who have seen their houses demolished but received no compensation..., all types of cases are represented. Faced with the most brutal intimidation from the local authorities, the complainants who stubbornly continue despite everything find that their hopes are often vain. Zhao Liang has accompanied several of them, particularly a mother and her daughter, whose full story we follow over ten years. A film shot right up to the start of the Olympic Games in direct contact with realities, showing the persistent contradictions of China in the midst of powerful economic expansion.

Crime and Punishment (2007)
On the North Korean border, Chinese military police enforce the law with a heavy hand, leading to moments of harrowing abuse and surreal satire. Amidst the barren wintry landscape of Northeast China, Chinese military police officers rigidly enforce law and order in an impoverished mountain town. They raid a private residence to bust an illegal mahjong game, casually abuse a pickpocket accused of throwing away evidence, and berate a confession out of a scrap collector working without a permit. The police switch between precise investigative procedure, explosions of violent fury, and moments of comic ineptitude, all captured incredibly before the camera. A prime example of how independent documentaries are on the vanguard of Chinese cinema, CRIME AND PUNISHMENT is an unprecedented look at the everyday workings of law enforcement in the world's largest authoritarian society.

Paper Airplane (2001)
The documentary Paper Airplane (2001), included into the package, shows a group of drug addicts and social freaks filling the space of Beijing suburbs. Because of their odd activities, they get arrested and evade police net by making false promise not to perpetrate the same crime. Unfortunately, they are on the job and seem to vitiate the ambience. In their escapade, they, chased by the police, appear and disappear from time to time and truly they never change. This obduracy of leading savage life plays a dark game under way. As fringe freaks, some of them try their hands at music, while others love to be pitted in the guts without relief. Life goes on thus and Zhao Liang parades the despair and anguish of their parents who fail to correct their off-springs.

Petition (2009)
The dysfunctional Chinese court system allows citizens with grievances against their local governments to petition the court to clear or correct their record. Yet in order to do so, the petitioners must travel to Beijing to file paperwork and wait an indefinite period to plead their case. The vast majority of petitioners are impoverished villagers who travel far to the capital and typically end up waiting desperately in decrepit shantytowns for their cases to be settled, often pressured by hired thugs to return home. Following the saga of a group of petitioners over the years of 1996 and 2008, Petition unfolds like a novel by Zola or Dickens. Unwilling to accept defeat and seemingly unable to do anything but wait, the petitioners enter a strange and often terrifying zone, gradually losing touch with family and friends back home and with the cruel reality of their situation.

Crime and Punishment (2007)
Offers an authentic everyday portrait of the microcosm that is a police station in the border regions, where the impact of China's economic boom has not been felt. Reinforced units fight crime, though the results are often confused and grotesque despite the diligence of the inexperienced young officers. The documentary uncovers the real human stories and key themes from China that is both regimented and rapacious, providing an insight into how the social structure is influenced by omnipresent police repression.

Paper Airplane (2001)
Paper Airplane is a feature-length documentary that looks at the breakdown of China's socialist systems, which had provided jobs and security, allowing disenfranchised youths to fall into new lifestyles that sometimes involve the underworld of drugs. With his camera rolling in houses, on the streets, and on the inside of government-sponsored programs, Zhao follows a group of young addicts through their attempts at rehabilitation.

This product was added to our catalog on Tuesday 17 January, 2012.

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