It’s no great leap forward in filmmaking, but the big-budget disaster movie “Skyfire” does prove that China is now capable of producing its own brand of utterly preposterous and enjoyably trashy popcorn entertainment for a global audience. This thrill-packed tale about an angry volcano wreaking havoc on thinly written characters at a luxury island resort plays like a souped-up and much better remake of Irwin Allen’s 1980 turkey “When Time Ran Out.” Starring a predominantly Chinese cast and energetically directed by British action specialist Simon West, “Skyfire” did Ok without setting the Chinese box-office alight in December 2019 release. It should be a hot number with action fans when launched on VOD in North America by Screen Media on Jan. 12.
While several recent Chinese productions including “The Wandering Earth,” “The Captain” and “The Bravest” have depicted large-scale calamities, none have embraced the tried-and-true disaster movie format with the unashamed reverence and gusto of “Skyfire.
While several recent Chinese productions including “The Wandering Earth,” “The Captain” and “The Bravest” have depicted large-scale calamities, none have embraced the tried-and-true disaster movie format with the unashamed reverence and gusto of “Skyfire.
- 1/14/2021
- by Richard Kuipers
- Variety Film + TV
Skyfire Trailer — Simon West‘s Skyfire (2019) movie trailer has been released by Screen Media Films and stars Hannah Quinlivan, Jason Isaacs, Shawn Dou, Wang Xueqi, Bee Rogers, Alice Rietveld, Kent S. Leung, Owen Kwong, Liang Shi, and Lawrence de Stefano. Crew Wei Bu and Sidney King wrote the screenplay for Skyfire. Pinar Toprak created the music [...]
Continue reading: Skyfire (2019) Movie Trailer: Jason Isaacs’ Island Resort is Blown to Pieces by a Volcano in Simon West’s Film...
Continue reading: Skyfire (2019) Movie Trailer: Jason Isaacs’ Island Resort is Blown to Pieces by a Volcano in Simon West’s Film...
- 12/17/2020
- by Rollo Tomasi
- Film-Book
Stars: Xueqi Wang, Hannah Quinlivan, Shawn Dou, Jason Isaacs, An Bai, Lingchen Ji, Liang Shi | Written by Wei Bu, Sidney King | Directed by Simon West
“Don’t worry. I am quite hard to kill.”
Simon West – the visionary director behind one of the greatest films of all-time: Con Air – is back with more explosive action on screen in Skyfire … This time it’s volcanic action as an active volcano erupts way ahead of schedule, forcing the rapid evacuation of a theme park built around the exquisitely beautiful Tianhuo Island.
At a young age, Xiao Meng (Hannah Quinlivan) witnessed tragedy when Tianhuo erupted during a science mission led by her family. In the years since, Xiao Meng has grown up and pursued her own journey as a volcanologist, continuing the work started by her parents. With advancements in both technology and the understanding of volcanoes, Xiao Meng and her team are...
“Don’t worry. I am quite hard to kill.”
Simon West – the visionary director behind one of the greatest films of all-time: Con Air – is back with more explosive action on screen in Skyfire … This time it’s volcanic action as an active volcano erupts way ahead of schedule, forcing the rapid evacuation of a theme park built around the exquisitely beautiful Tianhuo Island.
At a young age, Xiao Meng (Hannah Quinlivan) witnessed tragedy when Tianhuo erupted during a science mission led by her family. In the years since, Xiao Meng has grown up and pursued her own journey as a volcanologist, continuing the work started by her parents. With advancements in both technology and the understanding of volcanoes, Xiao Meng and her team are...
- 11/19/2020
- by Dom Hastings
- Nerdly
A mournful, magisterial, and often moving debut feature, Hu Bo’s An Elephant Sitting Still might best be described as a contemplation of despair—or, more specifically, as an incremental, painful probing of how much a single person can bear before they're driven to tragic release. Born in 1988, Hu took his life soon after completing the film, and since its premiere in the Forum section of last year's Berlinale, the feature has been nigh-impossible to view apart from that fact. Its opening minutes tell of an elephant in the northern Chinese town of Manzhouli that simply sits, unmoving, and ignores the world. The seemingly apocryphal tale—which one might consider alongside the ancient Indian fable of the blind men and an elephant—is taken from the director’s novel Huge Crack (2017), and also serves as the primary motivator of the story’s harried principal characters, for whom Manzhouli becomes a kind of mythical haven,...
- 3/11/2019
- MUBI
It’s tempting to think of “An Elephant Sitting Still” as a suicide note written with blood in a dirty patch of hard snow. Hard to sit through and impossible to forget, this torpid four-hour anti-drama is suffused with the sort of hopelessness that cinema only sees every once in a long while (Werner Herzog’s “Stroszek” and Béla Tarr’s “The Turin Horse” come to mind), and the man who made it — a former student of Tarr’s — killed himself before the world premiere of his monolithic first (and last) feature. His name was Hu Bo, and he was 29 years old.
Hu had reportedly been feuding with his financiers, who wanted to cut the running time in half. But to presume the role that may have played in his death would be as problematic as assimilating Hu’s suicide — which inevitably casts a long shadow over the film — into...
Hu had reportedly been feuding with his financiers, who wanted to cut the running time in half. But to presume the role that may have played in his death would be as problematic as assimilating Hu’s suicide — which inevitably casts a long shadow over the film — into...
- 3/8/2019
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Shortly after completing “An Elephant Sitting Still,” Chinese novelist and filmmaker Hu Bo took his own life. The 29-year-old would not live to see his four-hour epic premiere at the Berlin Film Festival a few months later, which is made especially tragic by how well received the movie has been. KimStim and the Film Society of Lincoln Center have released a trailer for “An Elephant Sitting Still,” which you can watch below.
Here’s the premise, which is fittingly lengthy: “Under the gloomy sky of a small town in northern China, different protagonists’ lives are intertwined in this furious tale of nihilistic rage. While protecting his friend from a dangerous school bully, 16-year-old Wei Bu pushes the tormentor down a staircase. Wei escapes the scene and later learns that the bully is hospitalized and gravely injured. Wei’s neighbor, the 60-year-old Wang Jin, is estranged from his family and, with nothing to lose,...
Here’s the premise, which is fittingly lengthy: “Under the gloomy sky of a small town in northern China, different protagonists’ lives are intertwined in this furious tale of nihilistic rage. While protecting his friend from a dangerous school bully, 16-year-old Wei Bu pushes the tormentor down a staircase. Wei escapes the scene and later learns that the bully is hospitalized and gravely injured. Wei’s neighbor, the 60-year-old Wang Jin, is estranged from his family and, with nothing to lose,...
- 1/13/2019
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
Premiering nearly a year ago at the Berlin International Film Festival, I caught up with An Elephant Sitting Still at New Directors/New Films and hoped this impressive four-hour epic, the directorial debut drama from the late Chinese filmmaker Hu Bo, would see a U.S. release. Thankfully, KimStim has stepped up and will give it a release this March. Elephant tells the long and winding story of Wei Bu (played by Our Shining Days’ Yuchang Peng), and his classmates Wang Jin and Huang Ling, as they flee to a far-away city after becoming involved with escalated trouble at home. Ahead of a spring release, the U.S. trailer has now arrived.
Our own Zhuo-Ning Su caught Elephant in Berlin (full review) and touched on the tragic loss of the film’s director and how his legacy should impact audiences: “It cheapens the creativity of the filmmaker to say that...
Our own Zhuo-Ning Su caught Elephant in Berlin (full review) and touched on the tragic loss of the film’s director and how his legacy should impact audiences: “It cheapens the creativity of the filmmaker to say that...
- 1/10/2019
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Swedish filmmaker Isabella Eklöf, the director of the film Holiday, is the winner of the Grand Prix of the New Horizons International Competition.
Of the 12 competition entries, seven were directed by women. This year’s edition of New Horizons can also boast record attendance.
The winner of the Audience Award was An Elephant Sitting Still /Da xiang xi di er zuo, directed by Hu Bo, who died tragically last year. An Elephant Sitting Still was his only film. To protect his friend, 16-year-old Wei Bu pushes the school bully down the staircase and escapes the scene after the bully becomes hospitalized with his life hanging by a thread.
Financed by Grażyna Błęcka-Kolska and Jan Jakub Kolski, the Zuzanna Kolska Prize was awarded to the youngest filmmaker at New Horizons for the first time ever this year. Going to Zuzanna Grajcewicz for her film Cut-out, the award is a gesture of...
Of the 12 competition entries, seven were directed by women. This year’s edition of New Horizons can also boast record attendance.
The winner of the Audience Award was An Elephant Sitting Still /Da xiang xi di er zuo, directed by Hu Bo, who died tragically last year. An Elephant Sitting Still was his only film. To protect his friend, 16-year-old Wei Bu pushes the school bully down the staircase and escapes the scene after the bully becomes hospitalized with his life hanging by a thread.
Financed by Grażyna Błęcka-Kolska and Jan Jakub Kolski, the Zuzanna Kolska Prize was awarded to the youngest filmmaker at New Horizons for the first time ever this year. Going to Zuzanna Grajcewicz for her film Cut-out, the award is a gesture of...
- 8/6/2018
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Initially premiering at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year, An Elephant Sitting Still is the directorial debut drama from the late Chinese filmmaker Hu Bo. With an epic, nearly four-hour long runtime, Elephant tells the long and winding story of Wei Bu (played by Our Shining Days’ Yuchang Peng), and his classmates Wang Jin and Huang Ling, as they flee to a far-away city after becoming involved with escalated trouble at home.
Alongside Yuchang Peng, the film features Yu Zhang, Uvin Wang, and Congxi Li. Ambitiously told, with fearlessness and relentlessness, An Elephant Sitting Still garnished the Prize of the Fipresci as well as special mention as the Best First Feature while in Berlin. Unfortunately, while An Elephant Sitting Still marks Hu Bo’s directorial debut, it also becomes his last, as Bo took his own life in October.
Our own Zhuo-Ning Su caught Elephant in Berlin (full...
Alongside Yuchang Peng, the film features Yu Zhang, Uvin Wang, and Congxi Li. Ambitiously told, with fearlessness and relentlessness, An Elephant Sitting Still garnished the Prize of the Fipresci as well as special mention as the Best First Feature while in Berlin. Unfortunately, while An Elephant Sitting Still marks Hu Bo’s directorial debut, it also becomes his last, as Bo took his own life in October.
Our own Zhuo-Ning Su caught Elephant in Berlin (full...
- 6/24/2018
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
The trick to getting the most out of the Berlin Film Festival is to dig deep into its stupendous program spanning 400 films across a multitude of sidebars. Premiering in the Forum section which traditionally favors more experimental/radical forms of filmmaking, Chinese writer/director Bo Hu’s feature debut An Elephant Sitting Still is the work of raw, intimidating talent driven by a creative fury that would likely daunt most competition titles. Unmissable for anyone craving the gritty realism and independent spirit of pre-00’s Chinese cinema. Fair warning: this is decidedly not the feel-good movie of the year.
It all begins on an overcast morning in a nondescript city. People young and old are waking up to a new day, although it doesn’t seem like this is something any of them particularly looks forward to. At first we don’t know their names or how they relate to one another,...
It all begins on an overcast morning in a nondescript city. People young and old are waking up to a new day, although it doesn’t seem like this is something any of them particularly looks forward to. At first we don’t know their names or how they relate to one another,...
- 2/16/2018
- by Zhuo-Ning Su
- The Film Stage
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