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TURNING POINT 1977
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About the Film
Turning Point 1977 is a ground-breaking drama that won critical and box office acclaim when it opened in China earlier this year. Set at the close of the Cultural Revolution, it tells the story of a group of young people on a remote state-run farm who must fight for the right to determine their own futures.
The film takes place in 1977, the year that post-Mao China began to reopen to the world. One of the first changes was to bring back the national college entrance exam, giving hope to millions of young people whose lives were interrupted by a 10-year era of political turbulence.
An entire generation, which included many students who had been sent to the countryside for “re-education,” seized on the exam as a way to re-start their lives. Of the more than 5 million who took the first exam that year, many went on to become the leaders of today’s China in government, business and the arts.
Turning Point 1977 was named Best Picture at the prestigious Huabiao Awards ceremony held in Beijing this August, and also won the coveted Golden Rooster Award for Best Screenplay. Dealing with a subject that was previously taboo, it is the first domestic film to be shown in China about the tumultuous events surrounding the Cultural Revolution. It was warmly received by the Chinese public and critics alike, and has opened a floodgate of new film projects about this era.
The movie is a co-production between Shanghai Film Group, one of China’s largest film and media conglomerates, and IDG China Media, the film division of China’s most successful foreign publishing and venture capital company. It was co-written and directed by veteran director Jiang Haiyang and stars an ensemble cast, including Sun Haiying, Wang Xuebing, Zhou Xianxin and Zhao Youliang.
At the completion of the film’s theatrical run in China, Hugo Shong, Chairman of IDG China Media, wanted to release it in the West. But he realized that it needed to be re-edited for Western audiences because of different cultural conventions in dramatic pacing, storytelling and music and because more explanation about the era was necessary.
Shong was particularly eager to bring Turning Point 1977 to new audiences because the movie’s story is so close to his own. He was one of the millions who passed the college entrance exam in 1977, after working in a factory for 3 years in Hunan Province. So was the film’s director, Jiang Haiyang, who had similar experience during the Cultural Revolution. Other film industry notables in the 1977 entry class were director Zhang Yimou (Hero, To Live...) and Oscar-winning composer Tan Dun. (Crouching Tiger).
Turning Point 1977 is the first of what may eventually become many Chinese-language films to be adapted for broader audiences overseas. Although China has a dynamic domestic film and video industry, it currently has almost no exports. This is one of the few economic sectors where China now has a trade deficit. China hopes to overcome this deficit in the future and become a major provider of filmed entertainment and media products to both the Pacific Rim and the West.