China's first four-screen film "Four Quarters" has its world premiere in Pingyao, exploring oriental aesthetic narratives

China News Service, Pingyao, Shanxi, September 25 (Reporter Hu Jian) ​​China's first four-screen film "Four Quarters" had its world premiere at the 10th Pingyao International Film Festival on the 25th. Director Cai Chengjie mentioned that the film was inspired by traditional oriental screens.

"Four Quarters" has been shortlisted for the "Hidden Dragon" section of this film festival and has been shortlisted for the main competition section of the 42nd Warsaw International Film Festival. The film uses four vertical pictures juxtaposed to narrate the story. The ratio of the single picture is 2.25:1 and the composite ratio is 16:9. The four stories unfold simultaneously in the same picture.

Cai Chengjie said that the origin of the film's creation was to put birth, old age, sickness and death, joy, anger, sorrow and joy in the same picture. "We wanted to create a scattered perspective of China, overlooking the world like "Along the River During the Qingming Festival". We hope that the emotions of the four groups of characters can produce some chemical reactions, so as to explore how people living today settle down their lives."

Actor Huang Bo serves as a producer and stars in the film. He said: "World cinema has been around for so many years, and now there is the possibility of taking a step forward, which is exciting." In his opinion, the aesthetics of the film are "so traditional and so oriental." From the scroll-style composition to the vertical subtitles on the side, they are all familiar aesthetics to Chinese audiences. With the emotions of other scenes in the peripheral vision, it is a movie-watching experience that is both oriental and novel.

The story of the film takes place in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. It tells the different stories of an 8-year-old boy, a 25-year-old girl, a 45-year-old man and a 65-year-old man. In the end, they met in a small noodle shop on a rainy night and completed a "symphony" of life. The names of the characters in the film coincide with "spring, summer, autumn and winter", and the composition with oriental aesthetics adds a bit of Jiangnan poetry to the film.

"Such a structure and technology is an attempt and exploration of film language. We do not rule out new attempts in the future, but it also depends entirely on the suitability of the story itself, and we will not blindly pursue technological innovation." Cai Chengjie said.