Country: China
Language: Chinese
Year: 2001
Running Time: 112 min
QUITTING is the true story of a family’s unfailing determination, faith, humor and most of all hope in the face of adversity. In the late 80’s a new film star, Jia Hong Sheng, emerged in China. Labeled “the thug idol”, he gained fame playing gangsters and heroes in a series of Chinese ‘B’ movies. Jia went on to star in a stage version of THE KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN directed by Zhang Yang and soon became the actor of choice for Chinese sixth generation film makers such as Wang Xiao Xuai and Lou Ye. He had his first experience with drugs on the set of THE KISS OF THE SPIDERWOMAN.
Jia’s naturally fragile mental state coupled with his experimentation with drugs gradually led him into a state of despair. He stopped acting and cut himself off entirely from all his friends, locking himself in an apartment listening to tapes of his favorite music over and over again.
Jia’s parents were members of a small theater troupe in a small town in Northeast China. Overjoyed by their son’s success and distraught at his addiction, they left the troupe that they had been members of their whole lives, packed up all their belongings (literally bed, TV, furniture and everything they owned) and traveled to Beijing to be with their son.
Every character in QUITTING is played by a real life person who was part of Jia Hong Sheng’s life. The film seeks to be unflinchingly realistic in its portrayal of its characters and the early 90’s as a historical period. This realism leads to the invocation of a wide range of real emotions, ranging from absurd hilarity to severe depression.
QUITTING is a film which explores one man’s journey, from the cutting edge of China’s artistic movement in the early 1990’s, through a period of conflict with himself and his parents, to a mental institution and finally to the quest of to re-discover himself and his family.
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Director
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Zhang Yang
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Producer
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Peter Loehr
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Producer
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Zhang Peimin
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Executive Producer
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Sam Duann
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Production Company
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Imar Film Co., Ltd.
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Production Company
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Xian Film Studio
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Cinematographer
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Cheng Shouqi
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Cinematographer
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Wang Yu
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Screenplay
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HUO Xin
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Screenplay
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Zhang Yang
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Art Director
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An Bin
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Editor
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Hong Yu Yang
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Sound
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Lai Qizhen
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Lighting
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Hao Feng
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Music
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Zhang Yadong
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Chai Xiuling
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Jia Fengsen
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Jia Hongshen
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From the director of SHOWER, Best Film Bangkok, FIPRESCI Award Stockholm, Best Actor Singapore, Best Film Brasilia, Netpac Award Venice Film Festival
Zhang Yang was born March 28, 1967 in Beijing, China. He graduated from the Director's Department of the Central Theatre Academy. In 1997, he directed his first feature SPICY LOVE SOUP which was in competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival and swept all the domestic Chinese awards. His second film SHOWER (1999) also went on to win awards at a wide array of festivals in Canada, Spain, Greece, Holland, the United States, Argentina and Italy. His third feature QUITTING (2001) scored at the Chinese box office and won FIPRESCI Prize at the Stockholm Film Festival. His fourth film SUNFLOWER (2004) won Best Director and Best Cinematography at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. His fifth film GETTING HOME (2007) won the Ecumenical Award at Berlin Film Festival. In 2010, he directed DRIVELESS. FULL CIRCLE (2012) is his latest feature film.
2012 FULL CIRCLE
2010 DRIVERLESS
2007 GETTING HOME
2005 SUNFLOWER
2001 QUITTING
1999 SHOWER
1998 SPICY LOVE SOUP