I Am What I Am
雄獅少年
U.S. Premiere - Opening Film
China | Animation/Comedy/Drama | 2021 | 104 minutes | In Mandarin w/English subtitles
Director: Sun Hai-peng
Film Source: Tiger Pictures Entertainment
Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival, individually wrapped mooncakes will be handed out at the end of this screening, (f-c-f-s) basis. We also wish to thank the Consulate-General of People’s Republic of China in Chicago for their support in making the 5 Chinese films screening possible.
SYNOPSIS
Set in a rural village in Guangdong, Gyun, whose parents are off to the city to work as construction workers, is a weak, meek teenager obsessed with the lion dance. When a beautiful lion dance promoter hands him a lion head as a gift, Gyun is inspired to take up lion dancing. Roping in his buddies, the monkey-looking Kat and overweight Doggie, Gyun sets off to find themselves a lion dance master. Under the recommendation of an elderly janitor, Gyun finds the master in the most unlikely place—a store selling salted fish.
“A ridiculously satisfying underdog sports story set in the highly specialized arena of Chinese lion dancing…The result is an inspired mix of engineering and ingenuity, distinguished by some of the most human character animation….a welcome departure from the cutesy cartoony-ness of Pixar and its American ilk, produced at a mere fraction of the budget.”—Peter Debruge, Variety
In-Cinema Screening
Saturday, Sept 10 at 2 PM
@ Claudia Cassidy Theater, Chicago Cultural Center
STILL GALLERY
