The Sundance Kid

Sino-Japanese production is nominated for Sundance ’08

As we hinted at a few days ago, Ai Wan, of China Doll fame, has been focusing her attentions on something other than strutting around Tongli looking pretty. Over a year ago, she chanced a meeting with director Li Ying outside the old Yugong Yishan, they struck up conversation and now the two of them will see their documentary project Yasukuni taken into consideration for the World Cinema Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival. Understandably excited by the news, co-producer Ai Wan let the cat out of the bag a few days ago, but we had to keep a button on it until the nominees were announced late last week.

In a statement released earlier, director Li said of his controversial documentary:

My films are always about how people handle life and death in different ways. The Yasukuni Shrine is a big stage used by the Japanese to worship the war dead, where I saw life and death, memory and oblivion, and a big mask of wars. In this world, wars have never stopped its steps toward us. This documentary, through looking into the Yasukuni Shrine, shall be a track and a record of wars that I have diligently maintained over the past decade.

It is hoped that Yasukuni’s China release will coincide with its Japanese premiere in April.