CHINA
2011 / WORLD PREMIERE
1h35 / In Chinese

Synopsis
In Guangdong, the forefront of China’s reform and opening-up, the business of a sauna "Sauna on Moon" is fairly flat. The boss, Wu, together with his team, pursuits his dream and constructs a "entertainment kingdom" persistently with their wisdom, effort and positive spirit. Eventually, after a special “fashion show”, Wu tears for his uneasy success. During the period, some of his employees leave hopelessly, some are imprisoned, some are still longing for a better tomorrow by his side…

director : Zou Peng
screenplay : Zou Peng
cinematography : Yu Lik-wai
sound : Zhang Yang
editing : Wenders Li
music : Wang Lei

cast :
Wu Yuchi
Yang Xiaomin
Lei Ting
Zhan Yi

Production
E.F.G
Tel. +86 158 108 03831
saunaonmoon@gmail.com

press agent
Les piquantes
Tel. +33 1 42 00 38 86
Alexandra Faussier
Mob. +33 6 14 61 48 41
Florence Alexandre
Mob. +33 6 31 87 17 54

In Casino, Scorsese sees Las Vegas as a metaphor of the United-States. Zou Peng looks at China in the same way when he sets his camera up in this Eros-center-style sauna, swarming with call-girls.
In the footsteps of Zegen (Imamura, 1987), the country, through this distorted view, looks like a gigantic brothel, overly luxurious, but without totally succeeding in hiding behind this misleading façade, a more squalid, often harsh reality, reproduced here with sweetness and humanity.
Trained at the Academy of Cinema in Peking, Zou Peng directed Dongbei Dongbei (A North Chinese Girl), first shown in Berlin in 2009 before being awarded in Hong Kong Festival (Fipresci Prize). Shot in his home town of Harbin, he follows a young woman who works as a shop clerk during the day and follows her boss in night-clubs after hours. Around the benevolent character of Mr. Wu, the ballet teacher in charge of training the girls, Sauna on Moon increases these women’s fates. Zou Peng places his camera at the junction of ‘inner’ (behind the scenes of this world, the life of the girls, their aspirations) with ‘outer’, a ring of shows, a waltz of exhibition. This bright parade, superbly choreographed (photo is signed by Yu Lik-wai, reliable co-worker, camera man for Jia Zhangke and director in 1999 of Love Will Tear Us Apart), is only validated by what comes before it: the other side of the coin, the aspiration to play a part in this new scene of the world where everybody wants to stand out, under the impassive look of this town from another time, witness of these transformations.
In this whirl of life turned into a show (pretending in order to be, delusion of life and success), Sauna on Moon waivers between an ‘Ophuls à la Renoir’ crude and jovial lust, and a strange fusion between Wong Kar-wai, for the ballet of women, and Jia Zhangke in The World.

Charles Tesson