Fortune Teller (2009 film)

Fortune Teller (Chinese: 《算命》) is an independent Chinese documentary film released in 2009, directed by Xu Tong.[1] It primarily focuses on the everyday life of Li Baicheng, a disabled Chinese fortune teller with chronic leg weakness, and his wife, Pearl Shi, a woman living with hearing loss, aphasia and intellectual disability.[1]

Plot

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Li Baicheng (Chinese: 厉百程), a disabled Chinese male who was born in 1965 at Qinglong Manchu Autonomous County, Hebei, People's Republic of China, serves as a Chinese fortune teller, as a number of disabled people received a limited education and have no other way to make a life. He met Pearl Shi (Chinese: 石珍珠) in his 40s, a female who has multiple disabilities, including hearing loss, aphasia, and intellectual disability. The film documents their daily lives, including their travels, fortune-telling for prostitutes, buying Fulus, and other daily activities.

Reception and legacy

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As the film reflects the daily life of Chinese disabilities, it received many prizes. In 2009, the film was awarded the 6th Annual China Independent Film Festival (CIFF) - Top Ten Documentaries of the Year.[2] In 2010, it won the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema Award[3] and was the first runner-up in the feature film category at the Hong Kong Chinese Language Documentary Festival.[2] In 2011, the film was awarded the 2011 China Independent Film Festival "Real People Award" for depicting the life of Tang Xiaoyan (a female hooker in the documentary) as extensively as Old Tang Tau.[4]

Fortune Teller, together with Wheat Harvest and Old Tang Tau, was named Xu Tong's "Vagabonds Trilogy of documentary films".[1][5] Several articles note the focus on poor people in China within the film.[5][6] The New York Times states that the movie "looks sympathetically at a vanishing folk tradition".[7]

Tang Xiaoyan, the prostitute who appears in the film, had been raped at the age of 17. Fortune Teller might have changed her life to some extent, as she later joined Xu Tong's team and even became a producer for the team.[8]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Lo, Vivienne; Berry, Chris; Guo, Liping, eds. (2020). Film and the Chinese medical humanities. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. p. 107. ISBN 9780429507465. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  2. ^ a b Yuezhong History Video Gallery (2016-10-14). "于广义、徐童、顾桃纪录作品将于深圳联展" [Yu Guangyi, Xu Tong and Gu Tao's documentary works will be exhibited together in Shenzhen]. Tencent news (in Simplified Chinese). Retrieved 2022-10-28.
  3. ^ "Xu Tong's FORTUNE TELLER wins NETPAC Award". dGenerate Films. Archived from the original on 13 September 2019. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
  4. ^ "中国独立影像年度展在南京落幕" [China Independent Video Annual Exhibition Ends in Nanjing]. Sina Collections (in Simplified Chinese). Art News China. 2011. Retrieved 2022-10-28.
  5. ^ a b Laughlin, Charles A. (2019). "Images of Aging and the Aesthetic of Actuality in Chinese Film: Reportage, Documentary, and the Art of the Real". Modern Chinese Literature and Culture. 31 (2): 207–248. ISSN 1520-9857. JSTOR 26895776. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  6. ^ Lo, Vivienne; Berry, Chris; Guo, Liping, eds. (2020). Film and the Chinese medical humanities. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. p. 109. ISBN 9780429507465. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  7. ^ Rohter, Larry (17 February 2011). "Indie Films From a Land Short on Independence". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  8. ^ Lu, Sheldon H. (2021). Contemporary Chinese cinema and visual culture : envisioning the nation. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 176?. ISBN 9781350234208. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
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