Ann Hu: Dream and Memory

Dream and Memory was the first movie of Ann Hu. It was made in 1994. Ann Hu was director, screenwriter and producer. The movie was distributed by C&A Angelika Film NY

It seems impossible to find it anywhere: at least neither on Netflix, nor on youTube. Also some basic information (firstly the movie's length) cannot be found. Surprisingly the plot can be read on the web in a couple of places (http://www.answers.com/topic/dream-and-memory, http://www.blockbuster.com/browse/catalog/movieDetails/91799#readMore, etc.). The screenplay was based on a short story by Zhang Hongnian (also the info about him is scarce: I think it's not the artist painter who has the same name).

It is about two Chinese artists, of a certain age. Hong moved to the US long time ago, Cheng remained in China. In their youth, during the Cultural Revolution, they had been sent to a remote village to paint huge propaganda posters. Hong felt in love there for a village girl. For some reason Hong and Cheng broke their friendship: mix of jealousy, political fervor, difference in artistic views. Years passed. Hong receives a letter from Cheng: the past seems now to him like a dream, so it is different from his present life in New York. Hong tries to rememorate the past, to reconstruct the events and put them in order: the play of dream and memory, not easy task, as youth is far away, as it is China, as it is the tumult of the Cultural Revolution. Hong has now totally different challenges and tensions. He got blind, and his present girlfriend seems to him somehow scared: actually she is afraid to tell the blind man that she is black. China and America, past and present, civilizations totally apart: two universes meet in the soul of Hong, East and West, like dream and memory.

I found a review at http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117908548?refcatid=31


(Ann Hu)