| Bliss | |
|---|---|
| File:Bliss 2006 Film.jpg | |
| Directed by | Sheng Zhimin |
| Produced by | Fruit Chan Paul Cheng Carl Chang |
| Written by | Gu Zheng Sheng Zhimin |
| Starring | He Xingquan Guan Jiangge Xu Tao Liao Zhong Wang Lan He Qin |
| Music by | Zhao Li |
| Cinematography | Wang Junbo |
| Editing by | Kong Jinglei |
| Distributed by | Golden Network Asia |
| Release date(s) | Locarno: August 10, 2006 Toronto: September 11, 2006 |
| Running time | 96 min. |
| Language | Mandarin |
Bliss (Chinese: 浮生; pinyin: Fú shēng; literally "Floating Lives") is a 2006 Chinese family drama film directed by Sheng Zhimin and produced by Hong Kong director Fruit Chan. The film was Sheng's first as a director, having previously served as a line producer for Chan and Jia Zhangke on films such as Durian Durian and Platform.[1]
Though primarily a mainland production, the film was financed in part by the Hong Kong-based See Movie Ltd. and was distributed by Hong Kong's Golden Network Asia.[2]
Contents |
Cast [link]
- He Xingquan as Lao Li, a retired police officer living in Chongqing.
- Guan Jiangge as Xiu'e, Lao Li's second wife.
- Xu Tao as Xiaolei, Xiu'e's grown son from a previous marriage.
- Liao Zhong as Jianjun, Lao Li's cab-driving son from his first marriage.
- Wang Lan as Xiaohong, Jianjun's new wife.
- He Qin as Qian Xue, an out-of-towner who catches the eye of Xiaolei.
Plot [link]
Bliss tells the story of a modern and non-traditional family living in Chongqing. Lao Li (He Xingquan) is a once-divorced retired police officer, currently living with his second wife Zhang Xiu'e (Guan Jiangge). Lao Li's first wife ran off years ago, forcing him to raise his son, Jianjun alone.
Jianjun (Liao Zhong), now a grown man, has recently married Xiaohong (Wang Lan) and works long hours as a taxi driver. A passive man, Jianjun and Xiaohong's marriage is suffering from his long hours and her resentments. She eventually begins an affair and becomes pregnant, though the father remains a mystery. Jianjun announces that the baby will be born when Xiaohong discovers that her condition was actually a false pregnancy, and that she has actually been diagnosed with uterine cancer.
Meanwhile, Xiu'e's son from a previous marriage, the delinquent Xiaolei (Xu Tao) has begun to run with local hoodlums, much to the consternation of his mother and stepfather. Lao Li steps in and gets Xiaolei a job on a trolley-car, where he becomes interested in the pretty coworker, Qian Xue (He Qin). Unfortunately Xiaolei seems unable to escape from his life of petty crime.
Into this drama, Lao Li receives an unexpected package, his first wife's ashes. Lao Li must now try to find a suitable burial place for the ashes, all while trying to keep his crumbling family together.
Background [link]
The story of Bliss, which spans many years, evolved from an idea Sheng Zhimin developed while searching with his father for a proper burial place for his late mother.[1] The experience of searching various graveyards throughout Beijing inspired Sheng to make a film "that spans from one's youth to their old age and it would be about life, youth and humanity."[1]
Filming took place in the central Chinese city of Chongqing, where the city's seemingly constant fog and mist initially caused delays and problems to the production. Despite these problems, the mist would become one of the film's overriding themes.[1]
Reception [link]
Relatively little seen, the few critics who did manage to see the film at a film festival were kind to Sheng's debut work, seeing its depressing and misty story as a vehicle for the characters to express something broader about Chinaese society.[3] Though depressing, these critics nevertheless saw the film as an honest portrayal of modern Chinese "struggling to get by, with terribly little, materially or spiritually."[4] An exception was Variety critic Derek Elley, who saw the film's downbeat atmosphere as essentially a "remote intellectual exercise."[2]
Many of these western reviews placed Sheng Zhimin's Bliss very much along the lines of other sixth generation filmmakers. In particular, the film was seen to reflect Jia Zhangke's Still Life for its realistic portrayal of modern life in China.[5]
Bliss premiered at the 2006 Locarno International Film Festival where it won the NETPAC award,[6] and had its North American premiere at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival.[7] It also screened at the 2007 Shanghai International Film Festival, where it picked up a best picture prize for the New Talent side-competition.[8]
References [link]
- ^ a b c d "Toronto '06 Discovery Interview: Sheng Zhimin". indieWire. 2006-09-08. https://www.indiewire.com/people/2006/09/toronto_06_disc_1.html. Retrieved 2008-12-20.[dead link]
- ^ a b Elley, Derek (2006-08-19). "Bliss Review". Variety. https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117931352.html. Retrieved 2008-12-20.
- ^ Wee, Brandon (Fall 2006). "Festivals 2006: Istanbul, Karlovy Vary, Delhi, Montreal, Toronto". Kinema. Archived from the original on 2008-06-27. https://web.archive.org/web/20080627055907/https://www.kinema.uwaterloo.ca/ff-062.htm. Retrieved 2008-12-21.
- ^ Walsh, David (2006-10-09). "Where death threatens to be more than life". World Socialist Web Site. https://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/oct2006/tff6-o09.shtml. Retrieved 2008-12-21.
- ^ Mudge, James (2007-06-19). "Bliss (2006) Movie Review". BeyondHollywood.com. https://www.beyondhollywood.com/bliss-2006-movie-review/. Retrieved 2008-12-21.
- ^ "OFFICIAL AWARDS OF THE 59th LOCARNO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL". Locarno International Film Festival. 2006. https://jahia.pardo.ch/jahia/webdav/site/pardosite/shared/pdf/Palmares%20English%202006.pdf. Retrieved 2008-12-21.[dead link]
- ^ Vlessing, Etan (2006-06-28). "'Babel,' 'Wind' top slots for Toronto fest". The Hollywood Reporter. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002729059. Retrieved 2008-12-21.[dead link]
- ^ Jones, Arthur (2007-07-24). "'Plan' wins top prize at Shanghai". Variety. https://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=story&id=1061&articleid=VR1117967535&starting=6. Retrieved 2008-12-20.
External links [link]
- Bliss at the Internet Movie Database
- Bliss at AllRovi
- Bliss at the Chinese Movie Database
- Bliss at Cinemasie
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https://wn.com/Bliss_(2006_film)
Bliss (1995 film)
Bliss is a 1995 British television film directed by Marc Evans, starring Simon Shepherd, Jonathan Hyde, Reece Dinsdale and Jennifer Hilary.
Plot summary
Sam Bliss (Simon Shepherd) and his colleague, Dr. Oliver Pleasance (Jonathan Hyde) stumble upon the Duboys family. The members of the Duboys have been known to have lived for up to 150 years, due to their special gene combination. While tracking down the remaining members of this family, Bliss and Pleasance find out they are not the only ones interested in the Duboys family.
Cast
Bliss (automobile)
The Bliss automobile was manufactured by the E. W. Bliss Company of Brooklyn, New York, in 1906. The company was founded in 1867 and for a short duration, diversified into automobile manufacturing.
History
Eliphalet Williams Bliss of Brooklyn, founded the E. W. Bliss Company in 1867. The company was diversified in many areas including the manufacture of shells and projectiles as well as tools, dies and presses for use in sheet metal work. Over the years, Bliss took out patents for specialty machines for manufacturing and soldering metal cans and for shaping and casting sheet metal. Today the company is still in business in the manufacture of metal forming type industrial machinery and equipment machine tools.
In 1904, Motor Age Magazine published a story about how “The E.W. Bliss Company has taken up the manufacture of automobiles." Experiments with prototypes had been so successful that plans were made for the installation of a plant "which will permit extensive operations along these lines.”
Ray of Light
Ray of Light is the seventh studio album by American singer Madonna, released on February 22, 1998 by Maverick Records. After giving birth to her first child, Lourdes, Madonna started working on the album with producers Babyface and Patrick Leonard. Following failed sessions with them, Madonna pursued a new musical direction with English producer William Orbit. The recording took place over four months and experienced problems with Orbit's hardware Pro Tools arrangement, which would break down, and recording would have to be delayed until they could be repaired.
A major departure from her previous work, Ray of Light is an electronica record which incorporates several genres, including techno, trip hop, drum and bass, ambient, rock, and classical music. Vocally, the album saw Madonna sing with greater breadth and a fuller tone. Mystical themes are also strongly present in both lyrics and music as a result of Madonna embracing Kabbalah, her study of Hinduism and Buddhism, as well as her daily practice of Hatha Yoga.
Skin (Marvel Comics)
Skin is a fictional mutant in the Marvel Universe of comics. The character first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #317. (1994)
Fictional character biography
Angelo Espinosa was a former gang member from the east Los Angeles area who faked his own death to leave that part of his life behind. Skin was one of four young mutants (including M, Husk, and Blink) abducted by the Phalanx, a techno-organic alien race. The reason behind the abductions was so that the Phalanx could uncover the secret behind their inability to assimilate mutants into their collective. Through their combined efforts and those of Banshee, Emma Frost, Sabretooth, Synch, and Jubilee, the four young mutants managed to escape their confines; although, Blink sacrificed herself by using her powers to destroy the Phalanx that had captured them.
Afterwards, Skin accepted an invitation to enroll in the Massachusetts Academy, a school for mutants owned by Emma Frost. As a member of Generation X, Skin was joined by Synch, Jubilee, Husk, and M (and later by Chamber, Penance, and Mondo). During his stay at the Massachusetts Academy, Skin became close friends with Chamber because neither could pass for normal humans in public, and he always found time to playfully flirt with Husk, Jubilee (who he nicknamed Jubecita), and M. Skin was also hunted by a mutant-killing vigilante known as the X-Cutioner who believed Skin responsible for the death of Angelo Espinosa. The X-Cutioner did not know that Skin, in fact, was Angelo Espinosa. Skin and Chamber succeeded in defeating the vigilante, but kept the secret.
Skin (Dekker novel)
Skin is a contemporary Christian fiction science fiction/horror novel released in April 2007 by Ted Dekker. Dekker's novel, Skin was published by Thomas Nelson with the purpose to connect the Circle Trilogy, the Project Showdown books, and an upcoming series of books.
Plot Overview
When three freak tornados hit the fictional, isolated town of Summervile in rural Nevada, the entire town is carried off by the storm, and five survivors find themselves at the mercy of a more ominous threat - a serial killer by the name of Sterling Red, who orders them to kill the ugliest of the group. As they struggle with determining what true beauty is, the FBI scrambles to determine Red's true identity and stop him. But they must hurry, because Red has promised that if his insane demands are not met in six hours, he'll begin his killing spree again.
Main characters
Nótt
In Norse mythology, Nótt (Old Norse "night") is night personified, grandmother of Thor. In both the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, Nótt is listed as the daughter of a figure by the name of Nörvi (with variant spellings) and is associated with the horse Hrímfaxi, while the Prose Edda features information about Nótt's ancestry, including her three marriages. Nótt's third marriage was to the god Dellingr and this resulted in their son Dagr, the personified day (although some manuscript variations list Jörð as Dellingr's wife and Dagr's mother instead). As a proper noun, the word nótt appears throughout Old Norse literature.
Attestations
Poetic Edda
In stanza 24 of the poem Vafþrúðnismál, the god Odin (disguised as "Gagnráðr") asks the jötunn Vafþrúðnir from where the day comes, and the night and its tides. In stanza 25, Vafþrúðnir responds:
In stanza 14 of the Vafþrúðnismál, Odin states that the horse Hrímfaxi "draws every night to the beneficent gods" and that he lets foam from his bit fall every morning, from which dew comes to the valleys. In stanza 30 of the poem Alvíssmál, the god Thor asks the dwarf Alvíss to tell him what night is called in each of the nine worlds, whom "Nórr" birthed. Alvíss responds that night is referred as "night" by mankind, "darkness" by the gods, "the masker" by the mighty Powers, "unlight" by the jötunn, "joy-of-sleep" by the elves, while dwarves call her "dream-Njörun" (meaning "dream-goddess").
