79 Here, Then

[MichaelB]

Mao Mao's drama about disaffected Chinese youths had its world premiere at the Edinburgh Film Festival last year, where it won the prize for Best International Feature.

Released on 24 June, according to Amazon

[TheDoman]

I hadn't heard anything about this one until I saw their newsletter. It sounds really interesting, and I'm looking forward to seeing this one!

[Bikey]

A terrific first review just in from CineVue

[Bikey]

BabylonLondonOrbital

[Bikey]

Full details now up at our website

[Bikey]

"It’s a mesmerizing ensemble piece... a gob-smackingly unusual film and well worth seeing at least twice"

Close-Up Film on Here, Then.

[MichaelB]

Mondo Digital:

Obviously this film won't be for everyone, but for those willing to immerse themselves in a mood piece with some of the most striking long camera shots in years, this is a strangely haunting and affecting film that actually grows in power after it's had time to linger in the mind for a while.

[Bikey]

Sight & Sound by Michael Brooke

[Bikey]

Cine Outsider

[warren oates]

Mondo Digital:

Obviously this film won't be for everyone, but for those willing to immerse themselves in a mood piece with some of the most striking long camera shots in years, this is a strangely haunting and affecting film that actually grows in power after it's had time to linger in the mind for a while.

An interesting release, an intriguing first feature, yet another young Chinese filmmaker to watch. The film plays best as an attempt to remove all but the faintest wisps of narrative from even the always already pre-wispy standard art film scenario of an ensemble of alienated and aimless young folks. The director, Mao Mao, certainly knows how to cast, to elicit good performances, to craft compelling moments, to block and compose strong shots and to use sound to focus the viewer's attention. In the end, for me, it didn't add up to quite enough for me to want to revisit it. Still, it held my attention for the whole run time and I'll certainly be interested to see what the director does next. One of the better Chinese filmmakers I've come across since Jia Zhangke, if not yet quite at the level of his best early work.

I hope this is only the first of many forthcoming Second Run releases of contemporary Chinese films. I'd like to see more obscure new works like this one and others from the recent past that have gotten some festival and academic acclaim but have yet to have any sort of proper release in English language markets like Oxhide and Oxhide II. dGenerate films is at least streaming the second title for a reasonable price on Amazon U.S., and Icarus Films in the U.S. will supposedly start releasing some of these films on DVD soon -- up to five a year -- but I doubt they could compete with a serious Second Run effort.

[knives]

I'll second Oates here. While the film doesn't do much to set itself apart from the dozens of other films in this genre what it does do is certainly memorable. The casting especially is great with every actor having instantly memorable faces.

[Bikey]

A terrific new appraisal of HERE, THEN by Gordon Thomas at Bright Lights Film Journal