THE GREEN HAT

(LU MAOZI)

San Francisco Premiere

China 2003 | 98mins | 35mm Color | Mandarin w/E.S.

One of the most audacious, entertaining and sexually frank films to emerge from Chinaâs independent film scene, THE GREEN HAT is a dazzling directorial debut for screenwriter Liu Fendou (SPICY LOVE SOUP, SFIAAFF â00; SHOWER). According to Chinese lore, a green hat is the sign of a cuckold, and betrayal is the cosmic tissue fatefully intertwining two men in a tragicomic crisis of manhood and sex. Wang, a bank robber, is mocked by his partners for an unthinkable two-year abstinence, faithfully (or foolishly) waiting to reunite with his girlfriend overseas. His plans begin to unravel when, en route to airport from heist, she calls to announce a new lover. Meanwhile, a weathered copâs frustrations over his impotence and inadequate ãaverage sizeä begin to boil over when his duplicitous wife makes no secret of her own tall, side-burned stud. When the paths of these two men cross, something much deeper about sexual politics is revealed, startlingly resulting in not one, but two hostage situations·.

Never veering into vengeful violence or sappy melodrama, Liu skillfully toes the tense emotional balance between men who are powerless, humiliated, and ready to explode. Masterfully gliding through constant genre shifts÷from heist caper to marital drama to revenge film÷THE GREEN HAT, winner of two top prizes at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival, is a remarkable achievement, never yielding in its intensity and humanity.

÷Chi-hui Yang

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