Language: Mandarin
Subtitles: Chinese

Director: Li Shaohong
Cast: Chen Kun, Yang Mu, Huang Jue, Lin Shen


"We have no ghosts in the film, no monsters, no religion, no superstition, no exorcism, no third sense and no deity, just very plausible obsession and insanity," said director Li, again laughing out loud. Doors is a psychological thriller of a type not yet produced by China's filmmakers and likely to further the director's reputation as a trailblazing auteur.

"It is film fundamentally about the purity of love and the rage it can lead to. It is also about how the social context a woman finds herself in can determine the role the men around her play and be inevitably trapped by," said Li.

The film, scripted by Los Angeles-based screenwriter Simon Weining Sun, is a loose adaptation of the popular Internet novel San cha kou (Intersection) by Zhou De-Dong.

"Doors is about the relationship of a young couple that is constricted by the overwhelming love the man has for his partner, a love that he finds so hard to control, it seriously affects his life," said Li.

The relationship comes sunder strain when the man, to be played by Chinese heartthrob Chen Kun, suspects his girlfriend, to be played by newcomer and Hepburn look-a-like Yang Mi, of having a chance sexual encounter with another man, to be played by Li Shen. Affected by the shadow cast on their relationship by this encounter, but unable to confront her, the central character becomes plagued by doubt.

"He thinks: 'I am a little loser; why is my girlfriend still with me?' She is beautiful and a former school cheerleader, he is just a regular guy, an editor at a publishing house," said Simon Sun.

When she reveals she is pregnant, early on in the film, the central character doubts his paternity but continues to be grateful for her love. Eventually he challenges her. They argue. That night he sleeps alone, and when he wakes from a disturbing dream, in which he sees her bleed, he discovers she has left him. He goes in search of the truth.

"Its a psychological thriller with a central character that is slowly driven crazy by love, an overly sensitive contemporary Othello full of doubt and neurosis," said Sun. "To say more would give the story away."

With a supporting cast that includes Huang Jue, the 12 million yuan (US$1.5 million) film is not small by Chinese standards. Most made-in-China films are budgeted at between 3 million yuan and 4 million yuan (US$375,000-500,000). Li Shaohong will direct, with husband, cinematographer Zheng Nianping behind the camera and Li Xiaowan producing.

Order No.: 47.0142