Chinese actress Xu Jinglei held a premiere ceremony in Beijing on Monday for her latest film Dreams May Come, slated to hit cinemas across China from 30th June.

 

 

Actor Han Tongsheng(L) and actress Xu Jinglei(R) at the premiere ceremony Monday in Beijing for the latest film Dreams May Come.

 

Xu Jinglei directed and starred in Dreams May Come, her third directorial feature after the acclaimed My Father and I and Letter from an Unknown Woman.

 

The film is based on the story by renowned novelist Wang Shuo, who is also the playwright of the film.

 

Shot in a little mess room from start to finish, this film inside a film has two main characters – a leading actress and a director – discuss their true feelings and the problems they encounter while shooting a film.

 

The film paints a personal insider view of cinema, with one scene where the actress says she feels nauseous when she's shaped into a pure and soft figure.

 

Reporters asked Xu if it was based on reality at press conference on Monday.

 

"Yes, the director in the film says that pretending to be pure is my role in films. Of course I disagree with that. The film does relate with some of my experiences with movies."

 

Xu Jinglei is just back from the 9th Shanghai International Film Festival on Sunday. She is one of the judges at the event. Regarding on why does not the film take part in the awards, she said:

 

"We were late for the deadline. We only received the final copy two days ago. We had to finish it by June 15 to enter the competition, so we were too late."

 

The low-budget film is the first in China to have just one set and two leads, with the entire plot resting on the dialogue between the two characters.

 

But Xu Jinglei isn't worried about how audience reactions, saying she never intended her movie to appeal to the masses and doesn't expect it to receive widespread acceptance.

 

(CRI June 28, 2006)