Cannes: China’s Yang Feng Directs Period Action-Drama ‘The Coldest City’

Chinese filmmaker Yang Feng is directing period-action drama The Coldest City, produced by Hena Film Culture Media. The stars Xia Yu (Breaking Through, A Little Red Flower), Lee Li-chun (Hello Mr. Billionaire, Goodbye Mr. Loser) and Tan Kai (Detective vs. Sleuths, Drug War).

Beijing-based Blossoms Entertainment is shopping The Coldest City to buyers in Cannes. It is among a somewhat shorter-than-usual list of Chinese commercial films on offer at the Marche du Film this year, as the Chinese industry continues to emerge from its pandemic-period isolation to re-engage with the global film business. The Coldest City will be released in China later this year.

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The Coldest City is set in a frigid city of Northeast China in 1945, a turbulent period in Chinese history after the surrender of the Japanese army. In an unmanned city rampant with underworld forces, the story follows Gu Nian, a classic figure of the gunman who walks alone in a materialistic and shattered old world, struggling to fight for loyalty, honor and promises to his lost friends.

Yang’s most recent release is Railway Heroes, which earned $17 million in China in 2021. Xia, the film’s star, was the youngest actor ever to win the Venice Film Festival’s best actor prize when he claimed the award in 1994 for his performance in Jiang Wen’s In the Heat of the Sun.

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