Chinese Film 'The Storm Looming' Well Received at the Cannes Film Festival

The event attracted many international filmmakers including Xiao Qiancao, a talented young filmmaker sent by the Wu Tianming Film Fund to participate in the Producers Workshop held at the festival.

He had with him the first concept poster for the film that he is in the middle of producing, The Storm Looming, which was released during the festival.

The Young Filmmakers Program is the first formal collaboration between the Wu Tianming Film Fund and the Cannes Film Festival and has attracted attention from international filmmakers and the media. As the grand finale of the event, The Storm Looming received a lot of positive recognition from representatives of the top six international film festivals: Cannes, Venice, Tokyo, Busan, Sundance and Hong Kong.

The Storm Looming tells the story of an ordinary factory worker who decides to play detective and single-handedly track down a serial killer in 1990s China. The poster shows a bloody knife cutting out a winding "fault zone" and a man standing on the edge of a cliff.

At first glance, one perceives a snowfield lying on either side of the "fault zone". On closer inspection one can see that the snow is like the texture of a person's skin. The implication (and also the implication in the film) is that, "When you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you." The well-known remark by Friedrich Nietzsche not only reflects the unique and mysterious mood of the film, but also alludes to the destiny of the characters.

The title of the Chinese poster was penned by the famous calligrapher Xu Jing, who has also done the calligraphy for Oscar nominees Hero and The Grandmaster.

Century Pictures, China's most promising new film company, is the investor behind and the producer of The Storm Looming. Since it was established two years ago, Century Pictures has earned over RMB630 million at the box office.

Xiao Qiancao serves as art director at Century Pictures and previously was planner, producer and director of the official documentary, Black Coal, Thin Ice, the Golden Bear winner at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival.