Aftershock

Regent Square Theater: May 12 @ 7:00PM & May 14 @ 1:30PM

Passes not accepted on Opening/Closing Night. Please arrive at least 15 minutes ahead of start time to ensure availability of seating. Film schedule and Q & A's are subject to change.

2010/China/Director: Xiaogang Feng/135 min.
Cast: Jingchu Zhang, Daoming Chen, Yi Lu, Chen Li (Language: Mandarin)
Festivals and Awards: Asia Pacific Screen Award (Best Performance by an Actor & Best Film)
Based upon the novel of the same name by Zhang Ling, Aftershock, is an emblematic recreation of the disaster that killed over 240,000 in just 23 seconds.
In the wake of the 1976 earthquake in Tangshan, a young mother, Li Yuanni, is faced with the gravest decision imaginable. After just losing her husband in the quake, she begins a desperate search for her children in the rubble. Rescue workers find the 7-year-old-twins trapped beneath a cement block, treacherously tipped so that one cannot be removed without crushing the other. Li Yuanni must make a choice of which child should die so that the other can live – a mother’s worst nightmare.
Li Yuanni walks away from the debris of Tangshan with her son, haunted by her conscience, leaving her daughter’s body behind. The symbolic reverberations of the tragedy are enduring and continue long after for Li Yuanni when years later, during a 2008 earthquake, she discovers the true outcome of her daughter’s fate.
Though the images of the quake that appear in the first few minutes of the film are remarkably jarring and incredibly well created, Aftershock is not a Hollywood disaster movie. Xiaogang Feng focuses on the intimate trials and incredible courage of those affected by the quakes, with careful sensitivity and compassion for such a heinous occurrence.
Aftershock has been hailed highly at home, taking the title of highest grossing local release in China to date. Such an incredible box office feat deems this epic portrayal of heartache, loss, and moving on worthy of accolade in the top tiers of its genre.