YE

The Night
A young man stands before his mirror. The night belongs to him. Self-love and longing. Every evening he admires himself in a different outfit before leaving his apartment and waiting for clients in a dimly lit alley. This is where he meets a female prostitute of the same age who is new to his district. They flirt, drift together through the streets, toy with the idea of paying each other for sex, and give each other the names of flowers: he is Tuberose and she is Narcissus. The strangers whom they sleep with all remain faceless to them - until one night a young man who calls himself Rose falls in love with Tuberose. With the help of Narcissus, Rose begins to court the young sex worker. Tuberose responds at first with cool reserve, but the yearning love songs of Taiwanese singer Teresa Tung make it difficult for him to remain aloof for long.
In 2014, the then 21-year-old director surprised audiences with this brilliant debut, in which he also plays the leading role. Seducing the viewer with mysteriously atmospheric images, he succeeds in drawing us completely into the search by these three social misfits for warmth across social and gender divides.
by Zhou Hao
with Zhou Hao, Liu Xiao Xiao, Li Jin Kang, Zhou Feng Qi
People’s Republic of China 2014 Mandarin 95’ Colour & Black/White

With

  • Zhou Hao (Tuberose)
  • Liu Xiao Xiao (Narzisse)
  • Li Jin Kang (Rose)
  • Zhou Feng Qi (John)

Crew

Written and Directed by Zhou Hao
Cinematography Yang Zhan Wen
Editing Zhou Hao
Sound Yang Zhan Wen
Sound Design Yang Zhan Wen
Costumes Zhou Hao
Production Manager Zhou Hao
Executive Producer Zhou Hao

Produced by

Next Way Studios

Zhou Hao

Born in Chongqing, China in 1992. After a number of short films, he made his feature film debut with YE (The Night) which premiered in the 2014 Panorama and won several prizes. In 2015, he participated in the Cinéfondation Résidence programme of the Cannes Film Festival. In 2016, he oversaw the adaptation of YE (The Night) into a Japanese-language stage play which premiered in Tokyo in the spring of 2017. In the same year, he wrote and directed a short film mentored by director Béla Tarr as part of the Xining First Film Festival Training Camp. He is currently working on a novel adaptation.

Filmography

2012 Addiction; short film 2013 Lust; short film 2014 YE (The Night); Panorama 2017 Daily Life; short film

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2019