To Live and Die in Ordos / The Police Diary / Jing Cha Ri Ji / 警察日记 / 警察日記 (2013)

Inner Mongolia Blue Hometown Production Co., Ltd.
Inner Mongolia Film Group (CN)
Ordos Radio & TV Media
Haining Blue Hometown Film Industry (CN

Chine mandarin
Drame Policier
Tiré d'un fait réel.

Première au Festival International Film Tokyo (19 octobre 2013)
Puis Viennale 2013

113 mn

Réalisateur Scénariste : Ning Ying 寧瀛
Réalisateur exécutif : Zhang Jie
Scénariste : Ning Dai 寧岱 (For Fun, I Love Beijing, Seventeen Years (1999), Little Red Flowers (2005))
Photographe : Sean O'Dea - EU - (Kung Fu Man (2013),...)
Monteur Jia Cui Ping 賈萃平
Compositeur : Liu Si Jun
Producteurs : Huhe Huhebateer, Mu Ren, Zheng Tao
Producteur exécutif : Zhang Jie
Superviseur de scénario : Lu Wei 劉思軍
Son : He Wei (3) 何威

Cameo : Huhebateer
Acteurs
Wang Jing Chun 王景春
Hou Yansong 侯岩松 (Mother is a river (2006), Legend Of The Book's Tower (2005), ...)
Yuan Lijian 袁利堅
Chen Wei Han 陈维涵 (Rock Paper Scissors (2011), Day of Redemption (2013))
Gao Siyu
Sun Liang 孫亮 (Death Dowry (2010), The Sun Beaten Path (2011), ...)
Hou Yansong 侯岩松 (Mother is a river (2006), Legend Of The Book's Tower (2005), ...)
Zhang Jie 章劼
Tang Ji 湯計
Bai Bo 白波
Li Meihua
Zhang Aiping
Li Runfei
Li Yang

The film is inspired by the story of Hao Wanzhong, a policeman in Ordos, Inner Mongolia. Following his career, through the inner workings of a modern Chinese police department in Inner Mongolia. While rising through the ranks Hao Wanzhong successfully solves difficult cases. His story carries us through vicious murders, corruption, and social unrest, against a backdrop of majestic winter landscapes, opulent cities and the raw industrial districts of this remote region of China. Hao's obsession with detective work leads to his meteoric rise from beat cop to district police chief, however his maniacal dedication comes at a cost, a cost to his family and ultimately leads to his death. - Sean O'Dea @letterboxd.com

@chinawriter.com.cn

Synopsis : A policeman dies in the city of Ordos in Inner Mongolia, northern China. Hao Wenzhang, police chief of Jungar administrative district , dies suddenly on 14 May 2011, aged 41, leaving behind his wife, elementary school teacher Meng Wenjuan, and young son Yuanyuan. He is seen as a local hero, with a reputation for incorruptibility in what is one of China's richest regions, largely thanks to its huge coal reserves. Hua Wei, the top investigative reporter in Inner Mongolia, is persuaded by his editor-in-chief to write a story about him, even though Hua Wei, from past experience, is suspicious of such heroes. He tries to find out more about the man, and slowly discovers the shocking truth about him.

Sadly, To Live And Die In Ordos feels like propaganda, even if it isn’t.

Ning Ying's last major film, the 2005 chamber drama Perpetual Motion, was lauded for being audacious enough to have women speaking about their sex lives on screen. Whether that was to be her career pinnacle remains debatable, but her latest film unquestionably sees the filmmaker plummeting to despairing creative depths.
Based on an official feted, allegedly incorruptible police chief in one of the fastest developing regions in China, To Live and Die in Ordos is a piece of unflinching, visually banal hagiography which harks back to the oft-appearing state-backed films about nearly flawless men of iron who place their work before their families and their own well-beings.
{...}
Tiring they could be, but it's not as if propaganda or product placements can't be given an aesthetic pleasing touch: the problem is that To Live and Die in Ordos simply doesn't work well in the multiple genres it purports to straddle. It's too linear as a biopic, too simplistic as a detective thriller, and too corny as a piece of human drama. It's questionable whether the film will connect with its domestic audiences, not to say of the chance of further festival appearances after its shows at Tokyo and then Vienna next month.
@hollywoodreporter.com - Clarence Tsui 19/10/2013 article complet

Ning Ying’s To Live and Die in Ordos (Jincha Riji), adapted from a true story, is a mature piece of work which manages to maintain enough suspense throughout the film while remaining poetic and full of potent imagery. @filmint.nu 23 novembre 2013

Notes :
@wordpress.com
Wang Jingchun a remporté le prix du meilleur acteur au Festival International du Film à Tokyo (2013)

Entretien de la réalisatrice avec english.cntv.cn - 24 octobre 2013


Fiche du film