On March 28th, the premiere of The Eleventh Chapter was successfully held in Beijing. The film was shortlisted for the 9th Beijing International Film Festival's Tiantan Awards and won two awards for Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress. The film will screened on the theaters nationwide on April 2.

Ultimate poster of The Eleventh Chapter

The Eleventh Chapter tells a humorous story which originated from an old case adapted into a three-act drama by the municipal troupe many years ago. Ma Fuli (played by Chen Jianbin), the party to the case, vows his “rivalry” against the troupe with the “truth” he conceives and hopes to prove his own innocence. In the process, he has encountered the double pressure from both the family and his life, which develops a series of hilarious storylines. Meanwhile, he has also found out the context of the case between the virtual and the real. In the end, he realizes the true essence of life that “everything will be fine as long as you live ” in the chaos just as what is implied by the lines “faith and belief” in the film.

Main production team of The Eleventh Chapter at the closing ceremony and awards ceremony of the 9th Beijing International Film Festival

Two years ago, The Eleventh Chapter debuted at the 9th Beijing International Film Festival as a finalist film for the Tiantan Awards. At the press conference, some media asked why the film was finally named as The Eleventh Chapter. Director Chen Jianbin confessed that there used to be another name for this film during the scripting and shooting period. The name The Eleventh Chapter occurred to him in the later stage which was integrated with the story development in the film. It’s not only a name of film but also a part of the story, which can enable the production team to express the story and the audience to understand the film much better.  

Premiere scene of The Eleventh Chapter 

As the second feature film directed and acted by Chen Jianbin, this film contains what he most wants to express: “It tells the relationship between drama and life. Since I’ve spent 12 years in the Central Academy of Drama and played drama for a long time, I have some particular complex for stage dramas”. It’s his years of experience accumulation in drama that contributed to the successful presentation of The Eleventh Chapter. Apart from being the director and leading actor, Chen Jianbin also participated in the screenwriting in person, so he won the best screenwriter award at Tiantan Awards with Niu Jianrong, Niu Niu and Lei Zhilong. 

In addition, it’s also the film acted by Leah Dou for the first time. Due to her successful role as Jin Duoduo, she won the Tiantan Awards Best Supporting Actress in the 9th Beijing International Film Festival. Jin Duoduo is a rather complicated role and Leah Dou has fully demonstrated her acting talent and sensibility for this role. At the premiere, she also admitted that she was greatly helped and encouraged by Chen Jianbin and Zhou Xun so that she had the chance to win this honor. 

After the premiere, The Eleventh Chapter received a lot of positive comments. It’s scored 8.4 points at movie.douban.com and the audience have also expressed their love for the film on social media: relatively closed narrative structure and dramatic film plot never prevent the brilliant interpretation by the director with audiovisual effect. The most important thing is that the director has injected a lot of things into the film based on his own thoughts about the life. The film not only tells the story very clearly, but also leaves the room for thought-provoking.   

 

On April 2, let’s enjoy in the cinema!