TAIHANG MOUNTAIN DISTRICT, Shanxi, China (October 5, 2014) –Mountain Cry, a Hairun Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures Asia co-production, started production today at its shooting location in Tongtianxia, a district nestled high in the Tai Hang Mountains of China’s Shanxi Province.
Mountain Cry was written and is being directed by young PRC director Larry Yang. His script is based on Shanxi-based Ge Shuiping’s award-winning Chinese novel of the same name. Ge’s novel was inspired by true-life events that occurred in the rugged Tai Hang Mountain region in which she grew up and still lives today.
Set in a remote village, the story begins with the sudden death of a husband and father whose family is new to the village’s tight-knit traditional community. In the aftermath of that tragic event, the villagers come to know and understand the man’s widow, a mysterious mute with a story to tell and the power to tell it wordlessly.
Lang Yueting will star as the mute beauty, and Zi Yi will play the role of Han Chong, the young man in the village who is forced to take responsibility for her husband’s death. Lang made her film debut in the 2012 Johnnie To-directed Blind Detective, and co-stars with Chow Yun-Fat and Zi Yi in To’s upcoming Design for Living. Zi has appeared in a number of other recent Chinese films including Ann Hui’s The Golden Era, To’s Blind Detective, and Wang Xiaoshuai’s Chongqing Blues. Cheng Taisheng, whose many credits include roles in Jia Zhangke’s The World; Zhang Yimou’s Under the Hawthorn Tree and Alejandro Inarritu’s Biutiful, is attached to play Han Chong’s father.
Mountain Cry’s Director of Photography is Patrick Murguia (Low Winter Sun (10 episodes): The Frozen Ground; Brooklyn’s Finest) and its Production Designer is Jeffrey Kong (A Marriage Proposal; The First Time; Forbidden Kingdom). The film will be shot almost entirely on location in the Tongtianxia area.