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Gong plays acclaimed actress Jean Yu, who, in
the first week of December 1941, returns to wartime Shanghai
apparently to star in her former lover's play "Saturday Fiction"
at the city's Lyceum Theater.
Around her is a fight for intelligence between the Allies and
the Axis powers during World War Two, and many soon begin to
suspect the actress' motives, especially with her ex-husband in
the hands of Japanese forces in the city.
The film, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival on
Wednesday, sees Yu's links to the Allied forces revealed in the
run up to the attack on the U.S. naval base in Hawaii, and the
actress soon finds herself enveloped in a web of mistrust.
"Making this film really was not easy," Gong, known for "Memoirs
of a Geisha" and "Farewell My Concubine", told a news
conference.
"I think this film is a very personal one for our director and
has a lot of his characteristics but we actors were allowed a
lot of liberty, the director gave us a lot of freedom to express
ourselves."
In production notes, director Lou Ye describes how he would
visit his parents at the Shanghai theater, where they worked
backstage, and watch actors take to the stage.
"The backdrop to this story was a time that was very chaotic and
dangerous," he told reporters.
"It has this big backdrop and this important timing, one week
away from an important event but what I was mostly interested in
this context was each individual person, I wanted to focus on
their troubles against such a troubling backdrop."
"Saturday Fiction" is one of 21 films competing for the Venice
Film Festival's top Golden Lion Prize, whose winner will be
announced on Saturday.
(Reporting by Hanna Rantala and Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing
by Alison Williams)
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