To Live to Sing

Zhao Li is the director of a small Sichuan opera troupe that lives and performs in a rundown theater on the outskirts of Chengdu, China. When she receives notice that the theater is to be demolished, she pulls out all the stops to save her beloved opera house. After his impressive debut "Old Stone," which traced the high cost of compassion in modern urban China with nightmarish relentlessness, Canadian-Chinese director Johnny Ma loosens his grip a bit to deliver a gentler, though not necessarily less pessimistic, examination of failure. "The parallel between the dwindling relevance of the classical form for younger generations and the widespread fear that China's determined turn toward its "economic miracle" will lead to a loss of cultural identity is strongly underscored." (Variety)