imported>SporkBot: Remove template per TFD outcome

2024-12-22T13:33:53Z

Remove template per TFD outcome

New page

{{Infobox film
| name = Two Great Sheep
| image = Two_Great_Sheep.jpg
| caption =
| director = [[Liu Hao (director)|Liu Hao]]
| producer = [[Yang Buting]]<br />[[Wang Xinping]]
| writer = Liu Hao<br />[[Xia Tianmin]] (story)
| narrator =
| starring = [[Sun Yunkun]]<br />[[Jiang Zhikun]]
| music = [[Xu Zhitong]]
| cinematography = [[Li Bingqiang]]
| editing = [[Qiao Jinglin]]<br />Liu Hao
| distributor = [[Beijing Starlight International]]
| released = {{Film date|2004|09|14|[[2004 Toronto International Film Festival|Toronto]]|ref1=<ref name=Variety>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117925100.html|title=Two Great Sheep Review|magazine=Variety|author=Elley, Derek|date=2004-09-24|accessdate=2008-12-13}}</ref>|df=y}}
| runtime = 100 mins.
| country = People's Republic of China
| language = Mandarin
| budget =
| gross =
}}

'''''Two Great Sheep''''' ({{zh|s=好大一对羊|t=好大一對羊|p=Hǎo dà yī dùi yáng}}) is a 2004 satirical [[China|Chinese]] film directed by [[Liu Hao (director)|Liu Hao]] and cast primarily with unknown actors.

''Two Great Sheep'' tells the gentle story of a peasant couple, played by [[Sun Yunkun]] and [[Jiang Zhikun]], who are charged with caring for two foreign sheep that they must somehow breed for the community.

Liu's second film and the first under government approval, ''Two Great Sheep'' can be located as part of a broader trend of independent Chinese filmmakers switching their focuses to state-approved productions during the early years of the 21st century.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/03/16/features/jia.php|title=China's 'pariah' directors adapt to a thaw|newspaper = International Herald Tribune|author=Macintosh, R. Scott|date=2005-03-17|accessdate=2008-12-13}}</ref> Besides Liu, these years saw many of the leading figures of the "sixth-generation" turning in their first [[State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television|SARFT]]-approved productions, including [[Jia Zhangke]] (2004's ''[[The World (film)|The World]]''), [[Zhu Wen (writer)|Zhu Wen]] (2004's ''[[South of the Clouds (2004 film)|South of the Clouds]]''), and [[Wang Xiaoshuai]] (2005's ''[[Shanghai Dreams]]'').

''Two Great Sheep'' premiered at the [[2004 Toronto International Film Festival]] on September 14, 2004.<ref name=Variety/>

== Plot ==
The film follows a peasant couple, '''Zhao Deshan''' ([[Sun Yunkun]]) and his wife '''Xiuzhi''' ([[Jiang Zhikun]]), living in rural [[Yunnan]] province near [[Zhaotong]] in southern China. Their lives are thrown into upheaval when the local mayor ([[Chen Dajiang]]) "rewards" them with two foreign sheep donated by a former villager, now an official in Beijing. The couple is then tasked with breeding the sheep for their [[wool]] and to bring prosperity to their small community. Much to their chagrin, the sheep do not take to their new environment and the couple are forced into ever more ingenious ways of making the sheep appear greater than they really are. As they do so, they also come to value the sheep as companions in their family. When it becomes clear that the two "great" sheep are not the boon they were thought to be, the local authorities repossess the animals. Only now the simply peasant couple no longer wish to give them up.

== Cast ==
* [[Sun Yunkun]] as '''Zhao Deshan''', a simple peasant farmer living in rural Yunnan who is tasked with caring with the eponymous sheep.
* [[Jiang Zhikun]] as '''Xiuzhi''', his wife.
* [[Chen Dajiang]] as the mayor of Deshan and Xiuzhi's home village.
* [[Zhao Shengling]] as '''Liu''', the provincial governor

== Production ==
A graduate of the [[Beijing Film Academy]], Liu started his career with the independent film, ''[[Chen Mo and Meiting]]'' (2002). Though never released in China, the film caught the attention of Chinese producers at the [[China Film Group]] (CFG), who selected Liu to participate in the New Film Project, a joint investment by the CFG and the [[Peking University]]-Kwans Group to fund new directors.<ref name=ChinaToday>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.chinatoday.com.cn/English/e2004/e200402/p52.htm|title=Art House Success, Chinese-Style|magazine=China Today|author=Tang Yuankai|year=2004|access-date=2008-12-13|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511203010/http://www.chinatoday.com.cn/English/e2004/e200402/p52.htm|archive-date=2008-05-11}}</ref> With expectations that the film would be not only critically, but more importantly ''commercially'' successful, the China Film Group invested [[Renminbi|¥]]5 million to Liu for his next project, ''Two Great Sheep''.<ref name=ChinaToday/>

The "New Film Project" would in turn give way to [[Beijing Starlight International]], a new company focused on independent filmmakers which was also responsible for the film's international distribution and sales.<ref name=Variety/>

Shot primarily in the southern province of [[Yunnan]], ''Two Great Sheep'' was also produced in part by the Yunnan Provincial Association for External Cultural Exchange.<ref name=Variety/>

== Reception ==
''The New York Times'' critic Stephen Holden aptly summed up the two ways of viewing ''Two Great Sheep'': as either "an uplifting fable about teamwork and good citizenship or as a spoof of a frightened society's blind obedience to authority."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9501E4DE163FF930A15750C0A9639C8B63|title=Film Festival Reviews; 'Two Great Sheep'|author=Holden, Stephen|newspaper=The New York Times|date=2005-03-23|accessdate=2008-12-13}}</ref>

Steve Rhodes espoused the latter view in his review of the film, seeing ''Two Great Sheep'' as a "simple film, simply told."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://reviews.imdb.com/Reviews/395/39510|title=Hao da yi dui yang (2004)|author=Rhodes, Steve|publisher=InternetReviews.com|year=2005 |accessdate=2008-12-13}}</ref>

Many critics, however, chose a middle view, and saw the film primarily as a metaphor for China's bureaucratic machine and its effect on the common peasant. Derek Elley of ''Variety'' noted how the film "homes in on the stratified nature of Chinese rural society," though he does not go as far as to suggest what Liu Hao intended with the film. Elley does argue, however, that the film is distinct from similar films, notably Zhang Yimou's 1992 ''[[The Story of Qiu Ju]]'', mainly in that ''Two Great Sheep'' there is a "lack of bitterness or despair."<ref name=Variety/> A similar review noted that the film was nothing if not a celebration of the "tenacious resiliency of the will to survive."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.seattlepi.com/movies/225449_siff24.html|title=SIFF:Oscar-winning film and its director are on tap for tonight|author=White, Bill|newspaper=The Seattle Post-Intelligencer|date=2005-05-24|accessdate=2008-12-13}}</ref>

Other critics took a negative view and saw the film's lack of bitterness or other strong "message" as a flaw. ''Slant Magazine'''s Ed Gonzalez felt the film went on too long without a clear message, holding that he was "not exactly sure if Hao is for or against Bolshevism."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/film_review.asp?ID=1513|title = Slant Magazine Film Review: Two Great Sheep| publisher=Slant|author=Gonzalez, Ed| date=2005-03-23|accessdate=2008-12-13}}</ref>

== References ==
<references />

== External links ==
*{{IMDb title|id=0424133}}
*{{rotten-tomatoes|id=two_great_sheep}}
*[http://www.cinemasie.com/en/fiche/oeuvre/twogreatsheep/ ''Two Great Sheep''] at Cinemasie

[[Category:2004 films]]
[[Category:Films set in Yunnan]]
[[Category:2004 comedy films]]
[[Category:Films about sheep]]
[[Category:Chinese comedy films]]
[[Category:2000s Mandarin-language films]]

Two Great Sheep - Revision history

imported>SporkBot: Remove template per TFD outcome