Synopsis

The Honor Among Thieves is adapted from a ancient Chinese story titled Song the Fourth Torments Tightwad Zhang written by Feng Menglong, a Chinese writer and poet in late 1600s. The story revolves around four thieves in the Song Dynasty who are up against a wealthy evil miser and a corrupted government.

Director’s bio

Lanhua Ma is a young independent filmmaker from Nanjing, China. She is currently studying for her MFA majored in Directing at UCLA. She graduated with a BA in Film Production from Emerson College in 2019. Lanhua is passionate about redefining the boundaries between different genres and the possibilities of amalgamating elements from different cultures.

Director’s statement

Any art form is based on the past while orienting towards the future. The Honor Among Thieves follows the tradition of Moliere’s early works in terms of its photography style, at the same time adopting a post-modern concept in framing its materials. Film is a comprehensive art. Hence, we would like to stress that comprehensiveness and diversity. This film is an aggregation of contemporary arts, classical Chinese literature, traditional Chinese opera, theater and performance arts rolling into an organic whole. What we are trying to do is to retell an old story from a fresh perspective. Perhaps, it is not so important as to what to tell as to how to tell the story. We think that a film must be interesting, not interesting in the usual sense but in an alternative way.

Festival & Awards

• Best Experimental Film at 2019 FIRST International Film Festival

• Award for Excellence for the East Asian Experimental Competition of 2020 Tokyo Image Forum Film Festival

• Official Selection at 48th Rotterdam International Film Festival and 2020 Malaysia Seashorts Film Festival

Casts

He Tongbin, Lu Dong, Ma Yixiang, Zhang Zhidong, Zhang Zhanfei, Fa Ming

Credits

DP: Jingkai Yi, Editor: Yun Li

Sound Design: Shao Wei

Music: Xingyu Li