{"id":496631,"date":"2026-06-12T20:31:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T20:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/496631\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T20:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T20:31:08","slug":"the-great-skull-director-and-cast-on-dialect-cinema-and-grief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/496631\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Great Skull’ Director and Cast on Dialect Cinema and Grief"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cThe Great Skull<\/a>,\u201d a Shanghai dialect tragicomedy, opened the main competition showcase of the 28th Shanghai International Film Festival<\/a> on June 12. Director Liu Xiaoyang, screenwriter Zhang Xiaoying and lead cast members Wen Qi<\/a>, Ni Hongjie and Yu Entai attended the press conference.<\/p>\n

\n\tSet in Shanghai, the film is a tragicomedy about a mother and daughter grieving their loss while trying to act normal. Shanghainese scriptwriter Zhang interwove her personal experience into the script, with more than 50% of the dialogue spoken in the Shanghai dialect.<\/p>\n

\n\tBefore his debut feature, Liu had been coming to Shanghai as a cinephile for years. \u201cI hope the audience, after seeing this film, can let go of their emotions and embrace more power, living their life with more courage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe title is a humorous, literal reference to the late father\u2019s large piece of bone left after cremation. As Liu addressed the title, he briefly forgot his speech and paused for quite a moment. Admitting he was nervous on stage, he pulled his notes out on his phone and read: \u201cWe wish to shout out to our passed loved ones that they don\u2019t need to worry about us. The living and the dead both have their own fate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWen Qi, one of the most popular Gen-Z actors in Chinese language cinema, found her role quite similar to her own personality, but noted that conveying the Shanghai-style aura and portraying deep grief were challenging at first. She shouted out to Zeng Jian, the veteran Chinese cinematographer known for his collaboration with Lou Ye. \u201cHe was like our big parent on set, guiding us and helping us to continue and solving all kinds of problems. This film couldn\u2019t be made without him,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n\tNi shared her excitement for \u201cThe Great Skull\u201d premiering in Shanghai and is the only Shanghainese actor among the major cast. \u201cOur film is like a seed in the soil growing into a tree,\u201d she said. \u201cAs a Shanghai actor, having the film presented here, I feel very lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tYu admitted that he used to worry about becoming the go-to dad in Chinese dramas, but this role gave him a different experience because the film features a minimalist style, so he learned to keep it simple. \u201cThanks to this film for this minimalism performance, which also tells me that being an actor is never easy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Shanghai dialect has emerged as a marker of local cultural identity in recent years, with productions including \u201cShanghai Blossoms\u201d and \u201cB for Busy\u201d establishing the trend ahead of \u201cThe Great Skull.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Great Skull,\u201d a Shanghai dialect tragicomedy, opened the main competition showcase of the 28th Shanghai International Film…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[93,61,60,270,212819,212820,212821],"class_list":["post-496631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-movies","tag-shanghai-international-film-festival","tag-the-great-skull","tag-wen-qi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}