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The Piano in a Factory

Original title: Gang de qin
  • 2010
  • Not Rated
  • 1h 59m
IMDb RATING
7.3/10
1.5K
YOUR RATING
The Piano in a Factory (2010)
Trailer for The Piano in a Factory
Play trailer2:15
1 Video
99+ Photos
ComedyDrama

To fight for custody of his daughter who loves playing the piano, a steel factory worker decides to forge a piano from scratch.To fight for custody of his daughter who loves playing the piano, a steel factory worker decides to forge a piano from scratch.To fight for custody of his daughter who loves playing the piano, a steel factory worker decides to forge a piano from scratch.

  • Directors
    • Meng Zhang
    • Bo Gao
  • Writer
    • Meng Zhang
  • Stars
    • Qianyuan Wang
    • Yongzhen Guo
    • Qian Liu
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    7.3/10
    1.5K
    YOUR RATING
    • Directors
      • Meng Zhang
      • Bo Gao
    • Writer
      • Meng Zhang
    • Stars
      • Qianyuan Wang
      • Yongzhen Guo
      • Qian Liu
    • 6User reviews
    • 12Critic reviews
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 24 wins & 33 nominations

    Videos1

    The Piano in a Factory
    Trailer 2:15
    Watch The Piano in a Factory

    Photos233

    The Piano in a Factory (2010)
    The Piano in a Factory (2010)
    The Piano in a Factory (2010)
    The Piano in a Factory (2010)
    The Piano in a Factory (2010)
    The Piano in a Factory (2010)
    The Piano in a Factory (2010)
    The Piano in a Factory (2010)
    The Piano in a Factory (2010)
    The Piano in a Factory (2010)
    The Piano in a Factory (2010)
    The Piano in a Factory (2010)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Qianyuan Wang
    Qianyuan Wang
    • Chen Guilin
    Yongzhen Guo
    • Kuai Shou
    Qian Liu
    Qian Liu
    • Pang Tou
    Xingyu Liu
    • Xiao Yuan (Chen's daughter)
    Er-yang Luo
    • Brother Ji
    Hailu Qin
    Hailu Qin
    • Shu Xian
    Jang Shin-yeong
    Jang Shin-yeong
    • Xiao Ju
    Yu Tian
    Yu Tian
    • Wang Kangmei
    Yue Wang
    • Training class teacher
    Zaolai Wang
    • Engineer Wang
    Yan Xiang
    • Er Jie (Chen's sister)
    Jiangning Xu
    • Second brother-in-law
    Huizhi Zhang
    • Chen's father
    Yaxi Zhang
    Yaxi Zhang
    • An Changye
    Kui Zhou
    • Big Liu
    • Directors
      • Meng Zhang
      • Bo Gao
    • Writer
      • Meng Zhang
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

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    User reviews6

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    7/10
    an appealing nostalgia of the Northeastern China's industrial life in early 1990s
    THE PIANO IN A FACTORY, is the second film from the young Chinese writer-director Meng Zhang, and had made a splash when its leading actor Qianyuan Wang won a coveted BEST ACTOR AWARD at Tokyo International Film Festival in 2010, but delayed for half a year until its theater release, it crashed and burned in the box office which stimulated another shouting diatribe on the unhealthy status quo which bars art-house films from seizing a sizable piece of cake in the prosperous mainland cinema market. Without a booming front-loaded attendance, these movies will be replaced by more popular fares merely within a few days of release thanks to cinema managers' money-seeking priority.

    Four years have passed, the situation may not ameliorate too much, Meng's follow-up THE UNCLE VICTORY (2014) has just won Grand Jury Prize in this year's Shanghai International Film Festival and soon will be pushed to test the water. However, in retrospect and after finally watched his 2010 output in a sub-par DVD copy, the film does has its own unique demographic target, and relies heavily on our generation's nostalgia.

    The story is set in the early 90s, an industrial town in northeast China, a former steel factory employee Guilin (Qianyuan Wang) decides to make a steel piano from scratch (with the help from his blue-collar fellows and a retired scientist as the brain) in order to keep his daughter Xiaoyuan (Xingyu Liu) from choosing her gold-digging mother after the divorce. The premise itself sounds both self-deceptive and self-motivating, as his girlfriend Shuxian (Hailu Qin) pierces to the truth with her pertinent remark, there is no guarantee he can win Xiaoyan's custody even they could complete the piano. Indeed, it is exactly what Meng intends to tell his audience, to build a piano is not a solution but a means to evoke us to feel sympathetic to a disappeared era, as overtly exhibited in the smokestacks-demolishing scenes with the tableaux reminds us of Mao's time.

    One devoted characteristic is the miscellany of 90s Chinese pop melodies, Soviet folk songs and even jingles from the vintage Nintendo video games, which is profusely grafted on various scenarios (from funeral to wedding ceremony, as Guilin forms an amateurish band to make ends meet), and perilously borders on over-exploitation; the cinematography is constantly panning horizontally, conjures up some fluid mobility which heartily generated from everyday drollness under the perpetually murky and melancholy light and derelict settings.

    Qianyuan Wang and Hailu Qin are convincingly submerging into their characters and efficiently reveal their inner sentiments with certain verve. The remainders are mostly non-pro actors in aid of the project due to its measly budget, all bathe with real-life authenticity except one grating presence of South Korean actress Shin-yeong Jang (apparently a casting proviso from the film's Korean executive producer, Jae-young Kwak), who plays Guilin's ex-wife and is utterly devoid of credibility as an ex-worker and an illiterate, there are nuances to tell Chinese from South Koreans, although through a westerners' eyes, it would not be so conspicuous.

    So in a nutshell, Meng greatly encapsulates the zeitgeist of the time and it is a sound step for him to emerge as a bona-fide sculptor of a bygone time, only if he could minus a shade of the overblown sentimentality and tone down all the fanfare to meet the eyes and bombard the ears, this picture would connect more audience out of the millions middle-age nostaglist originate from Northeastern region in China.
    helpful•4
    1
    • lasttimeisaw
    • Jun 25, 2014

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • July 15, 2011 (China)
    • Country of origin
      • China
    • Languages
      • Mandarin
      • Russian
    • Also known as
      • 鋼的琴
    • Production companies
      • Perfect World Pictures
      • Dalian Hung Yuan Film & TV
      • Etoile Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Gross worldwide
      • $989,775
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • Runtime
      1 hour 59 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
      • Black and White
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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