Wei, Shi-yu Louisa (魏時煜)

Critical Biography    Filmography    Reviews    Links   Bibiography

Wei, Shi-yu Louisa – Critical Biography  Top

Louisa Wei
S. Louisa Wei

Born in Shandong, China, S. Louisa Wei grew up in Xian and attended university there. She moved to Canada in 1994 and pursued her graduate education at Carleton University (MA, 1994) and the University of Alberta (PhD, 2002), studying comparative literature and film. She worked briefly in Japan as a researcher before moving to Hong Kong, where she has pursued both a scholarly career as well as working as a filmmaker. Wei has several documentary works to her credit. In 2006, she made a short documentary on Cui Jian’s music entitled Cui Jian: Rocking China, and a feature-length documentary on the teachings of the Beijing Film Academy’s Professor Situ Zhaodun (A Piece of Heaven: Primary Documents). Wei spent six years on Storm under the Sun, a documentary co-directed with Peng Xiaolian about the campaign led by Mao Zedong against the literary critic Hu Feng. The film was initially screened at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam in 2007, and the final version premiered at the 33rd Hong Kong International Film Festival in 2009. The film received positive reviews in five languages. Wei’s latest work has been the documentary Golden Gate Girls (2013), co-directed with Hong Kong film historian Law Kar. The film deals with the remarkable life and work of Esther Eng (1914-1970), an openly lesbian Chinese-American filmmaker who made nearly a dozen Cantonese features in Hong Kong and the United States, mainly during the 1930s and ’40s. Golden Gate Girls was premiered at the 2013 Hong Kong International Film Festival, has been screened in many film festivals, and won the Intra-Cultural Spotlight Award at Washington DC Chinese Film Festival in September 2014. The film has been touring North American universities and distributed by Women Make Movies (NY).

Wei

Ffilmoilmography   Top

Feature Films:

RoleTitle (English)Title (Chinese)Year
DirectorA Life in Six Chapters蕭軍六記2021
DirectorHavana Divas 古巴花旦2018
WriterFlower Girl from Havana青春作伴 好還鄉 好還鄉 
WriterDream under the Sun陽光下的夢—
Director
Writer
Producer
Editor
Cinematographer		Golden Gate Girls (Trailer)金門銀光夢2013
WriterBroken Wings: An Incomplete Genius斷翅的天才：路翎2010
Co-director with Peng, Xiao-lian
Writer
Producer
Editor
Cinematographer		Storm Under the Sun (Trailer)紅日風暴2009
WriterGun of Mercy (Trailer)5顆子彈2007
WriterMing Ming (Trailer)明明2006
DirectorA Piece of Heaven: Primary Documents記錄之旅：原始檔案2006
WriterShow You Color給你一點顔色2006

Shorts:

Role
Title (English)
Title (Chinese)
Year
Director
Writer
Producer
Cinematographer		Cui Jian: Rocking China崔健：搖滾中國2006

Rrevieweviews   Top

Havana Divas (2018):

Eastern Independent:
Havana Divas: S. Louisa Wei discusses her latest documentary
China Daily:
The divas come home

Golden Gate Girls (2013):

Hollywood Reporter:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/golden-gate-silver-light-hong-431987
SCMP:
http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1202556/shining-light-chinese-american-female-film-pioneer
San Francisco Bay Guardian:
http://www.sfbg.com/2014/03/11/women-movie-cameras
The Examiner:
http://www.examiner.com/article/caam-festivals-offers-diversity-history-and-good-storytelling
Douban (In Chinese):
http://movie.douban.com/review/5832049/
Ta Kung Pao (In Chinese):
http://news.takungpao.com.hk/paper/q/2013/0808/1813634.html

Gun of Mercy (2007) Reviews:

Mtime (In Chinese):
http://movie.mtime.com/44797/reviews/1267338.html
Wen Wei Po (In Chinese):
http://paper.wenweipo.com/2007/09/25/FA0709250004.htm

Storm Under the Sun (2007) Reviews:

Douban[1] (In Chinese):
http://www.douban.com/note/199850259/
Douban[2] (In Chinese):
http://www.douban.com/group/topic/5908067/

Others: 

China Daily Asia: Gay Forever

明報 – 傘下的女聲遇女影 (Chinese only)

Facebook page of Golden Gate Girls:
https://www.facebook.com/GoldenGateGirls
BBC Culture:
The taboo-busting women of Chinese film
Reuters:
Never before seen: Understand Contemporary China at DC Chinese Film Festival
Women Make Movies – Golden Gate Girls:
http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c891.shtml
Women Film Pioneers Project:
https://wfpp.cdrs.columbia.edu/

Bibibliobliography   Top

  1. Cho, Jenny, and Chinese Historical Society of Southern California. “1030s and 1049s.” In Chinese in Hollywood, by Jenny Cho and Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, 25-54. Charleston: Arcadia Publishing , 2013.
  2. Marchetti, Gina. “Women as cross-cultural intermediaries within the Chinese diaspora: The search for Esther Eng in S. Louisa Wei’s Golden Gate Girls (2013).” Cultural Intermediaries in East Asian Film Industries (1st ed.), edited by Eyal Ben-Ari, Heung Wah Wong, Routledge, 2021, Chapter 8.
  3. Tan, Ye, and Yun Zhu. “The Dictionary – P.” In Historical Dictionary of Chinese Cinema, by Ye Tan and Yun Zhu, 123-125. Maryland: Scarecrow, 2012.
  4. Wei , Louisa. “Butterfly Spreading Her Wings: Women, Love and a Film Called Butterfly.” Film Art 4 (2006): 76-78.
  5. Wei , Louisa. “Making an Epic Documentary by Accident? – The Story of Wang Bing.” Asia-Europe Foundation Web Magazine, January 2004.
  6. Wei , Louisa. “The Beauty of Aging: Yang Yi and Other Stories.” Mook 4 (2007).
  7. Wei, Louisa. “30 Years Alone in the Pink Movie Industry: An Interview with Female Director Hamao Sachi.” Journal of Beijing Film Academy 1 (2009): 91-95.
  8. Wei, Louisa. “A Critical Review of Hong Kong Women Directors’ Recent Films.” Film Critics’ Quaterly 29 (2005): 15-19.
  9. Wei, Louisa. “A Hundred Years of Screen Women and the Development of Women’s Film Tradition.” In Zhingguo dianying zhuanye shi yanjiu: dianying wenhua juan, edited by Yuanying Yang. Beijing: Zhongguo dian ying chu ban she, 2006.
  10. Wei, Louisa. “After the Screening of Storm under the Sun.” Hong Kong Literature Monthly 4, no. 6 (2009): 81-84.
  11. Wei, Louisa. “Chinese and Japanese Female Film Directors: Could They Hold up Half of the Sky?” The Global Cartographies of Cine-Feminisms, 2008: 59-79.
  12. Wei, Louisa. “My Hong Kong.” Hong Kong Monthly 4, no. 4 (2009): 59-61.
  13. Wei, Louisa. “No Official Record: Gender Concerns in Hong Kong’s Independent Documentaries.” In In Pursuit of Independent Visions in Hong Kong Cinema, edited by Esther Cheung, 176-188. Hong Kong: Joint Publishing, 2009.
  14. Wei, Louisa. “Reconstructing the Forgotten Nature and History: Approaching Osundare and His Horses of Memory.” In The People’s Poet: Emerging Perspectives on Niyi Osundare, edited by Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah, 299-312. Nigeria: Africa World Press, 2003.
  15. Wei, Louisa. Storm Under the Sun: Introductions, Script, and Reviews. Hong Kong: Blue Queen Cultural Communication , 2009.
  16. Wei, Louisa. “Women’s Trajectories in Chinese and Japnese Cinema: A Chronological Overview.” In Dekalog 4: On East Asian Film Directors, edited by Kate E Taylor. Brighton: Wallflower Press, 2011.
  17. Wei, Louisa, and Huaxin Wei. “Uncovering Hidden Maps: An Illustrative Narratology.” Computer and Composition 23, no. 4 (2006): 480-502.
  18. Yang, Yuanying, and Louisa Wei. Women’s Cinema: Dialogues with Chinese and Japanese Female Directors. Shanghai: Hua dong shi fan da xue chu ban she, 2009.