Jaeger-LeCoultre has worked tirelessly with Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) to restore classic films in Chinese cinema for eight years.
Among the titles that have been given a fresh coat of paint for a new generation of film enthusiasts were the two-part epic A Spring River Flows East, Stage Sisters about two sisters divided by political beliefs, John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow and C’est La Vie, Mon Cheri, a Derek Yee romance classic starring Anita Yuen and Lau Ching Wan.
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At the recent 21st SIFF, Jaeger-LeCoultre unveiled the restored version of Painting Soul that tells the legendary life Chinese artist Pan Yuliang, played by Gong Li, who was the first woman in China to paint in Western style.
Directed by female Chinese filmmaker Huang Shuqin, the restoration was aided by her son, director Zheng Dasheng. Degradation and blinking issues were corrected while clarity, image contrast and painting texture were improved, giving the film renewed vibrancy.
The movie was based on a novel by Shi Nan and portrays Pan from when she was working in a brothel to her ascendance in the art world. Praised for her innovative fusion of Chinese ink-wash painting and Western-style composition, Pan studied in Shanghai, Paris, Lyons and Rome before returning to Shanghai to teach.
However, due to hostility from colleagues, she left for Paris soon after, where she would live until her death in 1977. Most of her art are back in China, as per her wish in her will, where they are on display at Anhui Museum in Anhui Province, her hometown.