SCFZ poll: Wang Bing

[flip]

Polling the films of director Wang Bing

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half of the Wang Bing films you've seen, up to a maximum of 5. So if you've seen seven of his films, for example, you can list only a top 3. It's only if you've seen ten or more of his films than you can list the maximum of five.

- i'll assume ballots are ranked unless you tell me otherwise. unranked ballots are fine.

- deadline for ballots: next Tuesday, in seven days, whatever day that is

- if anyone is watching films for these polls, then i'll extend the deadline up to three days, if someone requests an extension

- next poll: whoever posts the first ballot in this thread is free to nominate the director we poll next, unless you've nominated in this round already (everyone should get a chance). Already nominated this round: umbugbene, greennui, evelyn, bure, m arkadin, mrcarmady, nrh, brian d, mesnalty, kanafani

umbugbene created an index on letterboxd of all of our previous polls here: letterboxd.com/umbugbene/list/index-of-all-scfz-director-polls/

one rule for nominees: at least 3 scfzers need to have seen 10+ of a nominee's films, or at least 4 scfzers need to have seen at least 8 of the nom's films, so if it isn't clear if that will be the case, we'll confirm that's true before moving forward

if 24 hours pass after a poll opens, and no one eligible to nominate has posted a ballot, then i'll nominate someone, and then we'll start over, and everyone will be able to nominate again

[flip]

we'll definitely use the extended rules for this - we might need all the votes we can get, so i hope people will consider voting for the max number they can, if they think the films are deserving:

- if you have seen an odd number of his films, you can round up instead of down when determining the length of your ballot (so if you've seen 7, you can vote for 4 instead of the usual 3)

- if you have seen more than 10 of his films, you can vote for more than five, so if you've seen, say, 13, you could vote for up to 7 films

[mesnalty]

Seen 8:

1. Til Madness Do Us Part
2. Dead Souls
3. Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks
4. Ta'ang

[kanafani]

Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks
Fengming: A Chinese Memoir
Til Madness Do Us Part
Dead Souls
Mrs. Fang

[St. Gloede]

Seen 3:

Mrs. Fang

[flip]

Seen

st gloede, you can pick the director we poll next if you like!

[St. Gloede]

As it seems to be getting easier and easier to make it I'll go with Karel Kachyna again.

Back-ups:

Věra Chytilová
Frantisek Vlacil
Zoltan Fabri

[brian d]

i haven't seen nothing by wang bing


i'm not much help on the others either:

5 kachyna
17 chytilova (i think we've polled her already?)
5 vlacil
4 fabri (would watch more for the poll though)

[---]

11 vlacil, insufficient for the others

0 for this wang bing character

[ofrene]

seen 12

Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks
Dead Souls
’Til Madness Do Us Part
Fengming: A Chinese Memoir
Ta’ang
Three Sisters

add a bit more for 10

7. Coal Money
8. Alone (edited version of Three Sisters)
9. The Ditch
10. Mrs. Fang
11. Bitter Money
12. Father and Sons

heard Man with No Name is great but didn't see

[Silga]

I've only seen one by Wang Bing (Ta'ang), but it didn't leave me a lasting impression even though the topic itself is really important with what is happening in that region with ethnic minorities.

So no vote.

Also can't help with other directors.

[flip]

we've not polled vera chytilova yet, so if she has enough views, that will be an option.

unfortunately i've only seen at most 3 films by any of those directors, but would happily watch more by any of them

[Umbugbene]

2 Kachyňa ♥
6 Chytilová ♥
2 Vlácil
6 Fábri ♥

[liquidnature]

I've downloaded and not watched Tie Xi Qu two times over the years, from kg. Still have it, one of these days I'll finally get around to it (maybe).

If anyone knows or remembers Sy from imdb/fg3/SMz, Tie Xi Qu was his favorite film after Khrustalyov, My Car! Serri and Sy were major mentors to me when I was first getting into film - share a lot of favorites with both of them. So I feel like I owe it to 'em to watch this soonish.

[john ryan]

seen 2

1. tie xi qu: west of the tracks
2. dead souls

can't help with any of the three options

[St. Gloede]

Chytilova seems to have the best odds so far. Seen 12, but will watch a few more for the poll.

[wba]

No Wangs so far, and I have merely

Kachyna: 1
Chytilova: 3
Vlacil: 2
Fabri: 2

[flip]

with the more relaxed criteria i've been using recently, i've been willing to poll directors when one person has seen 10+, and two others have seen 7+. with fewer views than that, i don't think we'll get enough voting to make a poll meaningful, unfortunately. i'd love to poll any of st gloede's suggestions (they're all directors i'm interested in, personally), but we don't yet have enough viewership - i'll wait another day for responses, but we might need a fallback suggestion if no one replies here to say they've seen several chytilova, fabri, vlacil or kachyna films.

[Holymanm]

10+ vlacil

[St. Gloede]

In that case we have three 10+ Vlacil. I really thought Chytilova would be the one, but there we go.

[flip]

so far, we've only got votes for 7 films. since i want to get to a top ten for each director, i'll need some more input from people who have seen a lot of wang bing films. if ofrene, kanafani, mesnalty, or anyone else who has seen several wang bing films could post a longer ballot (longer than the rules allow) so i can somehow work out the three films that should fill out the list, that would be great! the top seven will be (unless there are brand new ballots that come in) :

results
1. Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks (2002) — 13 pts
2. Til Madness Do Us Part (2013) — 10 pts
3. Dead Souls (2018) — 9 pts
4. Fengming: A Chinese Memoir (2007) — 6 pts
5. Mrs Fang (2017) — 2 pts
5. Ta’ang (2016) — 2 pts
7. Three Sisters (2012) — 0.5 pts
8. Coal Money (2009) -- 0.03 pts
8. Crude Oil (2008) -- 0.03 pts
10. Alone (2013) -- 0.01 pts

[ofrene]

post a longer ballot (longer than the rules allow)

edit my poll

[Mauries]

<3 Tie Xi Qu

[mesnalty]

Extending my original list to a full ranking of what I've seen:

1. Til Madness Do Us Part
2. Dead Souls
3. Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks
4. Ta'ang
---
5. Crude Oil
6. Mrs. Fang
7. Three Sisters
8. Bitter Money

[kanafani]

Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks
Fengming: A Chinese Memoir
Til Madness Do Us Part
Dead Souls
Mrs. Fang
Three sisters
Ta’ang
Bitter money

[flip]

thanks for the input! i decided the highest ranked films on the extended ballots (among films that didn't make the original list) would tie for the 8th spot, and then i assumed since bitter money ranked last on mesnalty and kanafani's ballots that i should pick the next film from ofrene's list for the 10th place. so the top ten is now finalized.

[flip]

posted to lbox:

https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/list ... -poll-238/