Na Jiazuo, Director of China’s ‘Streetwise’, on Learning Filmmaking at the Feet of 2020’s Top Grossing Filmmaker (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefNa Jiazuo, one of the few Chinese directors to make it to the Cannes Film Festival this year, says he learned from the best in the business.

His “Streetwise” (aka “Gaey Wa’r”) unspools in Un Certain Regard and is eligible for the Camera d’Or, reflecting Na’s status as a rookie feature director.The picture is a gritty, largely nocturnal, portrait of a group of young adults in an unfashionable town as they come to terms with life’s uneasy lot.

In particular, it focuses on a 21-year-old man who becomes inured in violence as he becomes a debt collector’s henchman in order to pay off his father’s hospital bills.Na calls “Streetwise” “a film about struggle,” but puts the characters’ challenges into context. “At.