Ocean Heaven

Ocean Heaven
Directed by	Xue Xiao-Lu
Written by	Xue Xiao-Lu
Produced by	William Kong Hao Lee Ma Hefeng
Starring	Jet Li Wen Zhang Kwai Lun-mei
Cinematography	Christopher Doyle
Edited by	Chang Suk Ping Yang Hongyu
Music by	Joe Hisaishi
Production companies	BDI Films Inc. Beijing H&H Communication Medium Limited Nice Select Ltd.
Distributed by	Edko Films Ltd.
Release date	24 June 2010 (2010-06-24) (Hong Kong)
Running time	96 minutes
Countries	Template:Film China Template:Film Hong Kong
Language	Mandarin
Budget	7 million yuen ($1,043,474 us dollars)

Ocean Heaven is a 2010 Chinese-Hong Kong drama film starring martial arts superstar Jet Li, who does not perform any martial arts in this film. The film does not contain any action scenes either. It will also star Taiwanese actress Kwai Lun-mei, who previously starred in Jay Chou's Secret. The movie was filmed in Qingdao at the Qindao Polar Ocean World and received promotion from the Qingdoa council.

It was announced that it was to be released in spring 2010, but the release date was pushed back to 24 June 2010, which opened the Shanghai International Film Festival. Jet Li wants this film to get a good message across and promote the works with autism as well as the works of his charity ‘the one foundation’.

Xue Xiaolu, a teacher at the Beijing Film Academy, wrote and directed the 7 million yuan (one million U. S. dollars) movie. The first-time director has been a volunteer for 14 years with Beijing Stars and Rain, a non-governmental educational organization for autistic children. The story was mostly based on her personal real life and experience, and years of life experience and accumulation. After learning that Lee Nin Kit agreed to play the role of the father, she truly was very excited and nervous. To turn a gong fu emperor into an ordinary but noble father was truly stressful for her, but at the same time it also became her motivation to make this film well. She said, "With the addition of actors like Kwai Lun-Mei and Wen Zhang, I am even more confident in the film production."

At first nobody was willing to take a risk on such a non-commercial script until film mogul Bill Kong, the man behind Hero (Yingxiong) and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (Wohu Canglong) stepped in. it saw the inclusion of award winning cinematographer Christopher Doyle (Hero, [[2046 (film)]], in the mood for love), composer Joe Hisaishi (Sprited Away, Departures) and production designer Yee Chung Man (Anna Magdalena, Curse of the Golden Flower).

Plot

Ocean Heaven follows a terminally ill father working in an aquarium and struggles to look after his 21 year old autistic son Dafu (Wen Zhang)who attempts to find his son a suitable home before he passes away. The father Sam Wong (played by Jet Li) has single handedly brought up his son since his wife passed away 14 years ago and looks after him day and night attempting to help him learn basic tasks in order to care for himself. As the story goes along, you see the heart warming relationship between both father and son as well as the community around them, who become closer as the film develops. Many of the scenes are in the aquarium where Dafu is seen swimming with ease and tranquillity which has become some of the most memorable aspects of the film. He is also seen with dolphins. Ling ling (Kwai Lun-mei) plays the role of a clown who is part of a small circus and who gets on well with Dafu becoming friends which leads to them spending time together.

According to the U.S. Centres of Disease Control, one person out of every 110 is born with autism. It follows that China has over 10 million autism patients. Dafu, show many signs of autism by walking in straight lines and will only turn after stopping and turning, repeating after people constantly putting everything in perfect order. Dafu is seen as a happy character always wanting to play and be with companies.

Cast

Cast	Role
Jet Li	Sam Wong / Wang Xingchang
Wen Zhang	David / Dafu
Kwai Lun-mei	Ling
Zhu Yuanyuan
Dong Yong
Gao Yuanyuan	Wang's deceased wife
Chen Rui
Shi Xiaolong
Cao Bingkun
Ma Zihan

Promotion and work

Jet Li

Jet Li promoted the movie by visiting the dolphins at Hong Kong’s Ocean Park with a small group of mentally handicapped and autistic adults.

Jet Li also was quoted saying “Nowadays everyone is making blockbusters. Making a seven million Chinese yuan (1 million US dollars) movie requires a lot of sincerity,” Li told reporters in Hong Kong. “This movie is about sincerity. It shows that in this day and age that filmmakers are willing to do something for society.” The father's selfless love for his son touched Li, a father of four children himself. "I cried a lot when reading the script," Li .

“I hope everyone can examine what is the most important relationship in life – the relationship between parent and child,” he said. “I met some autistic children last year when I was doing charity work. When I read the script, I cried,” Li said, “I hope to express gratitude to all the parents in the world through the film.”

Jet Li did not take any pay for the film but was said to have taken a cut from the profits.

For an actor who could have easily demanded more than a hundred million yuan to appear in a film, what could have caused Jet Li to accept a role in Ocean Heaven, which had a budget of a mere seven million? The story, for one thing — Jet Li hopes it will inspire people to pay more attention and dedicate their compassion to charity. (Appropriately, TIME magazine named Jet Li one of its Most Influential People this year for his work with his One Foundation.) He also reveals that four or five years ago, his nephew had been diagnosed with autism. His nephew is now better, but this incident made him realize how important it is to offer attention and care to those who are affected.

He also admits that it was not easy to interpret his character. Because Jet Li’s father died when he was two years old, he didn’t understand the concept of the word “father” for a long time. When he was filming The Shaolin Temple, there was a line where he had to yell bà ba (dad), which he found himself unable to say: “In the end, the director changed it to diē (another word for dad). I thought diē had nothing to do with me, so I could say it. It wasn’t until I became a father that I clearly understood what this role of a father meant.”

Wen Zhang

In order to portray this character well, Wen Zhang (playing Dafu) went swimming every day. He previously did not know how to swim, but because swimming and diving are his character’s strong points, he became an expert swimmer. He also visited an autism school every day, working to understand the students’ way of thinking. Thanks to this, we may have another Jet Li in our hands (at least, with the charity aspect, not the martial arts), as he says about his experience: “I found something that is more important than performing.”

Awards and Nominations

Shanghai Media Awards

CCTV Movie Channel Media Awards 2010

• Won Best Film: Ocean Heaven 2010
• Won Best New Director: XUE Xiaolu 2010
• Won Best Actor: Wen Zhang 2010

• Nominated for Golden Goblet award

Theme songs

• "Said Goodbye" (說了再見) by Jay Chou
• "Ocean Heaven" (海洋天堂) by Kwai Lun-mei

Reception

Oceans Heaven has had particularly good reviews getting very high ratings. On IMDb, it got a rating of 8.5/10.

Photos

• Dafu as a boy
  Dafu as a boy
• Dafu with a Dolphin
  Dafu with a Dolphin
• Jet Li as sam wong sitting with a friend
  Jet Li as sam wong sitting with a friend
• Dafu swimming
  Dafu swimming
• father and son
  father and son
• father and son on a boat
  father and son on a boat

External links

• Ocean Heaven at the Hong Kong Movie DataBase
• Ocean Heaven at IMDb
• Hong Kong Cinemagic - Ocean Heaven
• http://yellowcranestower.blogspot.com/2010/06/ocean-heaven-beijing-premiere.html