X
  • 2022
  • Strand Releasing
  • 2 h 6 m
  • 2022
  • Strand Releasing
  • 2 h 6 m

Summary 1941. Since the Japanese occupation, China has become a wartime intelligence battlefield for the Allies and the Axis Powers. Iconic actress Jean Yu (Gong Li) returns to Shanghai, ostensibly to appear in the play “Saturday Fiction” directed by her former lover. But what is her true aim? To free her ex-husband? To gather intelligence for t...

Directed By: Ye Lou

Written By: Yingli Ma, Hong Ying, Riichi Yokomitsu

  • 2022
  • Strand Releasing
  • 2 h 6 m
  • 2022
  • Strand Releasing
  • 2 h 6 m

Saturday Fiction

Metascore Mixed or Average Based on 11 Critic Reviews
54
User Score Available after 4 ratings
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Summary 1941. Since the Japanese occupation, China has become a wartime intelligence battlefield for the Allies and the Axis Powers. Iconic actress Jean Yu (Gong Li) returns to Shanghai, ostensibly to appear in the play “Saturday Fiction” directed by her former lover. But what is her true aim? To free her ex-husband? To gather intelligence for t...

Directed By: Ye Lou

Written By: Yingli Ma, Hong Ying, Riichi Yokomitsu

Where to Watch

Top Cast

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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 11 Critic Reviews
54
36% Positive
4 Reviews
45% Mixed
5 Reviews
18% Negative
2 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

 View All
Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 11 Critic Reviews
54
36% Positive
4 Reviews
45% Mixed
5 Reviews
18% Negative
2 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
100
Apr 25, 2022
It’s as daring and original a work of political cinema and personal conscience as the current cinema can offer.
By Richard Brody FULL REVIEW
80
Sep 12, 2019
Saturday Fiction certainly demands patience, shrouded at first in a smog of exposition.
By John Bleasdale FULL REVIEW
75
Sep 14, 2019
A movie stuffed to bursting with sumptuous movie-movie atmosphere, the swoony charge of ideas about art, love, and espionage, and good-enough storytelling solutions.
FULL REVIEW
60
Sep 12, 2019
This moody, black-and-white period piece always intrigues, even if it only intermittently catches fire.
By Boyd van Hoeij FULL REVIEW
50
Apr 21, 2022
As convolutedly scripted by Ma Yingli, and pushed around by the restless camerawork, it’s primarily a spotty fusion of spy-story contrivances and diffuse themes of truth and artifice, although the playground is plenty evocative.
By Robert Abele FULL REVIEW
40
Sep 12, 2019
The narrative would be sufficiently daunting to follow if the film didn’t make such heavy play on the thin line between fiction and reality; the frequent blurring between the two Saturday Fictions – Lou Ye’s and Tan Na’s – is muddily executed to begin with, without the play being so unconvincing as a piece of stage drama.
By Jonathan Romney FULL REVIEW
20
Sep 12, 2019
[A] grandiloquently incoherent misfire
By Jessica Kiang FULL REVIEW

User Reviews

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Details

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Production Company United Entertainment Partners
Release Date Apr 22, 2022
Duration 2 h 6 m
Genres
Website https://strandreleasing.com/films/saturday-fiction/
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Awards

Gijón International Film Festival
• 2 Wins & 3 Nominations
IFeng Film and TV Award
• 1 Win & 3 Nominations
BRICS Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations

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