PAVILION OF WOMEN

Year: 2000
USA: Universal Focus
Cast: Willem Dafoe, Luo Yan, John Cho, Amy Hill, Yi Ding, Shek Sau
Director: Yim Ho
Countries: USA / China
Language: English / Mandarin (English subtitles)
USA Rated: R for sexuality and war images
USA Release Date: 4 May 2001 (Limited Release)

Synopsis

Intelligent and well-read, Madam Wu Ailian (Luo Yan) is the envy of all who know her. The Wu family is the richest and most powerful family in her town. Servants tend to her every need, her house and clothes are gorgeous, and she is as beautiful and serene as a traditional Chinese wife could want to be.

Yet as the town celebrates her 40th birthday, Madame Wu scandalizes the gathering by announcing that she will arrange a much younger woman to be her husband's concubine. Why would so perfect a woman seek such a humiliation in her own house?

This question, and the unexpected fallout from the answers, forms the premise of PAVILION OF WOMEN, a new film from Universal Focus. PAVILION OF WOMEN stars acclaimed actor Willem Dafoe and introduces American audiences to Luo Yan, a film star in her native China who now lives in Los Angeles. Luo personally supervised the project from inception to finish, not only starring but also producing the film and co-writing the screenplay.

PAVILION OF WOMEN is an international production at every level and based upon a novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Pearl S Buck.