EXCLUSIVE: Larry Yang’s Mountain Cry, co-produced by Hairun Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures Asia, started production today in the Taihang Mountains of China’s Shanxi Province.

Yang, a young mainland Chinese filmmaker, has also written the script based on Ge Shuiping’s award-winning Chinese novel of the same name.

Set in a remote village, the story begins with the sudden death of a husband and father whose family is new to the village’s tight-knit community. Following his death, the villagers get to know the man’s widow, a mysterious mute with the power to tell her story wordlessly.

Ge’s novel was inspired by real life events that occurred in the Taihang Mountain region where she grew up and still lives today.

Lang Yueting plays the mute wife, while Wang Ziyi plays the role of Han Chong, a young man in the village who is forced to take responsibility for her husband’s death.

Lang debuted in Johnnie To’s 2012 Blind Detective and stars with Chow Yun-fat in To’s upcoming Design For Living. Wang also stars in Design For Living and has other credits including The Golden Era and Chongqing Blues.

Cheng Taisheng, who starred in Alejandro Inarritu’s Biutiful, is attached to play Han Chong’s father.

Crew on the film includes DoP Patrick Murguia (Brooklyn’s Finest) and production designer Jeffrey Kong (A Wedding Invitation). The film will be shot almost entirely on location in the Tongtianxia area.

Launched in 2003, Hairun Media Group is one of China’s largest TV production companies and also owns a talent agency. It established Hairun Pictures in 2009 and formed a partnership with To’s Milkyway Image. The company is attending Busan’s Asian Film Market as part of a delegation organised by Beijing Municipal Bureau of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.

Hairun and Milkyway Image co-produced To’s Drug War, Don’t Go Breaking My Heart 2 and Office Melody, which is currently in post-production.

Village Roadshow Pictures Asia is involved in the development, financing, production, marketing and distribution of films for Greater China. Its initial slate included Stephen Chow’s Journey To The West and Leste Chen’s Say Yes!, and it is currently co-producing Zhong Kui: Snow Girl And The Dark Crystal.

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