2012, Peng Tao, 90 minutes

Crematorium worker Old Cao uses his line of employment to run a side business in “ghost wives,” the arrangement of posthumous marriages so that those who died single might not be alone in the afterlife. After being diagnosed with a terminal illness, the unmarried Cao finds a ghost wife for himself in an unidentified woman whose body turned up on the shore of the riverbank. However, when the woman’s sister Azhu comes looking for her, Cao finds himself torn between his lies and an unlikely friendship.

Festivals:

37th Toronto International Film Festival

46th Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival

37th Hong Kong International Film Festival

Peng Tao was born in 1976, a graduate of the Beijing Film Academy’s Department of Literature. His film Little Moth (1997) won a NETPAC Award in the 60th Locarno International Film Festival, the Golden Award for Digital Films in the 31st Cairo International Film Festival, the Silver Digital Award in the 32nd Hong Kong International Film Festival, the In the Spirit of Freedom Award in the 25th Jerusalem International Film Festival, the White Chameleon Award in the 2008 Cinema Digital Seoul Film Festival, and the Top Award in the 5th China Independent Film Festival in 2008. Peng made The Cremator in 2012, and his new project 2:30 AM was selected as a 2013 project for the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum.