Reception
The Days was screened at several film festivals notably Rotterdam, and Berlin; it ultimately went on to win the Golden Alexander at the 1995 International Thessaloniki Film Festival and a Best Director award for Wang at the 1995 Taormina Film Festival. The Days was also selected as one of the best 100 films of all time by the BBC in 1995.
Despite its critical successes, The Days had only limited commercial releases, primarily in European markets. Most audiences were able to watch The Days not in theaters, but on television. Not only did the BBC broadcast the film, but many other European television stations as well. As Wang has noticed, most buyers of the film have not been film distributors at all, but television stations.
Like many underground features, however, The Days was never released in the People's Republic of China, either commercially or on television. Indeed, because the film had been screened at several international film festivals without permission, the Film Bureau initially blacklisted Wang from making any new films.
Read more about this topic: The Days (film)
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