Fan Bingbing brings tale of revenge to Toronto Film Festival

TORONTO (Reuters) – Chinese actress Fan Bingbing dazzled fans on the red carpet at the Toronto International Film Festival when she debuted her new film “I Am Not Madame Bovary,” a comedy about a woman seeking revenge against her ex-husband. 

The film, by famed Chinese director Feng Xiaogang, follows a couple who decide to fake a divorce as a ploy to obtain property.

Their plans go awry when Fan’s character discovers her husband has moved into their new apartment with another woman, spurring her on a years-long mission to get the fake divorce annulled, so that she can remarry her husband and get a divorce for real.

Fan said she hoped the film’s title, taken from 19th century author Gustave Flaubert’s novel “Madame Bovary” about an adulterous woman who embarks on affairs to escape her mundane country life, would help draw audiences in.  

“Because [Madame Bovary] is so iconic, I think it’s a really interesting character that audiences know immediately,” Fan told Reuters. “I want audiences to appreciate the title when they see the film later.”

Actor Guo Tao said that while the film was very Chinese, he hoped the story would also resonate with a global audience.

“I believe it’s a movie’s duty to spread culture, and I believe there are many deeply rooted layers of culture in this Chinese movie,” he said. 

(Reporting by Reuters TV; Writing by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Andrew Hay)