"Banquet" Fails to Please Venice, Criticized for Lack of Chinese Characteristics

On September 2 local time in Venice, the main creative staff of the "Banquet" film crew participating in the 63rd Venice Film Festival arrived at Marco Polo Airport one after another. At noon that day, the first screening of the film was held at the Palalido Hall, which can accommodate about 700 people. The attendance rate reached seventy percent, and the audience consisted of media representatives and the production company. As Feng Xiaogang had anticipated, there was no situation of unexpected laughter during the screening as there had been during the Guangzhou preview. Despite this, Western audiences generally evaluated "The Banquet" as average, believing that its story was too Westernized and lacked sufficient Chinese characteristics.