Why we picked it – We have been trying to show this film for two years! There is a dramatic change in the film’s narrative when the central character goes to gaol – perfect for our dinner intermission.

Synopsis: It is 2001. Bin is a small-time gangster managing a gambling house. Qiao is his girlfriend. When younger rivals ambush the couple, Qiao makes the fateful decision to intervene and goes to gaol to protect Bin. He does not visit her. Five years later, when she is released, she travels through the country looking for him. She finds that he has a new girlfriend and has left his gangster life behind. She eventually forces Bin to meet her and declares their relationship is over. On her way home she meets a stranger who invites her to join him in developing a UFO tourism business, but it is just another fantasy. In 2017, Qiao is now running the old gambling house and takes in Bin, now a broken man in a wheelchair. When he is well enough, he sneaks out.

The film: Zhangke Jia, one of the so-called “sixth generation” of Chinese cinema, is preoccupied with the country’s social and economic changes. The film begins in the coal mining city of Datong, very much “old China.”  When Qiao leave gaol and travels through modern China, she encounters, and practices, deceit at every turn.

The film’s original Mandarin title, Jianghu er nv,  means “children of the rivers and lakes”. The word jianghu (rivers and lakes) is used in the film, but is not translated in the subtitles. It refers to the modern criminal underworld, but also casts back to an older term for the underclass in medieval China who made their own way outside organised society. The film shows dissatisfaction with the way China has developed. Not all change has been for the good it seems and there may be greater strength in older loyalties.

Director: Zhangke Jia, China, 2018 136 mins (15) Writer: Zhangke Jia, Cast: Tao Zhou,  Fan Liao, Cinematography: Eric Gautier.

Nominee for Palme d’Or , Cannes 2018.   Winner of many awards in China and throughout Asia.

Links imdb entry Financial Times review Guardian review New York Times review

Trivia: The first recorded screening of a motion picture in China was in Shanghai on August 11, 1896, as part of a variety bill.