Zhao Tao

Fenyang, 1991: Shen Tao, a dance instructor, has two suitors, choosing Zheng, an entrepreneur-to-be, with a note of regret. 15 years later, the couple’s son, Dollar, visits his now-estranged mother. By 2025, lives Dollar in Australia, forgetting both his native country and mother.

Qiao is in love with Bin, a local mobster. During a fight between rival gangs, she fires a gun to protect him. Qiao gets 5 years in prison for this act of loyalty. Upon her release, she goes looking for Bin to pick up where they left off.

Shanghai, a fast-changing metropolis, a port city where people come and go. Eighteen locals, including film director Hou Hsiao-Hsien, ex-soldiers and criminals, recall their lives. Their personal experiences, like eighteen chapters of a novel, tell stories of Shanghai from the 1930s to 2010.

A free-flowing work of unspoken longing that captures China's rapid twenty-first century growth and social transformation, Jia Zhangke's poignant love story—starring Zhao Tao and Li Zhubin in a beguiling mix of fiction and documentary, assembled from footage shot over a span of twenty-three years—follows a woman who wanders an increasingly unrecognizable country in search of a long-lost lover.

An angry miner revolts against the corruption of his village leaders. A migrant worker at home for the New Year discovers the infinite possibilities a firearm can offer. A pretty receptionist at a sauna is pushed to the limit when a rich client assaults her. A young factory worker goes from job to job trying to improve his lot in life. Four people, four different provinces. A reflection on contemporary China: that of an economic giant slowly being eroded by violence.