Director: Yan Ran
Country: China
Award: none
Movement: none
Guizhou province, southern China, spring 1980. Schoolboys Zhao Qiangsheng (Ma Guoxing) and Fulai (Wang Shibin), who’ve spent their whole life in a remote village, hear from a PLA soldier about a thing called a “city”, full of people, buildings and cars, three mountains away. Full of curiosity, and with the orphaned Fulai fed up with being passed around the community, the two set off to reach it when their school is closed for five days. They first pass through a Miao village, where land is being reallocated under the changeover from the commune system to individual ownership, and join in the celebrations after passing themselves off as a local bigwig’s children. Next day they cadge a free meal at a house where the eldest son, Long Jianguo (Zhang Hanyu), is about to return to the “city”, where he tells his family he has an important position in a factory thanks to its manager Liu (Wu Liansheng). Continuing on their journey, they get lost and meet Ding Xiaoya (Yu Na), a runaway who’s being pursued by her ex-husband (Xu Yukun). Ding Xiaoya is determined to get home to Beijing, and accompanies the boys to the “city” – provincial capital Guiyang. While there, they help Ding Xiaoya on her way, fall foul of a gang of thieves led by Monkey Ma (Xiao Jian), and re-meet Long Jianguo in suprising circumstances.
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