Description:
A melancholy visual diary of a young girl becoming aware of the fragility and ephemerality of interpersonal relationships in a big city. Rotterdam IFF Tiger Award winner.
It's a wet winter in Hangzhou. Muzi, 22, comes home for Chinese New Year, where she plays her roles as a daughter, a half-sister, and a girlfriend. One day, Muzi accompanies her little sister to school and meets a local bar owner, the father of another student. The strange man reminds Muzi of an old friend, evoking memories of a man who suddenly disappeared into thin air. At the same time, Muzi's boyfriend arrives for a visit. Roaming in this city that feels so familiar yet distant, Muzi searches for a place where she belongs.
"We're experiencing everything through Muzi's point of view. She passes through people's lives, people that she's involved with but that in a sense she's also alienated from. She's not relying on anyone, and they're not relying on her to keep their lives going. That part is very real to me. In a relationship you play a role - as a daughter, a girlfriend, in an encounter with a new love interest - but at the end of the day, people's lives move on independently." (Zheng Lu Xinyuan)