一半海水一半火焰 | Ocean Flame

Wong Yiu was a very shameless person and a blackmailer until one day he met a waitress named Ni Chen. He thought Ni Chen was like any other girls that could be controlled by him, but her stubbornness was way beyond his imagination. As time goes by, they both lost their ways and losing themselves in the process. He was not as free as he once was. Insanity causes him to end her life. Eight years later, Wong Yiu stepped out from the jail. He carried a gun and went to look for Ni Chen’s mother at her home wishing to fulfill his own will.

Directed by Fendou Liu | Starring : Fan Liao, Monica Mok, Simon Yam, Suet Lam, Shiu Hung Hui | Presented at Cannes Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, Stockholm Film Festival, Oslo Film Festival, Bratislava Film Festival

盲山 | Blind Mountain

There are two ways to take on Li Yang’s potent, concise Blind Mountain, and both have horns: as the howling social-critique screed it was intended to be, and as a Chinese realist version of the “white trash” exploitation epics of the American ’60s and ’70s — which makes the dynamic of the story universally human, not exclusively Chinese. But Chinese it is in actuality, through and through: simply put, unemployed college grad Bai accepts a job to collect medicinal herbs in the remote northern country, and after landing in a secluded village wakes up to find herself literally sold into slavery, as a bought-and-paid-for bride for a local ne’er-do-well.

Directed by Yang Li | Starring : Lu Huang, Youan Yang, Yunle He, Yuling Zhang, Yingao Jia | Presented at Cannes Film Festival, Hawaii Film Festival, Bratislava Film Festival, Portland Film Festival, Istanbul Film Festival

浮生 | Bliss

This is a story about a family living beside a river. Like all the other families, every member of the family seems close to each other. But in fact they are miles apart, and everyone has a secret that they cannot share. The retried policeman Lao Li and his family members with is or her own character all want to have a special life for themselves. They get together in this family and create their own stories. Water in the river is flowing day and night, and life is just like a river. You can only move on without stopping. Never themes, it seems that people in the story are getting something in their hearts at a particular moment. Is that Joy? Or is that sorrow?

Directed by Zhimin Sheng | Starring : Zhong Liao, Lan Wang, Tao Xu, Xing-quan He, Jiang-ge Guan | Presented at Locarno Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, Ghent Film Festival, Oslo Film Festival, Bratislava Film Festival, Hong Kong Film Festival, Indianapolis Film Festival, Shanghai Film Festival

旅程 | Passages

A boy and a girl having failed their university exam try to take another path in life by believing in miraculous solutions in the big city. With their parents’ money meant for buying books, they set off for a long journey to seek fortune.

Directed by Yang Chao | Starring : Geng Le, Jieping Chang, Haofeng Xu | Presented at Cannes Film Festival, La Rochelle Film Festival, Karlovy Vary Film Festival, Bratislava Film Festival, Alès Film Festival

不见 | The Missing

Two stories are intercut: In one, an old woman searches frantically for her missing grandson; in the other, a teenage boy’s grandfather disappears. Lee Kang-sheng’s The Missing is a sad and haunting film which builds very slowly to an obscure symbolic ending, making you want to watch it again right away in order to view it in a different light. While not quite living up to the standard of the best work of Lee’s esteemed mentor Tsai Ming-liang, The Missing is an admirable debut. The city of Taipei becomes an alienating dystopia in this minimalist directorial debut from Taiwanese actor Lee Kang-sheng. A grandmother loses her grandson in a park and spends the remainder of the day searching for him. Meanwhile, a troubled teenager’s grandfather similarly disappears. The two searchers wander the city until, eventually, their paths cross. The Missing shared the New Currents award with the Iranian film Tiny Snowflakes at the 2003 Pusan International Film Festival.

Directed by Kang-sheng Lee | Starring : Yi-Ching Lu, Tien Miao, Chang Chea, Chun Shih, Shiang-chyi Chen | Presented at Pusan Film Festival, Tokyo Film Festival, Rotterdam Film Festival, Hong Kong Film Festival, Karlovy Vary Film Festival, Athens Film Festival, Vancouver Film Festival, Flanders Film Festival, Chicago Film Festival, Vienna Film Festival, Ljubljana Film Festival, Nantes Film Festival, Bratislava Film Festival, Febio Film Festival

盲井 | Blind Shaft

Two Chinese coal miners have hit upon the perfect scam: murder one of their fellow mine workers, make the death look like an accident, and extort money from the boss to keep the incident hushed up. For their latest “mark,” they choose a naive teenager from a small village, and as they prepare to carry out their newest plan, things start to get complicated…

Directed by Yang Li | Starring : Qiang Li, Baoqiang Wang, Shuangbao Wang, Jing An, Zhenjiang Bao | Presented at Berlin Film Festival, Hong Kong Film Festival, Buenos Aires Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Moscow Film Festival, Karlovy Vary Film Festival, Edinburgh Film Festival, Bergen Film Festival, Hawaii Film Festival, Bratislava Film Festival, Bangkok Film Festival, Febio Film Festival, Nashville Film Festival, Cairo Film Festival, Jakarta Film Festival

陈默和美婷 | Chen Mo and Meiting

The story is set in Beijing. It is about the relationship between a young man and a city girl, neither of whom has had a proper family life. The young man, Chen Mo, was brought up by his elder brother as his parents died young. The girl, Meiting, lived with her uncle and aunt, but left because she was ill-treated. Chen is kind to her, but she can’t stand living in a small room and runs away to become a whore. Chen loses his savings looking for her and dies after an accidental stabbing.

Directed by Hao Lui | Starring : Huanan Du, Lingbo Wang | Presented at Berlin Film Festival, Karlovy Vary Film Festival, Chicago Film Festival, Bratislava Film Festival