In a post-apocalyptic 21st century, Continental Asia lives under the rule of the political and religious sect Gui Dao, which blends Maoist rhetorics with Buddhist iconography…
Zhuai and his younger brother Mian are arrested and deported to a camp called Prosperity for re-education. Survival in the camp means hunger, bureaucratic rules, degradation and humiliation. After the catastrophic fall of the sect, the guards of the camp escape, leaving the inmates “free”. Zhuai and Mian wander around before leaving the camp together with beautiful Xuelan and her baby. They find themselves in the desert wastelands of their post-war post-industrial world. They try to rediscover everyday life in a shabby apartment of an abandoned mining town. Are their dreams only of a virtual future?
Yu Lik-wai (simplified Chinese: 余力为; traditional Chinese: 余力爲; Mandarin Pinyin: Yú Lìwéi; Jyutping: Yu4 Lik6 Wai4; born August 12, 1966 in Hong Kong) (sometimes credited as Nelson Yu Lik-wai or simply, Nelson Yu) is a Hong Kong cinematographer, film director, and occasional film producer. Born in Hong Kong, Yu was educated at Belgium’s INSAS (Institut National Superieur des Arts de Spectacle) where he graduated with a degree in cinematography in 1994.1 Yu has become a mainstay in both the cinemas of China (where he is perhaps best known for his collaborations with director Jia Zhangke) and Hong Kong.
Yu has served as director of photography for nearly all of Chinese director Jia Zhangke’s films, and along with Jia, the two men founded their own independent film production company, Xstream Pictures.—Wikipedia
It shows the break-up of society and the break-up of the human heart that follows from that. A film I would like to see a few times more if it ever come out on DVD. I see the title has been nabbed by another film, so it could be even harder to find this one.
If you're going to talk about cinema at present, even if you're not talking very thoroughly, it's inevitable that Yu Lik-wai's work, if not
