In a small northern Chinese city in 1997, Judge Tian privately struggles with the loss of his daughter, killed by a stolen car in a hit-and-run accident. On the bench he encounters Qiuwu, a mechanic accused of stealing two cars. Perhaps influenced by his emotional state, the outwardly impassive judge imposes an almost-obsolete criminal law on Qiuwu that sentences him to death for his crime. Desperate to mitigate his sentence, Qiuwu agrees to donate his kidney to a rich businessman dying of a terminal illness, hoping at the very least that his impoverished family may profit from his demise.
Sun Xiangcheng, a self-styled professional fan organiser, is called from his home village of West Well Valley by his mother Yuanfang. Thinking he's highly connected with celebrities, she asks him to help organise the village's New Year celebrations
Movie is set during a period of time when Japanese invaded China. The story is told from Gao's perspective, a soldier seeking revenge from the Japanese in trying to assassinate the visiting Japanese chief in command. In the process of plotting such scheme, he had a chance encounter with a local Mafia, lead by its charismatic leader Fang. Fang had a bandit of followers, of which one is Fang's sister. Fang in the past have rescued many of these followers using his own blood and as a result all the members in the bandit formed a life long bond and friendship. When Gao realizes he could use the firearms and man power of Fang's bandit, he sets up a scheme to get captured by Fang on purpose. When Fang found out - he was extremely angry and upset and almost killed Gao, but Gao is saved by Fang's sister because she clearly developed feelings for Gao after seeing how he fared during the interrogation phases when he was in Fang's capture.
Beijing is happening these days, but not everyone is living the golden life. Dumped, fired, evicted and abandoned by everyone (including his dog), a down-on-his-luck man finds solace with a circle of equally ill-fated friends, in this touching and lighthearted drama from independent Chinese auteur Zhang Yuan (Beijing Bastards). (TIFF.)
The police investigate the murder of a young woman whose corpse was frozen and dressed up like a doll.