A Mei | Wang Xiaoshuai
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Best Screenplay
Screenwriters, So Long, My Son
Jury Citation
The jury found that the screenwriters of So Long, My Son outline, with a steady and seasoned hand, the inner changes of their characters amid China's social transformation. The film gives a panoramic view of Chinese family relationships, depicts repressed emotions in fine detail and shows the Chinese tradition of forbearance and restraint. With gentle narration and an unhurried pace, it reveals the hardships of life and the resilience of human nature, plain yet profound.
So Long, My Son: Synopsis
The film tells the story of two families who stood by each other through hard times and are forced apart by an accident with a hidden truth. Through the upheavals of their era they endure pain and unease and the ups and downs of life, and finally choose to face the truth and move forward openly. When young, the families of Liu Yaojun and Shen Yingming are close friends. While the two families' sons, Shen Hao and Liu Xing, are playing outside the city, Yaojun's son Liu Xing dies in an accident, and this changes the fate of both families. The Lius move far away to the south. Years later, now aged, they meet again, and the hidden truth is finally revealed through the openness of the younger generation. Time passes, and life rolls on...