About the Director
Li Jifeng: Has a distinctive, fresh way of seeing things and is not bound by convention. Eager to learn and devoted to cinema, he pursues his path in film with seriousness and persistence.
A Place to Perch
Creative Statement
A mother whose life is running out, the last years of a life, an experience that seems heavy but is full of warmth: a story about how to "die". She goes to the city alone, driven by sheer stubbornness, and keeps going on her own without ever backing down. What she holds on to is the protection of "home", a home that carries both spiritual needs and material wishes. The people she meets in her final years, the moments both harsh and warm, the feelings that move from initial "unwillingness" to final "letting go": perhaps an ending that seems less than perfect is the best ending of all.
Synopsis
Fang Zhi, an old woman from the countryside whose family members all died early, is diagnosed with a terminal illness. Worried that no one will tend her family's graves after she dies, she resolutely levels the grave mounds in her home village and brings the ashes to the city, determined to buy a joint burial plot with lifetime maintenance. It is her last wish, and it makes the final stretch of her life eventful. Guo Daping, a cemetery agent desperate to pay for his father-in-law's treatment, Ding Rui, a young drifter in the city, and his kind-hearted girlfriend Nana were strangers to Fang Zhi, yet they become unexpectedly entangled with her. And so a story of mix-ups, but also one in which love takes root, unfolds.
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Genre:
Realist, Drama -
Director:
Li Jifeng
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Screenwriter:
Zhou Shuying -
Producer:
Xiao Li
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Production Company:
Chongqing Taotie Advertising Co., Ltd. -
Executive Producer:
Tang Sheyu
About the Screenwriter
Zhou Shuying: Graduated in drama, film and television literature from the Meishi Film Academy of Chongqing University. A young screenwriter with extensive experience in film, television, media, advertising and content development, she has helped develop and execute a number of film and television works of various subjects and forms. A Place to Perch is her first feature screenplay.
About the Producer
Xiao Li: Founder and operations director of Taotie Pictures (Chongqing Taotie Advertising Co., Ltd.). He has run the company for more than ten years and made more than a hundred film and video commercials, working as presenter, executive producer and director. A lover of film, A Place to Perch is the first film he has produced.
About the Production Company
Taotie Pictures (Chongqing Taotie Advertising Co., Ltd.): Founded in 2009 in Chongqing, the mountain city. Over ten years it has made nearly a hundred commercial shorts and micro-films, many of which have received industry recognition. Having moved from commercials to micro-films with some success, the team is driven by its dream of making feature films and is committed to pursuing it.
Logline
For Fang Zhi, an old woman whose husband and son died early and who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, the words "last wish" weigh especially heavy. Leveling the graves, moving to the city, buying a plot... Where will it lead? She will find out as she goes.