Director: Lu Zirong

Synopsis

Set against the street life of Guangzhou, Grandma's Last Ride links the warmth and clashes of three generations of women. Grandma Zhong Liping was once a "motorcycle team captain"; outgoing, she cannot hide her longing for the old days. Her daughter Lu Xiaoke is a single mother striving at work, who turns her anxiety about life into strict demands on her daughter Yingying. Seven-year-old Yingying is clever and mischievous, caught between tutoring classes and childhood. On her mother's birthday, Yingying uses a tutoring class as an excuse and coaxes Grandma into taking her out to choose a present. Riding the electric bike Grandma has modified without permission, the two set off on a comic "city adventure": Yingying smears lipstick at the mall, plays princess in a long trench coat, and pays for a whole bunch of balloons with her phone watch; Grandma, catching up with an old friend at a dessert shop, recalls her youth carrying passengers along the Pearl River. But the illegally modified bike is stopped by a traffic officer, and Lu Xiaoke, rushing to the scene, sees everything and loses her temper. The conflicts of three generations come to the surface: the mother pours out her grievance over discrimination at work based on education, Grandma laments how family ties have grown distant as the city changed, and Yingying admits she skipped class only to prepare a birthday surprise for her mother. Grandma brings out the sesame paste her daughter loved as a child, and the mother finds the childlike but heartfelt gifts from Grandma and Yingying in the gift bag. Conflict, grievance and self-reproach pour out: having run at full speed all along, she nearly missed this unconditional love. With Grandma's illness growing worse, they need to learn to cherish each other, and also to say goodbye.