The film is built as a three-act structure around the performances "for the gods", "for the ghosts" and "for the people" that the opera actress A-Ju gives while touring from village to village. It combines romance, road movie, musical, Chinese opera and fantasy, a combination not tried before, in search of a new art-house style: "Drifting from place to place, singing every joy and sorrow." Using a travelling opera troupe near its end in modern society, it portrays the many faces of the troupe and, amid the rapid advance of the times, the value of ordinary people keeping each other warm and of true feeling. The film brings together themes such as "tradition and the present, fidelity and betrayal, faith and reality, money and the test of human nature", like a kaleidoscope through which to look at human nature. Wanderers at the Edge of the World may bring something new to Chinese-language cinema.
The film explores a woman's growth through "holding on" and "searching". A-Ju, an opera actress in a rural town whose husband has vanished leaving debts behind, raises her daughter alone under the weight of life, and sets out on the long road of touring village stages to "find her husband". Along the way she becomes entangled in desire and love. Through three kinds of opera performance, "for the gods", "for the ghosts" and "for the people", A-Ju tries to put down roots in a rootless, unsettled life and hopes to find herself again.
Genre:
Romance, Musical, Chinese Opera, Road Movie, FantasyDirector:
Ye QianScreenwriter:
Ye Qian | Zhong PinghongProducer:
Jane ZhengProduction Company:
Xiamen Shanghao Guangyin Film and Media Co., Ltd.Ye Qian: Young screenwriter and director, named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list in the arts. Her debut feature, Sweet Potato Rice, which focuses on the inner world of an elderly woman, is the first Minnan-language film from the Chinese Mainland and was described by festivals in China and abroad as "a plain yet vigorous debut". Her new film, The Gods Are Watching, starring Nina Paw, is awaiting release.
Ye Qian: Young screenwriter and director, named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list in the arts. Her debut feature, Sweet Potato Rice, which focuses on the inner world of an elderly woman, is the first Minnan-language film from the Chinese Mainland and was described by festivals in China and abroad as "a plain yet vigorous debut". Her new film, The Gods Are Watching, starring Nina Paw, is awaiting release. Zhong Pinghong: Born and raised in southern Fujian, now based in Shanghai, where she is creative director at a 4A advertising agency. She co-wrote The Gods Are Watching, which is awaiting release; the screenplay was selected for HAF FilmLab of the 2020 Hong Kong - Asia Film Financing Forum and won the Sanya Focus Award from the project market jury of the 2020 Hainan Island International Film Festival.
Jane Zheng: MA in Television Journalism, University of London. She has worked on projects including Huffing and Puffing, Red Light Dream, King of Peking, Floating City and The Farewell. Floating City had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and won a Special Jury Award; The Farewell won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy and the Independent Spirit Awards for Best Feature and Best Supporting Female.
Xiamen Shanghao Guangyin Film and Media Co., Ltd.: Founded in 2020 by two newcomers to the industry, director Ye Qian and screenwriter Zhong Pinghong. In 2020 it produced its first theatrical film, The Gods Are Watching, now awaiting release. The company explores the diversity of Chinese-language cinema, takes a humanistic and artistic approach to project development, and seeks to present on screen the shared human feelings that cross languages and regions.
A-Ju, an opera actress whose husband has vanished leaving debts behind, raises her daughter Nana alone under the weight of life and sets out on the long road to "find her husband".