To gather material for an essay, Xiaohai leaves the desert alone, and a series of strange encounters becomes material for his writing. Xiaohai moves through the desert, the county town, the water park and other places, while his thoughts extend across three planes: memory, imagination and reality. When Xiaohai, after a long day's journey, reaches "the sea", a boat carrying fate and choice enters his view, and the images bear witness to the layered meanings of his essay.
Xiaohai's family lives alone in the desert. Two years ago the media portrayed them as "guardians of the homeland" and put them on television. Xiaohai wrote an essay about it, "My First Time on TV", which won a prize and was read aloud at school, but his classmates booed him. Once the attention faded, his life returned to normal, but his love of writing never died. One day, Xiaohai sneaks off to the county town to find his mother and ask her to take him to the water park. The route should be straightforward, but a suspended bus service, a strange ride, Yuanyuan, a boy who idolizes him and travels with him, his missing mother, an indifferent older woman and a tailor who seems to want to say something draw Xiaohai into the mysteries of life. In the end, the quick-witted, mischievous Yuanyuan brings Xiaohai to the water park, where Xiaohai seems to see the sea. Meanwhile, the media are broadcasting live from Xiaohai's home, and he is exposed to public attention. Yuanyuan disappears, and Xiaohai searches for him everywhere without finding him. When Xiaohai returns to where he started, he is no longer a naive boy. Did this day really happen?
Genre:
Children's, Road Movie, FamilyRunning Time:
87 minDirector:
Wu ShuangScreenwriter:
Liu Jing | Wu ShuangLead Actor:
Wu Panrui | Wang HaoyuProducer:
Yao Chunguang | Cao HongweiProduction Company:
Zhejiang Jinbei Film and Television Media Co., Ltd.Executive Producer:
Zhu LinProduction Company:
Zhejiang Jinbei Film and Television Media Co., Ltd.Wu Shuang: Received a bachelor's degree from the Central Academy of Drama and a master's degree from the London Film School. Her short film The Curtain was selected for the Beijing International College Student Film Festival, the China International Women's Film Festival, the China-Europe Youth Film Festival and the Yanjiao New Wave Film Festival. Selected for the 2019 China Film Association Golden Rooster Young Directors Training Camp.
Wu Panrui: A junior high school student in Minqin, Gansu. Wang Haoyu: A junior high school student in Minqin, Gansu.
Liu Jing: Received both her bachelor's and master's degrees from the Central Academy of Drama. Her screenplay Against the Current won the "Coming-of-Age Screenplay" award in the 15th Xia Yan Cup screenplay competition; her screenplay Return to the Fields was selected for the Yuying Program of the China Young Screenwriters Support Program. She has served as a first-round reviewer for the Tiantan Awards of the Beijing International Film Festival. Wu Shuang: Received a bachelor's degree from the Central Academy of Drama and a master's degree from the London Film School. Her short film The Curtain was selected for the Beijing International College Student Film Festival, the China International Women's Film Festival, the China-Europe Youth Film Festival and the Yanjiao New Wave Film Festival. Selected for the 2019 China Film Association Golden Rooster Young Directors Training Camp.
Yao Chunguang: Independent producer since 1986. Producer or executive producer of TV series including Them and Them, The Little River That Merged into the Desert and The Investiture of the Gods 2. Executive producer of the film The Composer, whose key creatives were received by President Xi Jinping and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Cao Hongwei: Director and actor. Selected works: the TV series Mother Marries for Me, Mandarin Duck River and Mother-Wife.
Zhejiang Jinbei Film and Television Media Co., Ltd.: Founded in 2018.
Zhu Lin: Supervising editor. Selected works: The Looming Storm, Dying to Survive, Sister, A Writer's Odyssey, A Little Red Flower and others. Honors: Best Editing at the 51st Golden Horse Awards; nominated for Best Editing at the 30th China Golden Rooster Awards; nominated for Best Editing at the 55th Golden Horse Awards; and others.
Xiaohai, who lives alone with his family on the edge of the desert, sets out on a journey with a longing for the sea. The strange people and events he meets one after another carry his thoughts about leaving and about staying to guard his homeland.