Logline
A couple separated by immigration come into sharp conflict. Inner loneliness and uncertainty, and the combined external pressures of economy, culture and daily life, force this small family to find a new direction.
The Moon Over Other Hills
Creative Statement
Since ancient times, migrating in search of a better life has been driven by human nature. But whether a better life lies right here or somewhere else often becomes a question like that of a besieged fortress: those outside want to get in, and those inside want to get out. Will the inherent problems in a marriage disappear just because the story's setting has changed? This dislocation of one's sense of existence seems to coincide with a certain imbalance in the marriage. To get the life they imagined, Ziming and Yan Lu made what seemed the most cost-effective choice: living apart over a long distance. The time difference and the distance led each of them to bear pressures the other could not share. Under the rushing current of an era with no clear direction, on one side are identity confusion and the pressure of raising children, on the other loneliness, emptiness and a career crisis. The final collapse of this small family seems to stem from the long separation, but when we open the wound, the real reasons that split them from a unit into two individuals are far more complicated than distance. Whether to chase the unreachable moon or hold tight to the sixpence within reach becomes the question each puts to the other's choices. Ironically, Ziming, who once championed the moon, ends up trapped by the sixpence at his feet, while Yan Lu, who longed for a stable life, grows, breaks out of her comfort zone and heads off alone into the distance. Swaying back and forth, unable to advance or retreat: there is no winner in this story, and everyone has to make a choice amid the pain.
Synopsis
Yan Lu and Ziming, a middle-aged couple, have long lived apart, one in China and one in Canada, for the sake of their children's education and their work. They are finally reunited once the residency requirement for immigration has been met, but the happy reunion they planned is broken by reality. Faced with the choice of whether to take citizenship, the couple's long-suppressed differences erupt. Yan Lu, a former news reporter, gave up a rising career and her professional ideals to take the children to Canada alone. Her identity as an immigrant mother and the misunderstandings around it have taken her further and further from what she once aspired to. Weariness with life abroad, longing for her former self and attachment to family make her desire to return to China grow ever stronger. Ziming, left alone in Beijing, is equally stuck under the pressure of an economic downturn. Far from his family, he faces a career bottleneck and the bumps of daily life alone, and wants to leave but cannot get away. The couple's dissatisfaction with life and their accusations against each other finally turn the reunion into a mess. Caught between them are a rebellious teenage son who badly needs his father, a naive daughter whose thinking has become Westernised, and elderly parents who are stubborn, have been cheated out of their savings and need support. Through many quarrels and power struggles, the temptations each faced on the lonely road of separation gradually come to light. Ziming has had an affair with Yan Lu's best friend, though he claims it was only company in a moment of loneliness. In Canada, Yan Lu has also met a new option, and even their son is torn between two fathers. The small family that looks happy and complete on the outside has long been riddled with holes and is close to breaking. Caught between cultures and lives, they must sort everything out and find a new direction for the future.
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Genre:
Romance, Family, Drama -
Director:
Guo Feifei
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Screenwriter:
Guo Feifei -
Producer:
Lu Yan