Kong Dashan and Wang Yitong
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Best Screenplay
Screenwriters, Journey to the West
Jury Citation
Through an absurd journey, screenwriters Kong Dashan and Wang Yitong lay out each character's stubborn obsession. Under the guise of soft science fiction and light comedy, the film places the real predicaments of life within a concern for the universe and settles its reflection on life in a free-ranging narrative, seeking through romantic expression a reconciliation between idealists and reality.
Journey to the West: Synopsis
Tang Zhijun (Yang Haoyu) is the editor-in-chief of Universe Exploration, a science-fiction magazine founded in the 1980s. Today the magazine is in decline, and Tang Zhijun has become a down-and-out, lonely man. Yet for decades he has remained obsessed with searching for extraterrestrial civilisation. One day he receives an abnormal signal that seems to come from deep space. He gathers a group of fellow misfits and, carrying the question that has puzzled him all his life, sets out once again in search of aliens.