Saturday, April 28th - 7:00 pm - Oak Street Cinema Sunday, April 29th - 5:45 pm - Bell Auditorium   Director: Yang Ya-zhou   Director Present   Young provincial woman Ni Qiu (“”loach”” in Chinese), recently divorced, decides to take her twin girls to Beijing in search of a better life. On the train she meets an older man who has the same name as her, a contract labourer who tries to charm her with stories of the big house he'll get for her.

A headstrong woman with a strong sense of dignity, Ni Qiu rebuffs his sexual advances but realizes that having a friend in the big city might be useful. They get to Beijing, suffer various misfortunes, but always manage to get back onto their feet. They share some laughs and fall in love despite mutual misgivings and the baggage of past relationships because the kids need a dad and a normal family life. As part of the massive reconstruction crew rebuilding Tiananmen Square district, they are absorbed into thousands of fellow workers from the provinces clustered on dangerous job sites. Director Yang Yazhou’s breathtaking camera captures a huge social canvas yet finds an intimacy in this epic about survivors in the new China.

Cast:  Tang Li, Dahong Ni, Ping Ni, Hong Pan, Yanyan Peng, Yuanyuan Peng

In Mandarin with English subtitles, China, 98 minutes, 2005, 35mm.

Presented by: University of Minnesota Consortium for the Study of the Asias