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Passages
Yang Chao
Release year: 2004
Run time: 112 mins
Film type: Fiction
Synopsis
Two 18-year-olds, Si Tsiu and his girlfriend, live in a provincial town where their future is looking pretty bleak. Not surprisingly they aren’t even interested in finishing school. They’d rather make some money and head to Beijing or some other big city. They set out on bikes and by train, hoping that a miracle will happen. The kids invest all their savings in a project to grow gourmet mushrooms, but it goes belly up and they are faced with a decision. Will they take their parents’ advice and try to build another life based on school attendance and compromise? Or will they take a risk and hold onto their freedom of choice by continuing in the experiment of living their own lives. The filmmaker doesn’t take sides, but merely attempts to show how sceptically young people living in the suburbs see the future.
Director biography
Yang Chao (b. 1974, China) began studies in direction at the Beijing Film Academy in 1997. His graduation project, the short film Run Away, was distinguished in the Cinéfondation student film program at Cannes 2001. His feature debut, Passages, was selected for the informative section Un certain regard at the 57th Cannes festival.
Yang Chao (b. 1974, China) began studies in direction at the Beijing Film Academy in 1997. His graduation project, the short film Run Away, was distinguished in the Cinéfondation student film program at Cannes 2001. His feature debut, Passages, was selected for the informative section Un certain regard at the 57th Cannes festival.