Emily Tang

Set in a small village in China's Guangxi Province, tragedy strikes Yonggui, a 38-year-old construction site supervisor. His only son is involved in a traffic accident while riding their neighbor Heman's pedicab and dies. The court orders Heman to pay a large sum of money in compensation, but he too, has suffered serious injuries and can not even pay the hospital fees. Furthermore, Yonggui is shocked to learn his wife, Yun Zhen, had secretly undergone a sterilization procedure. Yonggui demands of the hospitalized Heman, "give me my son back," but their conversation ends in mutual cursing. Enraged by Heman's sharp parting words, Yonggui goes to Heman's wife, Qiaoyu.

Hong spent ten years in prison for killing her husband. Thanks to her contribution to the prison art workshop, she receives an unexpected opportunity to reduce her sentence. Her son, Lele, was raised by his grandmother and was never prepared to live with his mother. After their reunion, Lele always treats her coldly. Faced with a lonely grandmother who longs for Lele to return to her and a society that treats ex-convicts poorly, can Hong escape her invisible prison and regain happiness?

Bai Yang, a young mother, decides to become a boxer in order to regain her lost son.

Beijing, winter 1990. Song and his girlfriend Xiao Qing have just moved into a hovel which they're illegally renting since they are not officially married. Song, a young chemistry graduate, is appointed to a position in a small engineering factory where he demonstrates a marked lack of enthusiasm. As for Xiao Qing, she is still a student, studying French. But their joy at living together and the idea of building a little island of happiness cannot withstand the weight of reality.