Yuxin Zhuang

”A grand drama about love and self-sacrifice in the shadow of politically conservative China, on a search for its new identity after the Mao regime.” (From the 2007 Stockholm Film Festival catalogue.)

When the dissolute last emperor of the Sui Dynasty tries to hold an empire-wide beauty contest, a corrupt official takes advantage of the opportunity to divert money into his own coffers and steals the winner of the contest, Yingying, for himself. Yingying’s admirer, both caught up in the plot, flee for their lives, but fall into an ice cave and are quick-frozen — until a thousand years later, when the ice melts and the two men awake to find themselves in 21st-Century Beijing ..