Chen Zheng

China’s booming animation industry has reached us. The film in question is Shuo Feng — Po Zhen Zi, an action epic directed by Zheng Wu and based on an internet novel by A Nu. From what we understand, the film is set in the eighth century, during China’s Tang dynasty. The story draws inspiration from real historical battles, which pitted Chinese forces against the Islamic Abbasid Caliphate and Tibetan Empire in Central Asia. Watch the hyper-kinetic, elaborately composited trailer below:

An alluringly low-key and enigmatic portrayal of the alienation, disillusionment and loss of direction that have become widespread among young people in contemporary China. Filmed in elegant and absorbing long takes, the film interweaves the lives of several rootless people who become linked with one another by chance, by their sexual obsessions, and by the loss of a mobile phone…