Zhihua Hu

A critical hit during one of China’s most politically charged periods, Zheng’s follow-up to his 1959 anniversary epics merged Soviet-style socialist realism with his own breakthroughs in film technique, specifically his use of continuous camera movement in the spirit of traditional Chinese scrolls. Tractor-kino at its finest, the film revolves around two rural lovers—one struck with a deadly disease—and their eventual survival thanks to socialist medical advances.

Living in Los Angeles, a young Chinese gay man longs for the connection with his estranged father that seems out of reach. One day, his father visits him from China, and he discovers the tenderness and sorrow of his father that he had never seen before.