My Original Dream

In his second feature, director/co-writer Hao pays rousing tribute to 'Er-ren-tai', a form of saucy musical performance closely associated with Hao's home region in the north-west near the Mongolian border. This colourfully accessible slice of backwater ethnography follows hapless hero Tiedan (Feng Si) from joyous childhood through to a maturity notable for an eventfully unorthodox love-life. Taking their cue from the Er-ren-tai songs themselves, which express passionate feelings in bursts of hyper-stylised intensity, Hao and his Korean editor Baek Seung Hoon sock over short scenes packed with freewheeling incident and comedy.

In Gu Jia Gou Village, 150 km from Beijing, men outnumber women. Some buy wives from faraway Sichuan province. Other remain bachelors; they gossip and complain together - yet find ways to have a sex life. Lao Yang is still in love with the girl he was forbidden to marry as a young man; she is now the middle-aged wife of the village head, but they sneak out for secret trysts. Yet, Lao Yang wants more...

A courier, a disabled lady, and her cat