Stars Await Us

In the 1990s, a series of murders rocks a run-down industrial city in north-eastern China.

The story happened in 1990 when Beijing hosted the Asian Games. Zhou was someone who lived a normal life, taking care of her mom. She has a passion for her life, such as watching and donating to the Asian Games instead of buying Jeans. Li Mo was someone who didn't like his parents' arrangement (maybe to work at the factory). He likes writing poems and traveling. Something that was trending in China at that time but not being understood by many others. He had just completed his trip and had to go back to reality. He had that poet look at the beginning but cut it later on to show that he had moved on to his normal life. The two met. They shared some common and trivial things. They can potentially understand each other better and treat each other as friends.

In the early 1990s, Xiaolei, who lives in a small village in western China, longs for a summer holiday without homework after he graduated from primary school. However, it is filled with boring routine, and Xiaolei feels the anxiety around him. When his father has left, Xiaolei realises that his life is completely changed.

A family lunch in China. The grandfather asks his grandson, who is about to leave to study in Russia, to show him his film and pour him some more brandy. The melancholy feeling of farewell hangs in the air.

Lao Kong came to work in Tibet for the first time and needed translator urgently. By chance, he found Jiumei, who had studied in the mainland. Although they didn't understand each other at first, they eventually became lifelong friends.

The story is based on the "Yiyuan Resistance Data" real war stories, about the resistance war period in Shandong military region special battalion in the mushroom mountain to protect the security of the Shandong combat command centre from the siege and the Japanese in a fierce battle, the instructor Tang Jianheng pull grenades and the Japanese with the death of the battalion commander Yan Yulin received the order to lead the troops on the top of the hill to hold on to the last 20 minutes, and ultimately in the completion of the task of running out of food and comrades with the sacrifice of 14 people fearlessly!

Liu Hong once worked at a film studio, but now he is idle at home. One by one, his old neighbors moved away; the former workplace is to be demolished and rebuilt into a business district; his close friend passed away unexpectedly. All these things have plunged him into life’s troubles. Just as he and his wife decided to move out of their old residence, his wife got injured accidentally — this incident changed him and reignited his motivation for life.

Zhang Yinglong, who had been working alone in Beijing, returned to his hometown to visit relatives and learned that due to logging and coal mining, the environment in his hometown had deteriorated from once being a place of abundant water and grass to now being covered in yellow sand. Despite the opposition of his relatives, he resigned from his job as a deputy general manager and sold his house to return to his hometown to fight the desert. After experiencing difficulties and perseverance, he has now become a "national model worker" with green trees lining the streets.

A commercial short film co-presented by FIRST Film Festival and Vivo, revolves around the protagonist Zhuang Shu in director's previous TV mini-series "Why Try to Change Me Now", focusing on the northwestern small city of Qingcheng in the 1990s, telling the story of the unexpected encounter between two pairs of fathers and sons on the Spring Festival. This brief reunion made the children grow up a little. "Whether facing family responsibilities or facing the challenges of life, we are still led by the universal desire of 'dreaming'. Dreams are the instinct of existence and also guide us to our truest self." Director Zhang Dalei explained the meaning of the title.

In the last day of the year,Mr. Wood finished his work and go home waiting for the new year coming alone,and he said "Happy New Year Mr.Wood" to himself.

In my memory, every time a child in the north was sick and feverish, as long as he could eat canned yellow peaches, he would immediately feel relaxed. Xiaolei and Daliao, who used wine to pour their sorrows, accidentally bought canned yellow peaches in a small shop. If there is a seemingly unsatisfactory melancholy permeated between the cups and cups, different life stories will also flow in the singing of the bar orchestra. Everything that happened this night was like a dream, with a panoramic view of the city in front of me.