The Panda Candy

Huabian (Jiang Yuchen) is a young woman who moves to Beijing after completing her studies in search of all the excitement of city life. She swaps her disconsolate guitar-carrying hometown boyfriend for the art and culture of the city; only to find that things aren’t so easy there, certainly not what she expected given her education and aspirations.

In the 1990s, a group of students on the campus of the Chinese Southern Academy of Arts are pursuing their studies and preparing to face the world. China is opening up to the West and the students’ lives are a tangle of love stories and friendships, artistic research, ideals and ambitions brought about by new influences. Caught between tradition and modernity, they have to decide who they want to become.

Beijing Bubbles is a portrait of the punk and rock scene in Beijing, which as a subculture is barely recognized there. Center stage of the film takes not only the music, but first of all the attitude to life of the young musicians who deny consumerism and pressure to perform well. The Berlin filmmakers Susanne Messmer and George Lindt go on a ramble through the musical underground of Beijing and thereby meet people, who give them naturally and spontaneously an up-front insight in their daily live. Kind of a video diary it gives insight in a counter culture hardly anyone would assume in an authoritarian state like the People's Republic of China.

This film inspired by Peng Lei's own experience sees the multi-talented creator returning to his punk rock roots and chronicling the rock'n'roll journey of Beijing's youth. It is the first film revealing the native pop culture scene in China, filling in a gap in Chinese filmmaking. The cast was sourced almost entirely from the Beijing music scene. The wandering storyline focuses more on creating a certain mood than it does on climaxes and denouements. The director is a pioneer of Chinese pop culture with a practice encompassing music, film and art, who became iconic by his unique aesthetic style. He is best known as the front-man of Beijing's most famous band New Pants.