The Last Farewell

The story follows twelve-year-old Xiaoxian's memories of her family and her village. During seven days, the girl witnesses three deaths and two births, including the death of her own mother, who dies giving birth to her fourth sister.

Alan Zhang's film delves into the journey of Beibei, a young woman grappling with societal expectations amidst the COVID-19 epidemic. As Beibei navigates the complexities of life, marriage, and her roles as a wife, mother, and daughter, the film provocatively questions the constraints of conventional gender roles. The film immerses us in the life of Beibei, who refuses to let her identity be defined by others, who demands the right to find out for herself who she is and what she wants. Moving from city to city and from lover to lover, she defies society’s expectations of what a woman should do and be. Blurring the lines between reality and fiction, the film boldly challenges traditional gender expectations, showcasing the struggles and triumphs of emancipated women like Beibei.

Thirty-year-old college lecturer Shu Qiao is about to marry her long-term boyfriend and fiancé, successful banker Hu. The future has been written for her. However, during a visiting scholar programme to Europe, Shu encounters theatre director Fan in Prague, with whom she falls hopelessly in love.

In an isolated castle, students prepare for a life-changing examination. As anticipation builds to a fever pitch, a storm strikes. Trapped within crumbling walls, their academic sanctuary becomes a prison, and minds begin to break.

The Song dynasty stone statues, dating back 800 years, stand in the wheat fields of Maozhuang Village. Eight-year-old Qing lives in this village with her mother, Hongmei, while her father works away from home all year round. On the way to school, she meets a ghost-like white child who has come to find his missing mother. With the child's arrival, Qing starts to sense whispering under the stone statues as her mother's secret past begins to reveal itself.

In southwest China, the ancient legend of the Poison Cat circulates. Hunter Tai has been feeling increasingly uneasy lately as he inexplicably connects the eerie cries in the forest and the strange occurrences in the village with his wife’s unusual behaviour. The age-old way of life he knows seems to be crumbling, echoing the prophecy in the legend.

Wu Shiju, a father searching for his daughter, and Lao Liang, an aging cop searching for himself, engage in an endless journey between two counties on the southwestern border of China amid rumors of an impending apocalypse.

An elderly mother in her twilight years grows weary of her identity as a mother. She crosses paths with a troubled young man, and is also haunted by the ghost of her late husband. This sets off a wandering journey across Beijing, under the pretext of abandoning her cat. She lingers like a specter, awkwardly observing and faintly stepping into the distant, disconnected lives of her son, daughter-in-law and friends. Unforeseen incidents arise, their lives collide and intertwine, and amid this constant movement, she rediscovers the vital force of her true self.

College graduate Jiang Chao returns to his hometown Quzhou and hopes to become a teacher. He lives with his sister Jiang Wei, a tour guide, and brother-in-law Zhang Qi, a driving school instructor. Chao meets Zhou Yuan at the school when he covers Qi’s shift; in the name of practicing, they drive around the memory-laden Lanke Mountain. Meanwhile, as Jiang Wei decides to participate in a tour-guide competition, she finds herself further distant from Qi; the legend of Lanke Mountain also seems to play a part in their relationship. As their adventures unfold, the small town’s landscape starts to transform.