ACF - Asian Cinema Fund

2016 Script Development Fund

LIST Changfeng Town

Synopsis

Changfeng Town is located in an inconspicuous corner of China. The townspeople all know one another and are content with life. Airplanes often pass by the town, reminding people of an unknown outside world. Many things in town exist in solitude: the cinema, the dentist′s office, the car repair shop, the newspaper office and the elementary school. The townspeople are unique and full of eccentricities. Each has a story of their own: the domestic problem of the aimless redhead, the secret between the dentist and his son, the unrequited love of cinema ticket-seller Cai-Xia, the loneliness of the crippled Xi-Shan and the humdrum life of the Mayor. A few mischievous boys wander in and out of these little stories, eventually with the coming-of-age and departure of one of these boys. The film is in six intertwining chapters, always filled with joy and sadness but never without hope.

Director's Note

Changfeng Town is, in truth, an expression of my own nostalgia for my hometown. I wish to reconstruct and depict a long-forgotten town. I wish for audiences to connect emotionally with the seemingly mundane characters in the film. I wish to show the hidden gaps between narratives, which are just as important as the narrative itself. I wish to capture the lyricism of everyday life, composing a film poem from these ordinary lives. The film is going to be portrayed in a realistic style. However, the images and rhythm will be free-flowing, lighthearted, and joyous. Using a simplistic and matter-of-fact tone to uncover the hidden poetry of everyday life, I wish to capture the spirit and texture of French New Wave director Francois Truffaut’s films.

Festivals

2019 Busan International Film Festival - A Window on Asian Cinema
2020 Vesoul Asian Film Festival

Still Cut

LIST