Abstract:

Based on the story Hei di xue by Liu Heng, who also wrote Ju Dou. Li Hui-ch'uan comes out from the jail, he tries hard to find a job and settle down, but encounters family and neighborhood distrust. Although he achieves commercial success as a street vendor, he cannot escape feelings of loneliness and despair. After he is rejected by a female singer, he is stabbed by a robber. Through the trials and tragedy of his story, this film explores the social and psychological problems engendered in Chinese working-class youth by the pressures and changes in contemporary Chinese society. A portrait of the new Chinese "lost generation". With Jiang Wen, Cheng Lin.