Impermanence

  • 94'
  • China
  • 2018

First-time Chinese filmmaker Zeng Zeng brings her acute moral sensibility to bear in this fascinating Buddhist riddle of a film. Monk Can Chen has a cloudy past, and withdraws from a temple bearing a sack of money. Innkeeper Wang Haili labours under an uneasy conscience while being haunted by his dead wife, Su Mei. Retiree Fang Yiguo has abandoned his son Shangqin, only to find out that emotional entanglements and unacknowledged family sins have unavoidable consequences.

All three are variously drawn to a Buddhist temple in rural Hunan, China, where each discovers that past sins (theft, murder, abandonment) accrue complex karmic debts, whose consequences are as shocking as they are inevitable. A brilliant interlocking structure only gradually reveals the profound and ineluctable moral universe lying behind these lost and desperate characters' fates.

Director
Zeng Zeng
Premiere
World premiere
Country of production
China
Year
2018
Festival Edition
IFFR 2018
Length
94'
Medium
DCP
Original title
Yun shui
Language
Chinese
Producers
Sheng Zhimin, Wang Yibing
Production Company
Dirty Monkeys Studio
Sales
Dirty Monkeys Studio
Screenplay
Zeng Zeng, Yang Zheng
Cinematography
Zhong Rui
Editor
Kong Jinlei
Production Design
Du Luxi, Zeng Xingyu, Guo Xingge
Sound Design
Fang Yuan
Cast
Qin Hailu, Yu Tian, Yu Ailei, Gang Jiao, Yang Shanshan, Zhou Chuchu, Zeng Meihuizi
Director
Zeng Zeng
Premiere
World premiere
Country of production
China
Year
2018
Festival Edition
IFFR 2018
Length
94'
Medium
DCP
Original title
Yun shui
Language
Chinese
Producers
Sheng Zhimin, Wang Yibing
Production Company
Dirty Monkeys Studio
Sales
Dirty Monkeys Studio
Screenplay
Zeng Zeng, Yang Zheng
Cinematography
Zhong Rui
Editor
Kong Jinlei
Production Design
Du Luxi, Zeng Xingyu, Guo Xingge
Sound Design
Fang Yuan
Cast
Qin Hailu, Yu Tian, Yu Ailei, Gang Jiao, Yang Shanshan, Zhou Chuchu, Zeng Meihuizi

Programme IFFR 2018

Bright Future

A selection of discoveries for the future. Emerging talent with original subject matter and an individual style. Includes the Bright Future Competition for first feature films.

Read more about this programme