All The Way

All The Way reflects in substance and style the chaos, confusion and contradictions that characterise today’s Chinese society. Shi Runjiu has asked himself what happens to people when they suddenly find themselves in a situation over which they have no control whatsoever. Chinese generally live on the basis of short-term certainties. What happens if these are undermined by unexpected circumstances? Which aspects of the human spirit are immune to whatever kind of circumstances?In order to answer these questions, Shi introduces several characters, ordinary people you could come across on any street corner in any Chinese town. A retired policeman who never got very far in his work gets drunk with the head of a local TV station, two conmen try to rip off small businessmen, a Mafia boss thinks about an imminent swindle involving antique coins, a driver meets a nice hairdresser with the wrong kind of connections on the street. A robbery brings these people together, turns their lives upside-down and drags them along in a chaotic series of events over which they have no control. Filmed loosely with a hand-held camera, the chaos is also visualised on a cinematographic level. Apart from being a reflection on the new Chinese society, All The Way is also an entertaining gangster film that respects the laws of the genre.