Seafood

Winter. When her love affair ends up on the rocks, the 21yearold prostitute Xiaomei arrives in Beidaihe, a sleepy town by the sea. Checking into an almost empty hotel, she meets a young man in the corridor, who is soon going to commit suicide. Then Xiaomei is harassed by a policeman. She seems to accept him, until a dramatic turn of events sends Xiaomei wandering again, back to the big city.The town of Beidaihe, 300 km from Beijing, is a wellknown beach resort. The town is famous because, since midFifties, Chinese Politburo members have spent every summer here, mapping out policy for the National People’s Congress to rubber stamp later in public. The mystery of all these political machinations and the conspiracies associated with the resort town seems most fitting for the story of a complicated relationship between a prostitute and a corrupt policeman intertwined with power, exploitation, carnal desire and spiritual freedom.Zhu Wen visited Beidaihe a couple of years ago as a tourist during the quiet winter season. Confronted with the lonely sea, the idea of a suicide immediately occurred to him and the story for the film was completed on the spot. Seafood is a film that looks unflinchingly at the reality of contemporary China and represents the painful scream of a truthseeking artist.