Steelworker Nangong Cheng is dying from an infected wound when he encounters Zhuang, a stranger with a similar affliction seeking vengeance for his murdered wife. Cheng, a disciple of a traditional martial-healing sect, must use his final strength to help him.
Is there still room for heroic chivalry in our lives? Can Jianghu, the mythical realm of China’s knight-errants, exist in the midst of our modern world? Filmmaker Shao Pan believes so, and makes his case with his debut fiction feature Nangong Cheng. Cheng works in a steel mill and is dying from a poisoned wound that has been festering for far too long. His fate seems sealed. Then a stranger named Zhuang enters his life, suffering from a mysterious ailment of his own, one for which Cheng appears to know the cure, as a disciple of a secret martial-healing sect.
The plot expands into a tale of revenge, atonement and grace, of confronting the past as much as battling the undying forces of corruption. In doing so, the film raises one of the most fundamental questions of our time: is it still possible to live according to principle when the world around us seems to have surrendered to the corrosive pull of transactional relativism?
The answer offered by Shao’s astonishing debut is clear: how could we live otherwise?
– Vanja Kaludjercic
Film details
- Country of production
- China
- Year
- 2026
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2026
- Length
- 197'
- Medium/Format
- DCP
