Shanghai was once called the "Paris of the East," but changes come with time and social tumult. Now, amid crumbling buildings, crushing poverty and social decay, filmmaker Andrew Cheng captures a city fallen victim to moral and economic decline. Through a collection of vignettes involving male prostitutes, aging hookers and other sex-trade workers, Cheng reveals the sordid heart of a once glittering metropolis.
Zi'en Cui
Zhou Meiyi
Jin Yi
Shanghai was once called the "Paris of the East," but changes come with time and social tumult. Now, amid crumbling buildings, crushing poverty and social decay, filmmaker Andrew Cheng captures a city fallen victim to moral and economic decline. Through a collection of vignettes involving male prostitutes, aging hookers and other sex-trade workers, Cheng reveals the sordid heart of a once glittering metropolis.
A movie fan escapes from a labour camp during the Chinese Cultural Revolution and strikes up a relationship with a homeless female vagabond.
Fourteen-year-old Mo is a lonely, sensitive boy whose hunger for the rant and banter of buddies makes him prone to tread dangerous territories. He idolizes his handsome older brother, Rashid, a charismatic, well-respected member of a local gang, whose drug dealing enables “Rash” to provide for his family. Aching to be seen as a tough guy himself, Mo takes a job that unlocks a fateful turn of events and forces the brothers to confront their inner demons. It turns out that hate is easy. It is love and understanding that take real courage.
In Chengdu, China, a retired female opera singer named Master Chang takes in a trio of young tenants into her boarding home. The tenants include a rock singer and a college student who has run away from home.
Ah-Ching and his friends have just finished school in their island fishing village, and now spend most of their time drinking and fighting. Three of them decide to go to the port city of Kaohsiung to look for work. They find an apartment through relatives, and Ah-Ching is attracted to the girlfriend of a neighbor. There they face the harsh realities of the big city.
A filmmaker talks about his work and love life with an unseen friend behind the camera. We also watch four of his short films.
On the edge of the Gobi desert in Northwest China, Lang returns to his hometown after being released from jail. While working for the local dog patrol team to clear the town of stray dogs before the Olympic Games, he strikes up an unlikely connection with a black dog. These two lonely souls embark on a journey together.
Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.
In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.
August tells the story of two former lovers, Troy and Jonathan, who reunite after a long ago painful breakup. After spending several years in Spain, Troy returns to Los Angeles and decides to phone Jonathan and meet for coffee. A seemingly innocent rendezvous turns into an attempt to revive passions past. Only this time it's not that simple as Jonathan has a new beau, Raul, and is trying to make the right decision a second time around.
A street vendor with a grim home-life forges a connection with a young woman on her way to Paris.