Qing chun (Gui)

For most of the QING CHUN trilogy, instead of following one small set of sweatshop workers and developing their individual stories, Wang Bang cycles through dozens of them to compose a mosaic portrait of Zhili’s young migrant workforce. The focus is not personal but thematic, observing the interpersonal dynamics among the youth in the first film and the struggles with their bosses in the second. It’s only in QING CHUN (GUI), the closing chapter, that Wang introduces “characters”. As the workers habitually live in Zhili for a year and return to their families for the New Year’s celebration, he accompanies two couples on these trips, one of which involves four days of travel back to Yunnan province. After so many hours spent in the cramped and concrete world of the sweatshops, it’s a relief for the viewer to traverse wide open landscapes, visit the workers’ families and attend the joyful wedding of one of the couples. Before long though, they must return to Zhili and resume work. Having shot the film over five years, Wang repeats the journey several times, creating the impression of an endless, inescapable cycle—a frightening representation of the capitalist system and the humanity trapped within. (Giovanni Marchini Camia)

Wang Bing: WEST OF THE TRACKS (2003), CHRONICLE OF A CHINESE WOMAN (2007), CRUDE OIL (2008), COAL MONEY (2009), MAN WITH NO NAME (2010), THE DITCH (2010), THREE SISTERS (2012), VENICE 70: FUTURE RELOADED (2013), TIL MADNESS DO US PART (2013), FATHERS AND SONS (2014), TA’ANG (2016), BITTER MONEY (2016), MRS. FANG (2017), DEAD SOULS (2018), YOUTH (SPRING) (2023), YOUTH (HARD TIMES) (2024)