Kaili Blues

Chen Sheng works at a small clinic in Kaili, a damp and misty town in China's subtropical Guizhou province. He once served time in prison, and his wife died while he was locked up. Now he looks after his young nephew Weiwei and hopes to adopt the boy, until he learns that his brother has sold the child. Chen sets out to find him, and his journey takes him through a strange village called Dangmai, where time no longer runs in a straight line. There he meets people tied to his past and glimpses figures who seem to belong to his future, leaving it unclear whether this place comes from his own memory or has a life of its own.

Kaili Blues is the first feature directed by Bi Gan, who also wrote the screenplay, and it precedes Long Day's Journey Into Night, A Short Story and Resurrection in his filmography. Chen Yongzhong plays Chen Sheng, with Daqing Zhao, Feiyang Luo, Xie Lixun, Shuai Zeng and Qin Guangqian in supporting roles. The film holds a critics' rating of 7.9 out of 10 from 32 reviews, higher than its audience scores of 7.3 on IMDb and 7.2 on TMDB, where the smaller vote counts suggest a modest but appreciative following.