Emily Tang

Set in a small village in China's Guangxi Province, tragedy strikes Yonggui, a 38-year-old construction site supervisor. His only son is involved in a traffic accident while riding their neighbor Heman's pedicab and dies. The court orders Heman to pay a large sum of money in compensation, but he too, has suffered serious injuries and can not even pay the hospital fees. Furthermore, Yonggui is shocked to learn his wife, Yun Zhen, had secretly undergone a sterilization procedure. Yonggui demands of the hospitalized Heman, "give me my son back," but their conversation ends in mutual cursing. Enraged by Heman's sharp parting words, Yonggui goes to Heman's wife, Qiaoyu.

Hong spent ten years in prison for killing her husband. Thanks to her contribution to the prison art workshop, she receives an unexpected opportunity to reduce her sentence. Her son, Lele, was raised by his grandmother and was never prepared to live with his mother. After their reunion, Lele always treats her coldly. Faced with a lonely grandmother who longs for Lele to return to her and a society that treats ex-convicts poorly, can Hong escape her invisible prison and regain happiness?

Beijing, winter 1990. Song and his girlfriend Xiao Qing have just moved into a hovel which they're illegally renting since they are not officially married. Song, a young chemistry graduate, is appointed to a position in a small engineering factory where he demonstrates a marked lack of enthusiasm. As for Xiao Qing, she is still a student, studying French. But their joy at living together and the idea of building a little island of happiness cannot withstand the weight of reality.

Bai Yang, a young mother, decides to become a boxer in order to regain her lost son.

Perfect Life, the second feature by Emily Tang (Tang Xiaobai), at first revolves around Li Yueying, a young woman in the cold north-east of China. In a world where no one is waiting for an untrained, inexperienced woman, she knows that in order to fulfil her dreams she will have to resort to her own stubbornness and selfishness. Her father deserted her mother and the money saved by the family is destined for her younger brother's studies. When she stops working for a shop making artificial limbs in order to take a job as a chambermaid, she attracts the attention of a mysterious criminal, Mongol. Then in the editing, the documentary story of Jenny from Hong Kong starts to emerge. She thought she had her life perfectly worked out, but when her marriage breaks down, she also finds herself in financial problems and has to fight for the custody of her children.