Lilei Chang

"Sweet Osmanthus Flowering Late" is a feature-length ethnographic film that envisions social rejuvenation and collective convalescence in the aftermath of the pandemic. Filmed in Wuhan, the film follows the everyday lives of three middle-class households. It postulates the existence of a mass dreaming phenomenon that facilitated fatigued Chinese inhabitants to rejuvenate themselves following the secluded episode of lived experience and to coexist with the enduring imprints of "the event" on their social lives.

Jeweler Xiong Yukun lives with his daughter after a divorce. His long-time partner, Chao Yu, who has been living in Paris for years, returns to Wuhan upon the death of his mother. Both men are deeply entrenched in their own lives when the appearance of a mysterious client, Wu Ge, disrupts the unspoken understanding between them.