2018 Cannes Film Festival, Un Certain Regard Award

The second spin-off of Hong Kong’s Ten Years features five visions of Taiwan ten years from now from up-and-coming Taiwan-based filmmakers. An aboriginal man living on the island of Lanyu recalls his days as an activist against the local waste disposal plant in Lekal Sumi’s The Can of Anido; Rina B. Tsou’s 942 explores the plight of migrant workers; a man faces a hard choice between his hometown and the promise of a better life in the city in Lu Po-shun’s Way Home; a producer searches for a baby in a city with an extremely low birth rate in Hsieh Pei-ju’s A Making-of; and Malaysian director Lau Kek Huat shows a woman who seeks solace from the real world using technology in The Sleep.

Following its controversial success in Hong Kong, Ten Years branches out with three new spin-offs that use the anthology format to showcase talented filmmakers from across Asia. The brief remains the same: Tackle an important social or political issue and imagine how it will play out ten years into the future. An army squadron takes issue with a painting in a gallery in Aditya Assarat’s Sunset; one man tries to survive in a cat’s world in Catopia by Wisit Sasanatieng; a dictator carries astonishing steps to control her people in Chulayarnnon Siriphol’s Planetarium; and Cannes Palme d’Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul portrays life in a health-addicted society in Song of the City.

Under the gloomy sky of a small town in northern China, different protagonists’ lives are intertwined in this lugubrious tale of nihilistic rage. To protect his friend, 16-year-old WEI Bu pushes the school bully down the staircase and escapes the scene after the bully becomes hospitalized with his life hanging by a thread. WEI’s neighbor, the 60-year-old WANG Jin, is estranged from his family and decides to join him. HUANG Ling, WEI’s classmate, is bedeviled by an affair with the school official. Together, the desperate three decide to flee as the wounded bully’s hooligan brother, the school authorities and the parents all go on a cold-blooded hunt for WEI across town. As WEI treads through the wilderness, he finally confronts his own reality. In the end, he boards a long-distance bus with HUANG and WANG toward Manchuria, where a circus elephant is said to be sitting still.