San Bao is a young man left behind by Beijing’s fabulous new wealth, having just lost his job, his apartment and the woman he loves (who’s left him for a richer man). Even Happiness, his dog, has run away from him. Lovelorn, self-destructive and desperately aimless, San Bao nevertheless has moments of euphoria amid his own despair, as he roams the sleek, shifting city with other soulful, cash-poor dreamers and misfits. Such heavenly losers form the vital spirit of Beijing in acclaimed director Zhang Yuan’s gorgeously gritty, angst-ridden portrait of youthful disaffection and perseverance in the teeth of heartbreak, ruthless inequality and unfeeling ambition.
Director Zhang Yuan was born in Nanjing, China in 1963. He studied cinematography at the Beijing Film Academy and began directing feature films in 1980. In 1994, TIME Magazine selected him as one of the 100 Young Leaders of the Next Century. A leading filmmaker of China’s Sixth Generation, his second feature, Beijing Bastards, received a Special Mention by the Official Jury at the Locarno Film Festival in 1993, and his fourth feature, Sons, won the Tiger Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 1996. Beijing Flickers is his eleventh feature film.
This film deals with difficult subjects – we do not recommend this for those under 17.